February 2020 Cover Story: 100 Years a Player
Today, the Phoenix Theatre Company is an arts institution and one of the leading employers of actors, artists and theater techs in Arizona. But nearly a century ago, it operated out of a coach house on the Heard property and used fans and ice blocks to keep the audience cool. Travel back in time to learn how the city’s oldest theatrical institution came to be, and look ahead to its exciting future.
“The Phoenix Players started in 1920 with a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in a downtown park. They performed in a hair salon at one point,” said Michael Barnard, producing artistic director of Phoenix Theatre Company. At the time, the population was a bustling 30,000, but there were few arts for the community to enjoy. Enter Maie Bartlett Heard of Heard Museum fame, who volunteered to let the fledgling troupe use her carriage house on Central and McDowell as a theater. She became president of the Phoenix Players and signed them up to become part of the national “little” theater movement of the time (“little” when applied to theater is a synonym for “community”), and the troupe became the Phoenix Little Theatre in 1924.
Through good years and lean years and hundreds of productions, the theater has resided on that property ever since, becoming one of only six theaters in the country that has never closed its doors in its 100-year history. “During the Depression, they did everything on the cheap,” Barnard said. “Some of the shows were for donation only, so whatever you could afford, you put in the cup.”
Phoenix Little Theatre also persevered through World War II, relying on creative casting and marketing to keep the theater from going dark. Because there was a shortage of male actors during the war years, shows were performed by all-female casts, or by men either too young or too old to serve. “They did USO events, and gave the military free tickets, so it kept the doors open,” Barnard said. “Bake sales and fundraisers also supported them. It was the only place in town to go for entertainment.”
The 50s were a heady time that saw the construction of the Mainstage Theatre. The building was at the core of an arts and culture site that would go on to house Phoenix Art Museum and the Phoenix Public Library as well. “The 50s were all about collaboration,” Barnard said. Three nonprofits — a resident ballet company, Phoenix Musical Theatre and the Alfred Knight Shakespeare Festival — integrated with Phoenix Little Theatre, bringing ballet, musicals and Shakespeare to the stage. “Between the four entities, this place was nonstop. The festival and the ballet went away by the end of the 50s, but it was a very flourishing decade,” Barnard said.
Over the years, the theater had its share of star-power. Clare Boothe Luce premiered her play “Child of the Morning” at Phoenix Little Theatre in the late 50s. (Her Broadway hit “The Women” had been a smash there in 1944.) Some well-known stars of the time also cut their teeth at Phoenix Little Theatre, including comedian Steve Allen, actors Andy Devine and Rosemary DeCamp and, later, Lynda Day George and Nick Nolte.
Perhaps the biggest star of all never walked the boards but, rather, used the theater for another purpose. Steven Spielberg, who had worked backstage on a couple of shows doing props, asked to use the theater to show his first film in 1964 when he was just 17. He ran reel-to-reel sound for his movie, called “Firelight,” while his father ran the projector. “They ran it for two nights,” Barnard said. “They spent $520 on the film and raised $525 in ticket sales, so he walked away with a nice, crisp $5 profit.”
The 70s wasn’t an easy time. “They probably went through more artistic directors in that decade than they did in the rest of the 100 years,” Barnard said. In the late 70s, federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act grants made it possible to bring in professional theater artists to mentor community players and raise production values. Unfortunately, the program only lasted a couple of years. “When that grant went away, the bottom fell out of the theater again,” Barnard said.
But there were bright spots. In the early 80s, the creation of a secondary theater called Theatre One made it possible to introduce edgier, Off-Broadway and niche-marketed shows that might not appeal to a broad audience.
Around this time, Barnard began his first stint at the theater. A native Arizonan, he grew up in Glendale and returned to Phoenix after earning his master’s degree. Barnard was directing and performing in show bands around the country when he was spotted and hired in 1979 to be Phoenix Little Theatre’s first production manager as well as a resident director and choreographer. He eventually left in 1983 to work for the Disney Corporation in Anaheim.
Some 16 years later, Phoenix Theatre contacted him again. The theater — which had dropped the “Little” from its name in 1985 — was not in good shape and asked if Barnard would be willing to return. At the time, Disney was going through an overhaul, Barnard’s mother had recently passed away, and his sister was in ill health. “I thought it would be a good time for me to say, ‘Hasta luego’ to L.A. and go back to the theater where I got my professional start,” he said.
Little did he know when he arrived back in 1999 that the theater was half a million dollars in debt. “We had a mailing list of 11,000 — but only 2,000 of those members were alive. And the marketing director on the first show I directed after coming back forgot to place the ads for the first week.”
The show? “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
As if that weren’t enough, four weeks before the show opened, the City of Phoenix decided to tear the stage out because it was termite-laden and rotting. Barnard called the mayor and told him the theater wouldn’t stand a chance without a stage. “Within three days, we had a new stage,” he said.
