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05/09/2018 07:00 AMThere are few things better than a memorable production at a local theater, but for all the benefits a performance space may bring to a local community, establishing a new arts venue is a daunting task. Just ask anyone who’s involved in doing it.
The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center found a home in Old Saybrook’s old town hall in 2005 and, with strong assistance from the town, The Kate has become a successful, regional draw. Just down the road in Madison, an effort to do something similar with the town’s old Academy School went down in flames.
Yet another effort to do something similar is underway in Branford in the historic Stony Creek Puppet House, a building that has been a silent movie house, a repertory theater (home of the famed Parish Players), a summer stock house, and a World War II parachute factory.
The building itself, more than 100 years old, fell into such deep decay that it was at one point condemned by the town for building code violations. Still, the house retains a fay charm and is tucked in a tight-knit community that boasts a number of artists and many who share a passionate love for the arts. And so it was purchased in 2012 by Legacy Theatre with plans to offer performances and a conservatory program.
With the recent resolution of some significant concerns on the part of neighbors that resulted in a now-settled lawsuit, some obstacles remain, including how to deal with a scarcity of parking that will require creative transportation options for at least part of the audience. There are substantial fundraising goals to be met before the project can be called a full success.
If this story were a play, we’d be looking for a new challenge to close the first act. As if on cue, Legacy Theatre just recently announced a collaboration with the Shoreline Arts Alliance to produce Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s darkest plays, on the Guilford Green this summer, from Wednesday to Sunday, Aug. 1 to 5 at 7:30 p.m., with all performances free and open to the public.
How will the Legacy Theatre team meet its fundraising goals? Renovate the charming dilapidated building? Come up with a season of theatrical offerings compelling enough to win over local audiences blessed with an abundance of other entertainment options? And put on a production of Hamlet true to the Bard of Avon’s words and at the same time accessible to the adults and children who will be camped out on the Guilford Green with their picnics and puppy dogs? Keep in mind that some in the audience will have barely heard of Hamlet. Others will be experienced Shakespeare-playgoers with a marked-up copy of Hamlet, likely the Second Quarto text, tucked in their picnic hampers.
Enter Jeremy Funke, stage right.
“Everything at a certain level becomes an anticipation game and a matter of preparation,” he says. “Part of the conversation that prompted this whole roller coaster ride was looking for a way to take advantage of the experience I have.”
As for roller coaster rides, here’s hoping Funke likes them.
He was recently hired as theater manager for Legacy Theatre. In that role, he will help the organization grow into its next phase, help with fundraising, help guide the renovation, and assist with performances of Hamlet, the accompanying lectures, the condensed version for children, the associated camps. Then there’s all that inevitable paperwork.
Oh, yes, and Funke will play the lead in Hamlet as well.
‘A Rare Gem’
Here’s the good news, both for the Legacy Theatre and for the shoreline’s Shakespeare lovers. Funke’s experience is consistent with the belief that he may just be the guy who can help pull all of this off, and with style.
Keely Baisden Knudsen, co-founder and artistic director of the Legacy Theatre, will vouch for that and she’s worked with Funke since 2007.
“We have performed on stage together in professional productions, mostly in many seasons with Elm Shakespeare, a phenomenal theater company out of New Haven that has produced excellent Shakespeare productions in Edgerton Park for over 20 years,” she says. “I have acted on stage with Jeremy. I have choreographed him [when] I was Elm’s resident choreographer for years, and as Elm’s former director of education, I would work with Jeremy for countless hours in schools creating theater with the students and watching them flourish with the Bard’s work under Jeremy’s direction and expert knowledge and tutelage.
“He is a rare gem: as academic as he is creative, and as emotionally present as he is task-obsessed,” she continues. “His addition to the Legacy has already catapulted our administrative output, and the shorthand we have as long-term friends makes it an absolute pleasure.”
He’s also a math tutor, which helps when it comes to tallying up the numbers. Funke’s other credentials are solid, as well.
In addition to his work with the Elm Shakespeare company as a company member and resident teaching artist, where he worked with Baisden Knudsen, he was also the executive director of the New Works New Haven festival performing at Long Wharf Theatre’s Stage II. Since 2005, he has performed with several other companies along the Connecticut shoreline from Branford to Stratford and Westport. In 2009, Funke created the after-school Shakespeare program at New Haven’s Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School, and he has adapted and directed the plays there for seven years.
Last summer, he directed his adaptation of The Henriad—including material from Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V—for the Striving Artists Theatre Company in Salem, Massachusetts. And, in addition to his work with Legacy, he is still actively involved with The Harpers Theatre in New Haven and the Valley Shakespeare Festival in Shelton. He tutors with New York City’s Bespoke Education.
As for playing Hamlet, his experience suggests he is suited for the role. It’s a text he’s been intimately familiar with for more than 20 years.
