By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Like many new home owners, the Black Swamp Players look at having their own building with a mix of excitement and, trepidation.
That’s how Melissa Shaffer, a member of the board, feels about the community theater troupe’s new home on Oak Street in Bowling Green.
While there’s a lot of work to do, the troupe is already putting roots down and putting the venue at 115 E. Oak St. to good use.
Starting on Feb. 3 the Players will host a series of First Monday events at the theater. The free shows from 7 to 9 p.m. will feature a mix of music and drama, or in the case of the first First Monday, melodrama.
While looking through the scripts now stored at the theater, Shaffer came across one written by the late Bob Hastings. Hastings, who died last year, was a Players’ stalwart, directing its annual musicals for many years .
Shaffer said it doesn’t appear the Players ever staged the melodrama, though it may have been presented by the Park Time Players.
She also has on order a script for “Lily, the Felon’s Daughter,” another melodrama that was staged during the Players’ first season.
The staged readings will be bookended by music from Tim Tegge and the Black Swamp Boys. Lane Hakel, past president and ex officio member of the board, said he liked the tie in between the two names.
At first the Players considered just staging readings, but they didn’t feel that would bring in the audience they were looking for, Shaffer said
Every troupe Hakel works with is trying to expand its audience beyond family and friends, he said. Bringing music fans into the new space is one way of reaching out.
And musicians, he said, are also looking for venues besides bars, where they are competing with clinking glasses and chatter.
The seats — purchased with help from the Bowling Green Community Foundation, and a tip from a foundation member — will be set up for a concert.
The audience is invited to bring their own snacks and beverages.
Looking around the space, Shaffer and Hackel see a lot of potential, and a lot of work needed to realize that potential.
Hakel said the vision is to turn it into a “black box theater.” That’s a space that can be configured in multiple ways to suit the needs of a particular production. The Eva Marie Saint Theatre on campus is a black box theater. It was designed as such.
The troupe’s new home was built as a church and used for many years as a day care center — one board member went there as a child.
For this season, the troupe continues to use the First United Methodist Church on East Wooster for its productions. The troupe has been in residence at the church since 2000. Previous to that it was in a space at the Woodland Mall.
The troupe will stage its plays next season at the Oak Street venue, but it has already put the place to good use.
An open house for members in September drew a large and enthusiastic crowd, Hakel said.
The troupe has also held most of its rehearsals for its most recent show “Psyche” in the space as well as using it for all auditions.
Hakel said the Players hope other groups can make use of the building. The building has a commercial kitchen.
The Horizon Youth Theatre will stage its spring Festival of Shorts at 115 E. Oak.
Hakel said he’s excited by the theater’s downtown location.
A quick tour of the building, which was built sometime in the late 19th century, from the basement, where the troupe stores old props and other items to the room a half flight up that could serve as a green room bear the marks of its previous lives as well as for its future as a theater.
Looking at the area that now has a stage, Hakel said he’s been told the baptismal font is underneath.
Maybe that’s a mystery that will be solved as the Players give birth to a new venue.
