![]() ![]() It’s an adaptation by comic playwright Ken ( Lend Me a Tenor) Ludwig.ĭavis and McGee play, in turn, the great detective and his partner-in-sleuthing Dr. They finally found the ideal Holmes vehicle – Baskerville, subtitled A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, is onstage at freeFall through April 23. And years ago I thought ‘You know, Eric would make a good Sherlock Holmes.’” “Whenever Robert Downey Jr., played Sherlock Holmes, I always saw Eric,” McGee confesses. Dornblaser at Spanich Lyric Theatre.Putting a Sherlock Holmes detective story onstage has been on freeFall Theatre’s wish list for a long time, say Eric Davis and Matthew McGee, the company’s artistic director and director of community outreach, respectively. This is the seventh in a seven-part series of stories on the talented people who lead local theater companies. For more information go to freeFall theatre,Ĭall (727) 498-5005 or email. The next production at freeFall, 6099 Central Ave., is “The Agitators,” which runs July 29 through August 8. We want to help audiences escape these troubled times.” “Psychologically, it’s a bit of medicine. “Theater is born out of a need that arises in a time of uncertainty,” McGee says. We need to become part of people’s routine again.” People still don’t feel it’s safe to attend. “Co-production is a great way for theater companies to share expenses and be able to present quality shows,” McGee says. In the new season, freeFall is co-producing “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” with the award-winning Black theater company Ebony Repertory Theater of Los Angeles. This season’s production of “A Skeptic and a Bruja,” which ran from May 20 to June 19, was a collaboration with Sarasota’s Urbanite Theatre. It sold out.Ĭoming out of COVID, freeFall has also discovered the advantages of coproductions with other theater companies as a way to maximize limited resources. After the turmoil and uncertainty of COVID, the show emerged as an audience favorite. Michael Raabe, the company’s musical director, provided the special musical parodies. Using social distancing, freeFall moved back into its 150-seat theater for the 2021-2022 season and enjoyed a sellout with McGee’s original comedy, “The Night Before,” described as the “Andy Williams Christmas Special Meets Pee Wee’s Playhouse.” “Also, we were able to keep actors and musicians working during a difficult time,” McGee says. Their entire 2020-2021 season was staged as multimedia experiences with live audiences who could attend within the safety of their cars. “We even filmed a cameo video with Mayor Rick Kriseman.” The multi-media production using digital technology and live performers was wildly popular. The theater company adapted the alien invasion classic “War of the Worlds” and filmed parts of it in Plant City. For their protection from COVID, performers were in different parts of the building and were linked in for the sound.” They stayed in their cars and tuned in to a radio station to hear the show and music. Audience members were ticketed by the car. “We also had a large screen mounted on the side of the building. “We created a drive-in with an outside stage,” McGee says. With 165 parking spaces at its disposal, freeFall invented its own mode of survival. “We have one of the few places with free parking.” “We are on Central Avenue between 60th and 61st Street,” McGee says. If necessity is the mother of invention, freeFall used the resources at its disposal to reinvent itself. “We had to find the kind of programming to stay afloat… but we were not interested in doing a play on Zoom.” “We are theater makers, not filmmakers,” McGee says. The professional theater company that was founded in 2012 by Eric Davis, Jim Sorensen and Kevin Lane faced a shutdown. “We were unable to do what we did every day in our ten years of existence.” “All theater was unable to continue,” says Matthew McGee, freeFall’s outreach and marketing director. The feisty theater, which labels itself as “unexpected, daring and authentic” and invites audiences to “escape awhile," could not escape from the disruption of the COVID pandemic. Petersburg’s freeFall Theatre was hit with a wallop. ![]()
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