Village Players to bring live theater to audiences at home

WOLFEBORO — The Village Players Theater had a busy season planned, with four stage shows and 12 monthly movie weekends.

Cast and crew of Neil Simon’s 'Broadway Bound' were less than a month from opening night when the pandemic came. As it continued, the summer production of 'Laughing Stock,' the fall musical 'The Sound of Music,' and 'The Nutcracker' were all postponed until 2021.

After live, in-person productions were halted, Village Players member Emily Judkins searched for a way to get her theater fix, and brought a proposal to the board of directors for an online production. With their approval, The Village Players Black Box Theater was born.

“I got the idea from the NoWhere Comedy Club,” said Judkins of Barnstead, part of the Village Players for the past year. In interviews, comics involved in the shows have praised the format, which allows audience members to watch and laugh as if they were in a theater.

Judkins found a few short shows the Village Players could use for black box performances, including a pair of Abbott and Costello sketches from 1944, an adaptation of the Grimm’s fairytale 'Cat and Mouse in Partnership,' 'Naughty List' by Maine playwright Robert LeBlanc, and 'Spading' and 'Television Man' by Australian author Alex Broun.

The cast includes returning actors Tom Bickford, Peter Moses, Anna Jortikka, Andrew Long and Joshua Spaulding, and newcomers Amelia Bickford and Jennifer Schaffner.

The sketches combine for an hour of laughs that can be enjoyed from home Friday, Aug. 21, and Saturday, Aug. 22, at 7 p.m.

To be part of the experience, visit village-players.com to make a donation. Donors will receive an email link to the Zoom meeting for the show. Audience members are encouraged to unmute their computers and laugh along. Judkins notes that the Village Players will monitor the meeting to avoid distractions for the cast and the audience.

“The Zoom meeting will have a waiting room, and when the house opens, the person working as the house manager will compare the names in the waiting room against those who reached out for tickets," Judkins said. “During the show we will have a few people as ushers keeping an eye on the sound levels and if an audience member has loud and distracting background noise, the usher will mute them.”

While the theater will remain dark for the foreseeable future, Judkins hopes to do these types of shows again to keep people entertained safely.

The shows are set for Friday, Aug. 21, and Saturday, Aug. 22, at 7 p.m. each night. Visit village-players.com for updates.