Stormfield faces heavy weather

Breaking the fourth wall isn’t always an artistic choicefor Stormfield Theatre and its artistic director, Kristine Thatcher.What if the wall is made of concrete?

“We just wrote a grant to bring our bathrooms up tocode,” Thatcher said. “The men’s room is three inches shorter than itshould be. You have to move the toilet over, too.”

A Shakespearean set of high and low problems, fromsecuring rights to David Mamet to securing access to the dudes’ toilet,have Thatcher and her loyal staff scrambling for money to keep the2-year-old professional theater alive.

To help circle the wagons, Thatcher has enlistedrope-twirling humorist Will Rogers, played by Chicago theater luminaryKevin McKillip. The one-man show will replace David Mamet’s “Race” asStormfield’s second production of the 2011-2012 season. In themeantime, Thatcher said, the season will be scheduled “from show toshow,” depending on finances.

Will Rogers isn’t Mamet, but Thatcher hopes the folksyprecursor to political humorist Jon Stewart may lasso enough money tofurther her goal of keeping Equity theater — with material by livingplaywrights — alive in Lansing.

Thatcher said loyal donors have been generous, but grantfunding is at “an all-time low.” Only a third of Stormfield’s budgetcomes from ticket sales.

“Even Shakespeare relied on patronage,” she said. “He hadQueen Elizabeth and King James I to help pay the bills. That systemhasn’t changed.”

Thatcher said she yanked “Race,” a racially chargedcourtroom drama, not because of money, but because the licensing agencypulled the rights.

“In my six years of securing rights to various shows, I’ve never encountered this situation,” she said.

However, the Will Rogers replacement show givesStormfield a chance to save money, tap Rogers’ broad public appeal andkeep the company alive to mount Mamet another day. In previous seasons,one-person shows showcasing personalities like Mark Twain and AnnLanders have helped Stormfield stay afloat. 

Thatcher applied for the rights to “Race” shortly afterthe JET Theatre in Detroit did the same. The play’s licensing agency,Samuel French, feared the two productions would undercut each other,even though Thatcher argued that the two markets are separate.

An East Coast colleague told Thatcher it’s a “typical NewYork point of view,” and that any other production in Michigan, “evenif the second one were in the U.P.,” would have been considered tooclose.

“Race” was set to be Stormfield’s entry into the CooleyLaw School Stages of the Law series. It will be replaced by two nightsof a staged reading of “The Exonerated,” about six Death Row inmatesexonerated by DNA evidence, in January. Thatcher still hopes to produce“Race” for next year’s Stages of the Law series.

Thatcher’s first choice to replace “Race” in theStormfield schedule was “Vigil,” originally set for later in theseason, with veteran stars Carmen Decker and Aral Gribble, butStorm

field’s budget outlook is too uncertain.

“(‘Vigil’) had a real large footprint — a lot of setpieces, the prop list went on forever, two Equity salaries,” Thatchersaid. “I want to do it, and do it with them, so hopefully we can pushit back until later in the season.”

After Will Rogers rides back West, Thatcher and her boardof directors will decide how to approach the 2012 schedule. “RomanticFools,” a farce by Rich Orloff, was set for January, with “Vigil” setfor March, and Thatcher’s own drama about the poetess Lorine Niedeckerin May.

Thatcher, an actor/writer/director, returned to her hometown of Lansing from Chicago in 2005 to be he artistic director ofBoarsHead Theatre. She founded Stormfield in August 2009 after hercontract was not renewed at BoarsHead, which closed its doors thatDecember.

Many top BoarsHead actors, staffers, donors andsupporters followed Thatcher and her stellar reputation to Stormfield,but the going has not been easy.

Thatcher admits her quest to bring Equity theater to aformer judo studio in a shopping mall in Lansing might look quixotic tosome people.

“Quixotic? It’s absolutely insane. It could be a certifiable offense.”

In the coming weeks, Thatcher said the theater will pushto find more donors, revamp its marketing techniques to use socialmedia more effectively, and pursue further initiatives for “growth” shecan’t yet discuss.

“We’re pulling out the stops to try and go forward,” shesaid. “I came home to produce theater and be closer to my family. Ididn’t really have an option. This is what I want to do.”