The Gallery Players, a 99-seat theater in Park Slope, has staged revivals of works first seen on and off Broadway for more than half a century. It’s also one of the few nonprofit theaters in the borough that operates with an all-volunteer staff. The Gallery Players’ mission is to nurture and provide opportunities for theater artists, to bring professional-quality theater to Brooklyn audiences at an affordable cost, and to instill the appreciation of theater in future generations.
“Theater is more than just entertainment; it’s a form of expression that can have a profound effect and positive impact on both the artists who create and the audiences who experience,” Rhiannon McClintock, the Gallery Players’ board of directors secretary and development and marketing manager, told us.
McClintock and David Thomas Cronin, director of Cabaret, gave us a peak into the contemporary classics that make up the fall portion of their 53rd season
RHSR: How and why did you come to the decisions to do Cabaret and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof this fall?
RM: We want to offer variety by presenting some humorous works to balance out the heavier dramas, but we also want to include works that are timely and relevant, that challenge audiences and create dialogue. Cabaret is a popular musical that was revived in 1998, featuring Alan Cumming as the Emcee – this is the version Gallery is producing [this month]. While no doubt an entertaining musical with popular songs, there are deeper themes examined in the production including ignorance, self-involvement, bigotry and oppression, and what happens when you ignore the evil lurking outside – which, unfortunately, are problems we’re still faced with today. Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof takes place on a plantation in the mid-1950s but it’s also still very relevant today. The play deals with complex layers of family conflict – greed, superficiality, mendacity, sexual desire and repression, and death. Both productions are powerful and expose the darker human psyche that’s oftentimes uncomfortable for us to watch, as an audience.
RHSR: Has anything been changed from the original Cabaret or updated in a modern way?
DTC: The creative team hopes to provide a fresh perspective, while also paying homage to this masterpiece of American musical theater by drawing correlations between the political and cultural climate of 1930s Germany and that of the one in 2019 of our own country. Although we haven’t changed any of this iconic material from the licensed libretto or score, we’ve been able to reinterpret moments throughout, in order to better frame the storytelling for our audiences of today. For theater to be a catalyst of cultural growth, we have to be willing to ask uncomfortable questions of both ourselves as artists and of our audiences. Our production doesn’t make an effort to downplay the raw human issues and emotions that this piece deals with.
RHSR: What are you most excited for audience members to see with Cabaret?
DTC: Cabaret, from its origin, has always been a piece intended to challenge audiences. One way we’ve aimed to do this is by accentuating the queer culture of the Weimar cabaret scene in 1930s Berlin. The team’s curated an inclusive cast of storytellers in an effort to reflect the community we live in today. In our production, this historical material becomes a mirror we can hold up to ourselves and ask, “In what ways are we still facing and navigating these same issues today?”
RHSR: What’s the importance of having and providing local community theater and creating that kind of community outlet for Park Slope and adjacent neighborhoods?
RM: We’re one of the only local theaters to premiere ambitious new plays and musicals through the Black Box New Play Festival and Overtures: A New Musical Reading Series [which debuted in 1997 and 2014, respectively]. Gallery’s new play initiatives fulfill the need to provide a workshop environment for playwrights to work in collaboration with directors, actors and producers. By facilitating readings of these new works and assisting the playwrights with the revising and expanding of their plays, up-and-coming playwrights are given a rare opportunity to get the exposure that they need to fully develop a new work for a larger audience.
A large number of audience members and donors are from the Park Slope neighborhood and other New York City boroughs, but many come from New Jersey and Connecticut (and beyond) to attend performances, based on Gallery’s reputation. Our actors are a mix of local community actors and professional actors who are on their way to Broadway, and we welcome anyone to attend our auditions, and strive to have a diverse group of actors and designers working on our productions. We also rely on local volunteers to assist with set building, ushering and other opportunities, in a way that encourages active participation from anyone with a desire to get involved.
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Cabaret (recommended for those 18 and over) will be running from September 7 to 29 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will be running from October 26 to November 10, with various matinee and evening performances. There are six other productions slated for the rest of the season, which runs until July 2020 at 199 14th Street. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit galleryplayers.com.
Top photo: Cait Farrell as Rosie, Brian Edward Levario as the Emcee, Lorinne Lampert as Fritzie, and Ryan S. Lowe as Lulu. Photo by Alice Teeple.
