5/30/2023 0 Comments Freefall theatre st petersburg flMichael Raabe, the company’s musical director, provided the special musical parodies. Using social distancing, freeFall moved back into its 150-seat theater for the 2021-2022 season and enjoyed a sellout with McGee’s original comedy, “The Night Before,” described as the “Andy Williams Christmas Special Meets Pee Wee’s Playhouse.” “Also, we were able to keep actors and musicians working during a difficult time,” McGee says. Their entire 2020-2021 season was staged as multimedia experiences with live audiences who could attend within the safety of their cars. ![]() “We even filmed a cameo video with Mayor Rick Kriseman.” The multi-media production using digital technology and live performers was wildly popular. The theater company adapted the alien invasion classic “War of the Worlds” and filmed parts of it in Plant City. For their protection from COVID, performers were in different parts of the building and were linked in for the sound.” They stayed in their cars and tuned in to a radio station to hear the show and music. Audience members were ticketed by the car. “We also had a large screen mounted on the side of the building. “We created a drive-in with an outside stage,” McGee says. With 165 parking spaces at its disposal, freeFall invented its own mode of survival. “We have one of the few places with free parking.” “We are on Central Avenue between 60th and 61st Street,” McGee says. If necessity is the mother of invention, freeFall used the resources at its disposal to reinvent itself. “We had to find the kind of programming to stay afloat… but we were not interested in doing a play on Zoom.” “We are theater makers, not filmmakers,” McGee says. The professional theater company that was founded in 2012 by Eric Davis, Jim Sorensen and Kevin Lane faced a shutdown. “We were unable to do what we did every day in our ten years of existence.” “All theater was unable to continue,” says Matthew McGee, freeFall’s outreach and marketing director. The feisty theater, which labels itself as “unexpected, daring and authentic” and invites audiences to “escape awhile," could not escape from the disruption of the COVID pandemic. Petersburg’s freeFall Theatre was hit with a wallop. Petersburg FL.Ten years into its existence, St. ![]() Dalton Hamilton's lighting design gives some variety to a static setting.īuyer & Cellar should prove a big hit for freeFall, appealing to their core audience and Tampa Bay audiences in general.īuyer & Cellar, through June 9, 2019, at freeFall Theatre, 6099 Central Avenue, St. Artistic Director Eric Davis is credited for the costume, really an everyday street ensemble. Tom Hansen's set design is brilliant, a series of cabinet-style doors open to allow the many visuals called for in the script, and a staircase, center stage rear, leading up to the real house is evocative. He does a fine job, keeping the show physically open. This is his first time directing at this theater, although he has directed productions at regional theaters in other areas of the country. Is he correct or not? I certainly don't know, but the play is an interesting glimpse of huge celebrity.ĭirection is in the hands of freeFall's resident dramaturg, Timothy Saunders. Streisand's public persona is an acting part, never allowing a real emotional depth to come through. His pale blue eyes sparkle with the joy of being close to her royal wonderfulness, Babs. As Alex More, Crawford gives a bravura, tour de force performance, covering the obvious gayness of the character but also the emotional warmth. Since then, I have enjoyed Chris in My Name is Asher Lev and Peter and the Starcatcher. I first laid eyes on Chris Crawford in Larry Shue's The Foreigner at American Stage a bunch of years ago. The play tells the story of an out of work actor named Alex More who takes a job as curator/salesperson at Barbra Streisand's underground mall, attached to her home, where she is the only customer. ![]() ![]() It ran successfully Off-Broadway in 2013-14 starring Michael Urie, and was followed by a national tour in which Urie recreated his performance. His writing and producing credits include several television series, as well as the Fox live TV musicals Grease and A Christmas Story.īuyer & Cellar is Tolins' breakout hit. It was the work of a youthful playwright, imperfectly realized but with a fascinating premise. Tolins' work since seeing his play The Twilight of the Golds many years ago. After viewing the freeFall production, I can now say it was worth the wait. Petersburg scheduled it as part of their 2018-19 season last year. Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota produced it as part of their Stage III series and freeFall Theatre in St. Jonathan Tolins' Buyer & Cellar has been all over this region recently. Also see Bill's review of An Afternoon of Operetta
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