As summer season closes, theater producers look forward to 2022

MEREDITH — The task of promoting the performing arts is perhaps harder in 2021 than in any other year, with the exception of 2020. But the folks at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse didn’t want to cut themselves any breaks.

“Not only is it difficult to do any theater right now, we’ve doubled our difficulty by doing new shows,” said Neil Pankhurst, producing artistic director at the playhouse. They are closing their summer with two world premiers, including one that the playhouse commissioned.

“Hooligans and Convicts,” which is being performed through Sept. 4, commemorates the struggle that won women the right to vote. “It Had To Be You,” which will be the final outdoor production for this season, was written by Pankhurst to tie together 18 favorite entries in the Great American Songbook.

“Hooligans and Convicts,” which they consider more of a “play with music” rather than a musical, was actually scheduled to premier in 2020 to commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment. The pandemic delayed it a year, so its premier instead marks the 101st anniversary of the law that granted voting rights to women.

It’s a challenge to put on any show, Pankhurst said, and to adapt a script to the quirks of a specific house. But it’s another task altogether to produce a show that has never been done before, as things that seem that they should work on paper get translated into three dimensions for the first time.

To do it, Pankhurst reached out to a playwright who had only written one play prior, but who certainly knew her way around a stage: Broadway veteran Carolyn Kirsch. Kirsch first came to the playhouse as an actor in 2008, and produced her play “A Waltz” there in 2016. Pankhurst said he wanted Kirsch to write because of her imaginative storytelling.

“I’ve seen a lot of plays about the suffrage movement, because they’re so built on facts, they aren’t fun to watch,” he said. He wanted a script that would engage with the audience, rather than make them feel they were attending a history lecture.

Kirsch said the task was “difficult,” as it required much research on people that were working more than a century ago, and on two continents. “It was like crocheting. Every time I pulled on a string, a whole new color would come along,” she said.

She conjured a story that starts with a young contemporary woman who opens a history book to learn about the suffrage movement, and the characters come spilling out. It has humor, song and dance, and a range of emotions. Kirsch said it has been “surreal and beautiful” to see her work finally breathe on its own.

Kirsch said that her research showed that though times had changed, they haven’t changed that much.

“The contemporary issues that we are dealing with are not so far afield from the issues we were dealing with 101 years ago,” Kirsch said. Voting rights, gender equity in the workplace, and child care were issues then as they are now, though progress has been made.

A look ahead

Pankhurst said that, from a manager’s perspective, 2020 was actually easier than 2021. Last year, the government told the theatre to lock the doors, and gave them funds to stay afloat. This year, they’ve had to play the roles of virologist and social scientist as well as theater operators.

The Winnipesaukee Playhouse enforced distancing between groups of ticket holders and mask usage. Leslie Pankhurst, patron and company services director, said they’ve tried to both keep their patrons safe and comfortable, yet also offer the escape that theater provides.

Threading that needle has meant that they couldn’t please all patrons, she said.

“For everyone who’s scared to come in because they’re COVID conscious, there’s people who won’t come in because we mandate masks,” she said.

Yet another puzzle is waiting for them to solve in the coming months. Should they bet on a brighter, more relaxed 2022, and book bigger, more expensive shows? Or should they hedge and plan a season of smaller shows to manage costs even if they don’t sell most of the seats?

“We all have to make those risky calls now,” Neil Pankhurst said.

At Interlakes Theater, Nancy Barry said she’s through with playing it safe. Her 2022 season will feature four titles that exemplify the kind of summer musical that her company is known for.

Interlakes’ season is winding down with “Sammy Davis Jr. Live at the Palace," which has both evening and matinee shows through Aug. 22, and tickets are still available, she said.

Barry said this summer went “very well” despite restrictions that limited how many seats she could sell. “Financially, we’re secure, we did everything we needed to do to make it viable financially. The audiences have been extremely appreciative and happy.”

Yet, she knows that some of her regular supporters took this year off out of concern for their health. “And all of that is valid,” Barry said.

She is betting on those concerns being alleviated before next season, when she plans to produce "Grease," "The King and I," "Sister Act," and "Cats."

“We’re all excited to do four big shows and 400 seats every night,” Barry said. “We want to get back to doing what we do . . . It’s not going to be ugly by next year. I just can’t think like that. I think people are getting smarter, people are getting vaccinated, I think that by next year, we’ll have this under control.”