Nice work, if you can get it and if you’ve got, flaunt it and all that jazz? Musical theatre— it’s that labor of love, that essence of existence for so many— and at the end of the day, it’s no small feat to have a small, grassroots theatre organization make it to its tenth anniversary season! Street Lamp Productions— the main operating umbrella for Street Lamp Community Theatre, Street Lamp Performing Arts Academy, and Street Lamp Arts Academy Teen Pre Professional Group— has a whole bunch of exciting and thrilling news to announce for their tenth anniversary season! We’ve spoke with Executive Director/Founder Laura Woods to get the details…which are being revealed at a live, in-person season launch party (slightly earlier this evening, September 7th 2024!) and can now be seen here with TheatreBloom.
It’s really exciting that you guys have made it to ten seasons!
Laura Woods: Thank you! You know, I was looking back at what we’ve achieved so far and it’s something like 200 productions.
And a lot of that is kids shows, yes? Street Lamp Productions, two thirds of your operating productions are the Performing Arts Academy and the Teen Pre Professional Group, right?
Laura: Yes. And that’s our bread and butter. We have found that our space in Rising Sun is excellent for small-sized adult productions with the community theatre, which unfortunately we find don’t always sellout, despite the intimate space and limited number of seats because when your production is smaller, you have fewer actors in the show, and that tends to put fewer butts in seats, and we only have 77 seats to put butts in!
That is a trend that isn’t exclusively new but I am finding, especially for community theatres but even with some children’s theatre, that larger casts do not guarantee “butts in seats” the way it once did before the Pandemic. So I know it must be a challenge to balance your programing.
Laura: It is and we had the added challenge of not really getting the 501c3 for the adult-Community Theatre until the fall of 2019…and we all know what came shortly after. We had done other adult productions, Jesus Christ Superstar, Seussical, under the heading of Street Lamp Productions but the Community Theatre which is for full-length, though often smaller-scale, adult musicals, but that didn’t come into existence as its own 501c3 entity until that fall.
And the really wild thing is that even once that did get up and running, we didn’t have any of our kids who wanted to come out and be a part of it because they were so busy doing all of our kid and teen programs!
That is really wild. And the fact that you’re able to maintain and sustain and grow three different programs, and have them all going full-speed ahead into a 10th season is nothing short of impressive.
Laura: Yeah, we have the kids program, the teen program which is audition based, and then the community theatre. In addition to that, we do three or four off-site events throughout the year to help support the events that happen throughout the year. That helps us keep in touch and involved with the community rather than just being this three-ringed-theatre-circus that operates exclusively out of our little black box. I think when Matt (Matthew Peterson— of Street Lamp Productions) and I counted it up it’s like 15 different productions happening this coming 10th anniversary season year. And that doesn’t count things like the cabarets.
That’s incredible. If it divides out equally that’s five shows per performing group.
Laura: I think it actually works out at four, six, and five. Four mainstage titles for the Community Theatre, six productions for the kids, and five shows for the teen pre professional group.
That’s still a lot to take on! Plus a cabaret or two and then some?
Laura: And we’re really excited about all of it.
So tell us about some of these features for this tenth season!
Laura: You know, for our tenth season we were sort of hoping to do a “Best Of” kind of theme. Based on ticket sales, based on how much audiences enjoyed it, how the people who came out to be a part of it really loved it. And of course, as you may remember, we did Jesus Christ Superstar spring of 2018, with Bambi. (TheatreBloom Lifetime Achievement Award for Theatrical Excellence Recipient Bambi Johnson) she directed it and choreographed it. I applied for the rights to get it for our tenth anniversary season, and let me tell you, I have never had so much trouble getting rights— and not just with JCS but in general for this season it’s been crazy— but we did apply for the rights, and got them granted for a little before Easter. I called up Bambi but then learned it’s right when she’s in the middle of rehearsals for Hairspray.
It was a really difficult decision for us. I asked Shane Jensen, he was the musical director for Bambi when he did it in 2018, and he wasn’t available for that particular show at that time, but he is doing another show with us. So then I thought, maybe we could do it as a concert. I called my rep and was told that’s not even offered as an option. So…then Matt (Matthew Peterson) who directs a bunch for us, said he would do it. But I was torn. It’s a huge show. And I’m not saying that he wouldn’t do a good job with it or that it wouldn’t be as successful as when Bambi did it, but we wanted to be something that whoever was directing it was really passionate about it and Matt would do it so that we could do it, but that’s not his passion show. He has another passion show in the season.
