By Jesse Williams/Zip06.com • 04/28/2021 08:53 a.m. EST
In the early days of March 2020, Madison Lyric Stage (MLS) artists gathered at the Deacon John Grave House, kicking off what looked to be another exciting season of theater and music delivered with the artistic touch and intimacy residents have come to expect from the small production company.
Unfortunately, like many other best laid plans last year, MLS founders Marc Deaton and John Johmann found themselves at the mercy of the pandemic, forced to cancel essentially all of last summer’s scheduled performances save a few small, private readings.
Anything but idle in the meantime, MLS is returning this year not necessarily to Grave House but still with a full complement of shows, now planned all outdoors, with what Deaton and Johmann are describing as a season that will not only serve as a rousing return for local theater, but a slate that has actually been enhanced by the new art world emerging in 2021.
“It allows us to do so many things with light and sound that we wouldn’t have been able to do inside the house,” said Deaton.
“Because of the pandemic, we’ve had access to some professionals that perhaps we would not have had in a non-pandemic time,” said Johmann.
“It’s like winning the lottery for us,” Deaton added.
Launching in early June with a Stephen Sodenheim concert, MLS will offer two more shows that were intended to go on last year: the off-Broadway Boys in the Band in late July and the dual opera feature of Suor Angelica and Erwartung in September.
Like many other production companies and stage artists, Deaton and Johmann have navigated an entirely untrodden road these past fourteen months or so. Including a small, private show early this month, MLS has only had three performances of any kind since the pandemic struck, and both Deaton and Johmann said they have contended with all the practical and emotional struggles of trying and hoping to return to what they love.
Deaton described his first time in front of an audience during the pandemic back in August, brought to tears by thoughts of both present and future as he looked out over the masked faces.
“Looking at everybody’s hopeful face—actually only their eyes, their hopeful eyes,” he said. “They were just delighted to be there and have that experience as a community.”
All those fears and all that uncertainty is hopefully coming to an end, though. Deaton described preparing for the new season as “complete and utter joy,” anticipating seeing MLS’ loyal patrons again and working with beloved colleagues.
“To be able to just go back into work and just do what I do, and do what we do, and work with the people that we really enjoy working with,” Deaton said. “[People] are hungry to get out there right now. Yes, there are probably still people who are nervous—why wouldn’t they be?—about life on all levels. But just to see their faces and know they want us there...That makes me really, really excited.”
Adapting to a fully outdoor environment has not been a last-minute decision, or one made out of desperation according to Johmann. MLS has been planning for the outdoor adaptation essentially from day one of the pandemic, he said, and feeds into the whole philosophy of the company: staying small and “nimble.”
“We decided early on we didn’t want to be caught,” Deaton added. “We planned the season this way.”
The outdoors tented setting, which is sponsored and made possible by assistance from Taylor Rentals in Branford, according to Johmann, allows a lot of lighting and movement possibilities besides creating safe social distancing.
“We’re still very intimate—not quite as interactive, but it will be very intimate under the tent,” Deaton said. “It lets us be a little bit bigger and do a little bit more that we weren’t able to do because of the restrictions of the smallness of the rooms in the [Grave] House.”
The open-air audience experience will be essentially a first-time offering from MLS, Johmann said, but the addition of crew and staff is also a new opportunity.
Technical Director Tom Janus, whom Johmann described as a long-time industry veteran as a scenic designer and lighting designer, spent much of the pandemic in neighboring Guilford and is now taking on the significant challenge of “reshaping” MLS for its new venue.
“To do that under a tent is not an easy feat,” Deaton said, noting, “We’ve never taken the easy way.”
At the same time, nearly all of the MLS cast from last year have “held on” rather than trying their luck elsewhere, and are prepared to dive into another season, Deaton said, which “means a lot” to the company.
Johmann said it is this loyalty, this dedication, and this community that really drives MLS and really makes their endeavors “necessary” in the current climate.
“I feel hopeful, and I feel like it’s a needed healing for all of us- for us as the producers, and for our audiences to have that communal, community experience of live performance,” he said.
For more information about Madison Lyric Stage and the upcoming season, visit madisonlyricstage.org.
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