Travelin’ show: Thrown Stone Theatre Co. will even move the audience for ’21 events
When the Covid-19 pandemic took root last year, Ridgefield”™s nonprofit Thrown Stone Theatre Co. had two plays scheduled for its 2020 season: the world premiere of “Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven” by Reina Hardy and the U.S. premiere of “The Phlebotomist” by British writer Ella Road. In announcing the postponement of the season, the theater group had with great hope slated the plays for their premieres in the summer of 2021.
But that plan was predicated on the pandemic being mitigated and some degree of pre-crisis normalcy returning to daily life. For Jonathan Winn, the company”™s co-artistic director, it quickly became obvious that the initial strategy was too optimistic.
“In the fall, when it became clear that we probably would not feel good about inviting an audience indoors, we started brainstorming other things that we could do to serve our role as a company that conducts conversations here in Fairfield County with a sense of intimacy,” he said.
“We thought about doing some short form plays and as the discussions matured, we settled on roaming production between three different spaces, so that we can have a sense of basically doing a season all in one event.”
Thrown Stone, which does not have a permanent theater of its own, teamed with three Ridgefield sites ”” the Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and West Lane Inn ”” for this endeavor. Three original one-act plays with a common theme will be staged in outdoor settings at each site, and the audience will move between the three sites for the full presentation.
“You”™ll be guided from one venue to the next,” explained Winn. “It”™s a short walk, probably less than a mile of walking for the entire experience. The Keeler is on Main Street, so you will walk north for a block-and-a-half to be at Aldrich. And when the Aldrich”™s play concludes, we”™ll cross the street at the crosswalk and go back up the street another couple blocks to the West Lane Inn and see the final play there.”
Kiza Deen and Jade Anouka in the original London production of “The Phlebotomist.” The U.S. premiere scheduled by Thrown Stone for last year and this summer was canceled by the pandemic. Photo courtesy Hampstead Theatre in London.
The nomadic nature of the event adds new concerns to Winn”™s slate, including have the street crossings patrolled to ensure pedestrian safety to social distancing in the journey between sites and even tick safety for the outdoor summer settings on each site”™s lawn.
As the theme linking the three plays, Winn chose “The Suburbs” as the topic and contracted playwrights Tony Meneses, Phanésia Pharel and Catherine Yu to create original works that viewed suburban environments through a nonwhite perspective.
“People may take umbrage with calling Ridgefield a suburb because it is a town, but it is a bedroom community for New York City,” Winn said. “We wanted to explore who lives here, who gets to live here and what does it mean to live here.
“And we specifically wanted to explore it through the lens of writers of color ”” demographically, Ridgefield is in the area of 94% to 95% white, and we wanted to understand what that means from an identity perspective and how we can reflect that identity back to Ridgefield through writers in color.”
Winn set a deadline for the first draft of the three new plays for May 1, with workshop readings set for June. The plays are set to premiere Aug. 27 and will be staged Thursdays through Sundays until Sept. 12, with an extra weekend planned in case inclement weather cancels performances.
“That”™s what keeps me up at night,” said Winn, with a laugh. “We”™ll announce as needed for those dates.”
Concurrent with this endeavor, Thrown Stone is also commissioning a new play by Jacqueline Goldfinger on the life of Ammi Phillips, an early 19th century itinerant portraitist. This work, Winn added, will be premiered when Thrown Stone is finally able to resume indoor productions.