He’s played Claudius. He’s played Hamlet. He’s directed it. In his senior year of high school he wrote a version of Hamlet, from Hamlet’s point of view. In college, while attending Harvard, he wrote another version based on what he characterized as a bizarre theory of the play mentioned by his father, which received a review from a fellow student as being both “interesting and powerful.”
Not a Happy, Shiny Family
Funke knows the challenges of staging a production of Hamlet are many. Still, he says his long experience will benefit those playgoers on the Guilford Green this summer.
“It’s a play I’ve come back to many times,” he says. “It really does hold up under intense scrutiny.”
He says the trouble many people have with Shakespeare comes from reading the plays in English class.
“The notion that Shakespeare is a foreign language comes from reading it on the page,” he says. “Shakespeare never intended that. The notion that his plays would get studied, and pored over in English class? He would be deeply offended, after he recovered from dying from shock.”
He says he wants people to know that Hamlet is not a scary show, despite the dark subjects it tackles.
“There is a stigma attached to some of it, ‘Oh, it’s so long and oh, he holds a skull, why is everything so dark?’” Funke says. “But two things keep coming back to me. First, is just how funny it can be. And, at its core, it is about family. It’s a very messed-up family. But if we are just family during the happy, shiny, good times, then we are not really family. And a happy, shiny family is a lot less interesting to watch than a family trying to get back to happy, shiny. I don’t want people to be afraid of this play.”
He promises the production will be as rewarding for newcomers to the play, as it will be for those who have seen it many times.
“The reasons why people go to see theater is as varied as the people themselves, and we need to present this to all of them. If people are coming because their friend is in it, that’s as valid as the English professor who will come with his copy of Hamlet, wondering why we cut that line,” he says. “Although I do wish that English professor would put that book down and watch the play.”
Aside from presenting and playing Hamlet for the shoreline, Funke knows how much work is to be done before Legacy Theatre itself opens its doors, an event scheduled for summer 2019, with construction scheduled to start in November of this year. The organization has a 13-member Board of Directors and 36 people signed up on its advisory committee; it’s already more than $400,000 toward its $3 million goal, and they are seeking a historic tax credit that could help cover a large chunk of construction costs.
“I want the people in this community to know Legacy Theatre is here to serve them,” he says. “Legacy Theatre is not an ego project. It’s certainly not about us trying to get rich. It’s about bringing history back to the neighborhood, and to contribute to the future history of this area.”
Already, Legacy has staged more than 40 theatrical productions at various venues, and has offered numerous classes, workshops, in-school programs, and summer acting workshops. Future plans include plays and new works, musicals, cabarets, children’s and family theater, and more educational opportunities.
‘A Genius Opportunity’
Funke says that, geographically, the theater will draw an audience as widely as possible.
“We can draw from New York, both Long Island and the city, in the summertime. Traditionally they evacuate anyway. And we can certainly draw from the immediate community, Stony Creek, and Branford, and all of these cities along the shoreline, Milford, Madison, and I’d love to see people coming up from Stratford even.”
The goal is to put on four main-stage productions a year, perhaps including one established play, a musical, a children’s show, and a new play. And, while Stony Creek is in part a seasonal community, he says another goal is to get people to think about the theater as a year-round operation.
“It is going to take a bit of psychology on everyone’s part to think of it not just as a summer venue, but a Christmas venue, and on Valentine’s Day, too,” he says.
As for transportation?
“The solution might be to have a shuttle from a commuter lot right off of the highway and five minutes from us and that opens up a genius opportunity for us to, maybe not entertain, but to give context, introduce ourselves on the ride over,” he says. “Like ‘Welcome to our quirky little shuttle, this is who we are, and we think you’ll have a good time, and afterwards tell us what you think.’”
He notes Legacy had a hearing in July 2017 to completely resolve the parking issues with the neighbors and Stony Creek community, including plans for a commuter shuttle from exit 56, use of the neighboring municipal lots, and several street parking signs to clarify parking restrictions during operating hours. Funke, and the others on the Legacy team, are very interested in keeping up good relations with their neighbors in Stony Creek.
He remains undaunted about the prospect of simultaneously playing Hamlet, and of helping the Legacy team march boldly into its future.
“Time management is less of a challenge when you love everything you do,” he says. “Whether I’m logging donations from our annual gala, just a few weeks ago, or sending an email blast for the Great Give, or soliciting donations from local businesses, or holding auditions and cutting Shakespeare for performance, it’s less a matter of finding the time, and more a matter of prioritizing whatever is most urgent. And then remembering to breathe at the end of the day.”
Editor's Note: This story was updated on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 to provide the most current amount raised by fundraising, to clarify the kinds of productions that will be offered, and to provide additional information on how the parking at the theater will be handled.