So why didn’t you do it?
Laura: I did think about it. But I’m also in a position, in addition to running all three of the operating programs, I’m trying to write grants, I’m trying to coordinate schedules, I’m trying to recruit members for the kids and teen programs and that is where my passion really is, working with the kids. I could do it, but it wouldn’t live up to my expectations of the amazing thing we had hoped for if we were able to bring it back with Bambi.
So you still don’t have a director for it?
Laura: So we’re not doing it. It was a very difficult decision, but I realized that if we couldn’t do it the way I was hoping we could, with Bambi, then we shouldn’t be doing it. It makes me sad because it was such a special and incredible production the first time around and we really did want it for our tenth anniversary season, but it just wasn’t in the cards.
I applaud you for making that decision, difficult and sad though it is. There are so many other theatres out there who simply would have forged ahead, forced the project, and been disappointed with the result. You had the foresight, however sad and disappointing it may be, to recognize that without the people involved that you wanted involved it was not going to be the production you wanted it to be. And I know you’ll have found some other amazing and incredible things to fill in the 10th anniversary season.
Laura: So the things that we are doing for the adults!
Yes! Speak! Tell us all the things for Street Lamp Community Theatre!
Laura: We’re going to have our two cabarets— our Alumni Cabaret and then our “I Dreamed A Dream” Cabaret, which will be a ‘best of’ from the last ten seasons. The Alumni Cabaret, because we have such an age range…you know five years old to maybe 80…we try to do that right around New Years because all of the college kids are here on break, all the adults are still mostly available, and it’s great. All of our Cabaret performances are treated a fundraisers. And then in the slot where Jesus Christ Superstar was going to be, we’re working with my daughter as well as Shane and Bambi to develop this “I Dreamed a Dream” cabaret, which includes highlights from the last ten years of Street Lamp. It’ll be dinner theatre, it’ll be a big celebration, and it will be off-site from our black box in Rising Sun. Location officially to be determined soon. That’ll be in March.
But our first full-show for the community theatre comes in April. And that is Matt’s passion project. It’s called Alice By Heart.
That I think was the one Matt was trying to tell me about earlier this season when I came up to review Carrie, but he couldn’t ‘talk’ about it and because I’ve actually never heard of it, all of the hints he was trying to drop were completely lost on me!
Laura: You’ve never heard of it? Oh my gosh! You have to look it up! It’s written by the same people who wrote Spring Awakening and if you close your eyes, you will hear that in places it sounds like Spring Awakening. Matt is obsessed with it. And it is also going away, from a “rights available” standpoint in June of next year. It’s currently available through MTI, and it’s basically set in World War II, I want to say 1941? London Blitz? Don’t quote me on that though. And it’s the characters from Alice in Wonderland but the war is going on and they have to go underground. And weirdly enough, one of the rules from MTI is that you have to be under 25 to be able to be in it. So it’s going to be for 18-25 year-olds, because it’s rated PG-13. It’s a beautiful story about triumph. Matt is so excited, he’s obsessed, he’s passionate, and we’re so excited to have him do it for us. Just listening to the show, it’s gorgeous.
That sounds incredible and I am always stoked to see something I’ve never seen before. What else do you have in store for the Street Lamp Community Theatre?
Laura: Okay so in May we have Next To Normal. We did that once before and the directors who directed it before are coming back to direct it again. Jamie and Andrew DiMaio. They did it back in April of 2017. They live in Pennsylvania. The cool thing about that is, we’re bringing back the original cast for the first weekend and then we’re having auditions for the new cast and they’ll be performing it second weekend. So you get two different casts! And four of those original performers are professional performers, we’re actually working on getting a grant for one of them because one of them is equity. This will be the first time we’ve done a show like this— and we’re putting it up with just two weeks of rehearsals.
I swear I keep coming back to this word but WILD. That sounds absolutely wild. So Alice By Heart. Then Next To Normal. And then…? What else for the community theatre?
Laura: So the next one I know is going to be a little controversial…because we literally just did it. But Matt asked for it, and we went back and forth about whether or not we were going to do it, but we’re doing Green Day’s American Idiot at the end of the summer, the late July/early August slot. It was one of the highest grossing shows we’ve ever done, aside from Heathers, which I will never do again, and Jesus Christ Superstar, which we so desperately wanted to do again but couldn’t…so American Idiot won that one! I do think it is something that the kids who leave our teen program when they turn 18, that first year they come back after college, that first summer? This is a show that will appeal to them. I hope!