Thus began years of work to return the theater to financial stability and strong attendance. “When I got here, there was less than $5,000 in the bank, and no vendors would take our credit. I was worried that I would be the one to close the theater,” Barnard said.
Fortunately, he had an able ally in Vincent VanVleet, who started at the theater in 1998 as a stage manager. “When Michael got roped in and a lot of people left, no one would be the production manager. He said, ‘You have to do it,’” VanVleet said.
Originally from Wisconsin and a veteran of the Chicago theater scene, VanVleet sprang into action. With no money, VanVleet persuaded a board member who owned a lumber yard to drop off lumber to build sets. He got another board member who owned a steel yard to donate steel.
Together, Barnard and VanVleet got much of the theater’s debt relieved and secured a new line of credit. The Arizona Republic donated free advertising and sponsors like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, SRP and APS ponied up support, as did philanthropists like Kax Herberger. “She said, ‘I hope this will help’ and handed me a $50,000 check,” Barnard recalled. “Then she said, ‘Now you come back when you need a little bit more.’”
Through skillful management and a bit of begging, VanVleet led the administrative team toward successful increases in both audience development and revenue. But there were more bumps in the road. “9/11 happened and that was a nightmare for us, and the world. We went to the city council — this was the one and only time — and asked for a one-time $100,000 bailout, which the city council did,” Barnard said.
Phoenix Theatre paid back that bailout, weathered the Great Recession and completed an ambitious renovation that addressed space shortage and accommodated the growing needs of the theater’s programs. Today, the city’s first theatrical institution, which was renamed the Phoenix Theatre Company in 2019, is debt-free. “We’ve gone from seven people on staff to 60 full-time people. And we’ve gone from a $750,000 budget to a $9.5 million budget. It’s been a good turnaround,” Barnard said.
But Barnard and VanVleet, who is now the theater’s managing director, aren’t resting on their laurels. They’ve got big plans in store, most notably, the development of new work. They envision Phoenix Theatre Company coming in league with nationally known theaters such as the La Jolla Playhouse, the Atlanta Alliance, Denver Center for the Arts, The Guthrie and a handful of other regional theaters that have made names for themselves by creating shows that have gone on to New York.
“We’re sitting at a precipice,” Barnard said. “We’ve had Broadway producers that have come to us and said they would love to do a pre-Broadway workshop here. We’re in a great area of the country, especially in the winter. We’re well away from the New York critics, so you can develop work here.”
It’s not just about securing a reputation for the Phoenix Theatre Company. It’s about building Phoenix into an arts powerhouse. “When people come into town for tourism, they think about resorts and golf courses, but the museums and the rich, vibrant arts landscape is significant. And being the fifth-largest city in the country, Phoenix deserves a regional theater like the Phoenix Theatre Company to introduce art to the canon of American musical theater,” VanVleet said.
That’s the driving force behind getting phase two of Phoenix Theatre Company’s Hormel Theatre built, which will turn it into a 500-seat, state-of-the-art space. “Then we can say yes to producers asking, ‘Can we start something in Phoenix and take it to New York?’ The money they’ll bring will be invested into the local arts community, and that’s critically important,” VanVleet said. “Phoenix is poised to make a name for itself.”
Both Barnard and VanVleet talk about a burgeoning energy in the theater. A few years ago, Phoenix Theatre Company’s largest demographic shifted from being 65-plus to being 45 to 64. Perhaps it’s the younger demographic moving downtown or empty nesters looking for a night out. Whatever the reason, the theater can program different shows than it did a decade ago. “We can do a ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ to sold-out audiences. We could have never put that on in 2011 or 2012.’”
In addition to bringing in new audiences, launching new shows, and building a state-of-the-art theater, Barnard has a few other goals. He conceived the Partners That Heal outreach program that’s now in its 11th year of training actors to bring improvisational theater to children in hospitals across Arizona. They just introduced the program at Colorado Children’s Hospital and are making strides to bring it to Nebraska, Puerto Rico and Canada. The theater also runs a thriving summer camp as well as outreach programs that introduce young people to theater. Barnard thinks it is vital to expand both programs in this screen-driven age.
“Those are big dreams and aspirations, but if we can get any and all of that done, it will be time for me to turn things over to someone else,” said Barnard, who is now in his 20th year in his second stint at the theater.
As Phoenix Theatre Company celebrates its 100th year, it may be more relevant than ever. When Phoenicians gathered in a carriage house a century ago to watch the Phoenix Players perform, it was their only option for live entertainment. Today, in a world delivered to your door with a click, the ability to come together as a community is going to take place in venues like the Phoenix Theatre Company. “Something as ancient as Greece is more necessary than ever. It is critically important to hold onto live experience,” Barnard said.
To learn more, go to phoenixtheatre.com.