You literally just did it two years ago? Is that right?
Laura: Yep. Matt directed it in that exact late summer slot in 2022. And he’s doing it again— it’ll be three years ago by the time it goes up, but late summer 2025. I mean these off-the-beaten-path shows really appeal to our camp-returnees. This past summer with Carrie? There were 12 now young adults who came from the camps to do that.
American Idiot does have a weird cult following. People will come out for it. And it’s an excellent show, especially for people who know it. And it’s a great exposure-show for people who don’t. And I know it’s one that Matt is very, very passionate about, so I’m sure it will do well!
Laura: I didn’t really know the show all that well but years ago— back in 2016 when Lance Bankerd was doing it out in Cecil County, he had texted or emailed asking about my daughter who was 15 at the time, was it okay for her to be in it. And I had just said sure. And Lance said, “no, no, no, I need you to actually look at this show.” I didn’t realize it was so heavy! But she did it and she wasn’t traumatized or scarred!
That show definitely has some darkness to it but I can think of way darker and at 15 if you’re mature and you know what you’re getting yourself into and your parents are cool with it, it’s a solid show. Can’t be any worse than the “high school edition” of something like Avenue Q or Rent.
Laura: Exactly.
And there’s one more for the Community Theatre?
Laura: Our Christmas show. It’s family friendly, it’s a show that we’ve done before, Eric Bray directed it for us last time. It’s basically a DIY-Christmas story. It’s got The Grinch and a bunch of other family Christmas stories all rolled up into it and it’s really fun. People put their kids into it, families are in it, families come to it, it’s perfect for the holidays. And we do cookies and hot cocoa and stuff with it.
That sounds wonderful. And very, very different from what you’re doing this Christmas of 2024.
Laura: Yeah, so Into The Woods will be the first time that we’ve done a not-so-family-friendly licensed big show at the holiday season. We generally do try to do something that is a little different, like an original production. Because every other theatre out there are doing like the big Christmas shows— White Christmas or Christmas Carol or Christmas Carol and we’re a small little theatre. So we need a little something different at Christmas and this year we’re trying Sondheim but for the 10th Anniversary we’re going back to a more original Christmas feel.
Fantastic! Now is that all for the Community Theatre?
Laura: Actually we are launching something else that’s new for the community theatre this year. It’s called SLAP and it’s a Matt-led thing. Its going to be once a month, with local bands, and it stands for Street Lamp After Party. We’ll be booking bands— the first four that we have booked are actually people who have done productions with us who also happen to have bands that they’re in— and it’ll be live music in the space. We wanted to create an opportunity for those in a community to come out and see the space, enjoy something that isn’t necessarily theatre but is still live performance; we understand that live theatre is not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. It’s something different and fun. It’s music and entertainment and hopefully it will broaden the community’s horizons and maybe get some new people to know that we’re there.
It sounds like a fantastic opportunity to create a gateway into the community, to create potential partnerships with other performing artists and you never know what might turn up on your stage because of those bands.
Laura: Exactly!
So that’s the Community Theatre arm. How about the Performing Arts Academy 2025 season?
Laura: Well, we’ve got a location— in Kennett Square— that’s in PA. It’s new to us but we’re going to be doing at least two of our PAA shows there. And we’re launching with Shrek Jr. in January in that location. We’ve done Shrek Jr. before and it always goes over very, very well so we’re excited to do it again! Then we jumped on the band wagon with everyone else and got the last available weekend for Beauty & The Beast Jr. because that’s going away too, as far as being able to get the rights to it…and that will be back in our black box in Rising Sun in March. Then we’re going back to Kennet Square for May…with Frozen Jr. The kids are so excited about that!
Oh boy. Guess we’re not going to…let it go… then, are we?
Laura: You’re funny! Then in June we will be bringing back the very first show that we ever did for our kids which was The Little Mermaid Jr and that’s back at the black box in Rising Sun and then we have Moana Jr. in August.
That is a lot of Disney!
Laura: That’s what the kids love and that’s really what’s available for the kids. Then we finish out the kids season with Beetlejuice Jr. in November and I’m already losing my mind about that one!
Oh. My. Gosh. I’ll bet you are. Now is that in Rising Sun’s black box too?
Laura: Oh yeah. Hence the losing my mind part. We really did think about renting a different space for that but then that’s an extra cost and I think we’re going to need every penny to do that show justice. I’m having nightmares about it already.
Oh yeah, that show is one big spectacle and then you’ve got the added component of kids wanting to mimic Alex Brightman and the risk of them all blowing their voices out.
Laura: So we’ve actually had a lot of the parents and kids who are interested in that show— because right now it’s only available as a jr. for kids version— tell us that they’ve signed up or they’ve signed their kids up to take the online zoom class that he offers where he talks about how to sing those songs safely. It’s really awesome and the kids are so excited. Of course they don’t have to think about sandworms and the house and all that on the black box stage but we’ll figure it out!
Sounds like those kids are going to have a fantastic season in 2025. What about the teens?
Laura: That’s where it gets a little tricky! Because we can’t actually announce one of the titles in the lineup!
Oh really? I mean that’s not all that uncommon.
Laura: It’s not but this one is a really tricky bit of chaos. Because we’re lucky to have even procured the rights and under no circumstances can we talk about what show it is. We can’t announce it until the day of auditions! Which is so crazy. And that’s like four or five weeks before we open. So basically we have to announce we’re auditioning for a mystery show, hope that the teens trust us, show up, and then BAM we get to tell them. I think they’re really going to be excited though.
So this is a show that’s only currently available for teens, right?
Laura: That’s right. And we CANNOT talk about it.
Oh. Okay. Well, I won’t go any further down that railroad line because it’s probably just a tale from wayback when. And when does that mystery show go up?
Laura: That’s actually the middle production of our Teen Season. It goes up in June. And we can officially announce it on May 5th 2025.
WOW. Okay then! Let’s back-it-up a bit. Where does the teen season start?
Laura: In January with 13: The Musical and that’s something we do every couple of seasons. It’s a great introduction to our teen program and I like to do it because by the time we redo it there are always a fresh bunch of kids auditioning for it. Then we’re running Alice By Heart in April.
Is that the same as the Community Theatre Show? Or is this one at the community theatre level and one at the pre professional teen level? Two shows? One show?
Laura: It’s two different shows, one with the community theatre and that will be ages 19 to 25 in the cast and one with the teen pre professionals and that will be ages 13 to 18 in the cast. So you have two different chances to see two talented bunches of individuals doing this rare show before it disappears. MTI says all performances must be completed by June 30th 2025!
Fantastic. I’ll definitely see one of them. And then the infamous mystery show.
Laura: Yes. The SHOW THAT CANNOT YET BE NAMED.
Got it. Then what?
Laura: Then in July the summer-teen show is Legally Blonde that one has done well before. And then we finish out the teen program with Ride The Cyclone (High School Edition) in October.
See now THAT is a show I wish was in your community theatre season. Because that show is stunning!
Laura: We really debated about trying to do that for our community theatre season but we’re up against a couple of hurdles there. Another community theatre in the county is also doing it, not necessarily around the same time but close enough, and it was another major expense from a rights standpoint. We’re not completely writing it off but we would have to have a sponsor— it’s a very small show with only six or so performers in it, so to do it for the community theatre, we’d definitely need a sponsor. And we are just thrilled to have it for the teens.
I am sure the teens are wonderful.
Laura: I really do need to get you out to one of the teen shows because I would put our teens up against any other teen program out there and even up against some of the other community theatres out there. We have stellar teens who do really excellent work and that’s where a lot of our young adult performers for the community theatre end up coming from, the teen program.
Well, maybe Ride The Cyclone will be the one. I do love that show and if you can’t get it for the community theatre…I might just have to consider it! Of course, I might also consider your mystery show…once I know if it’s a train ride I really want to take.
Laura: Too funny. But that’s us in a nutshell. Lots of options for all ages coming up for our 10th anniversary season! And all of those tickets will be available, audition information and all of that coming up on our website after the live-launch on the evening of September 7th 2024.
Fantastic! I look forward to it— I’m definitely stoked about Alice By Heart, that’s new for me and I love a show that I’ve never seen or even heard of before. And I encourage everyone in Cecil County and surrounding areas to come and check you guys out! Definitely an entity worth supporting!
For more information on their 10th Anniversary Season, please visit Street Lamp Productions’ website.
To the main stage upcoming show for Street Lamp Community Theatre, click here.
