Technically this is my fourth attempt at starting a theatre company (in the broadest possible sense).
My first was 1992 in Naples Florida. After working at the local community theatre on several shows and classes with a professional acting / directing couple Logan and Wendy, they asked me to help them start their own company. And so the Naples Repertory Theatre began working out of the local parks and rec community center. Logan and I would start our mornings getting a free breakfast by just walking into the lobby of local motels for complimentary coffee, o.j. and pastries. You are right to judge, even though we had no budget, pretty illegal! We would then go to the beach (aah Florida!) to discuss our plan for the day. Usually I would cold call businesses in the late morning / early afternoon to try to get advertising money for the show program, while Logan would meet with local money contacts to get producers and sponsors. Afternoons would entail building sets, rigging lights, getting costumes or props, then smoking a cigar playing shuffleboard before rehearsals (aah Florida!) We managed to produce two shows, Shorts! ( a series of one-acts) and Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw. As our second play was coming to a close, Logan received a call from the Fireside Dinner Theatre in Wisconsin. He was hired to play Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. They happened to need a Big Jule and he said “I have the guy!” I auditioned, got cast. Good Timing! But the Naples Rep was over.
After Guys and Dolls closed I moved to Chicago in 1993, after taking classes for a couple of years I was settled in with a group of peers, and my friends Noah, Tony and Scott had a Sunday morning theater group that would meet for coffee and improv games. I had recently changed jobs and my Sundays now open, I joined them. The 8 people involved wanted to write a new show. So we would discuss themes, plots, and improv situations. Scott and I would video tape these sessions, then during the week, transcribe and re-write the work to be rehearsed the following Sunday. But too many personality clashes and no structure to set up a strong majority vote stalled any and all progress for a new company - Tightrope Theatre Collective (good name!). And eventually the Sunday mornings faded away, friendships waned. Just wasn’t the time.
A lot of acting, fight choreography, and directing in Chicago, Kentucky, Ohio, New York, New Jersey later, I found myself following Anita here to Iowa. A lot of our time had been spent traveling on road talking theater and our own company, on our condo deck about our own company, at our house by our fire pit, and our own theatre company. After closing King Lear at the arboretum in 2018, the following night I started rehearsals for a funny, crazy violent play with first read sitting outside at Second Street Brewery. We had no performance space, rehearsal space, or money, just the cast and interest from friends. I secured a rehearsal space through the generous nature of the UNI Theater department but no performance space was open for the dates we needed. I had the idea of renting a store-front space in the vacant College Square Mall. After approaching the property realtors, I found a couple of usable store spaces, met with the fire chief to discuss safety and had some spaces nixed due to different issues but one (my first choice) was viable. Unfortunately, the rent was so high I could not move forward on it. (No wonder the mall is empty with no haggling for prices). I even went above the realtor's head and wrote a proposal to the property owners (hoping for some crazy theatre lover to be on their board of directors!) about how bringing art into the space would help re-energize the mall. No response. No luck. DOA Timing!
In the fall of 2018, my last year at UNI, I was reading plays to propose to UNISTA so I could direct one more time before I graduated. My choices came down to Lungs by MacMillan and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again by Alice Birch. While I thought Revolt to be the better play, it would be harder to produce, so I went with Lungs. But Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again was such a striking piece I knew I had to produce it for audiences somehow. In the summer of 2019, we started fire pit readings because I wanted to hear Revolt out loud, and after hearing it we all wanted to see it. With the #Metoo, #Notinourhouse movements, the fight against toxic masculinity, sexist language and behavior, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again is the right show at the right time.
To do this right, the RFT founders are building this company to last. We wanted to build the foundations so that in the future as the company grows, and the founders move on, others could keep this fire stoked. RFT was born at the right time. The time was right for the four founders to work together not just as friends, as fellow cast members, or actor / director but as company members wanting to expand our skill set and produce theatre, stage manage, design, telemarket, beg for money, beg for people, pound the pavement, keep financials, put our name on something, make tough and unpleasant choices, give opportunities so that our artists grow, our audiences grow. It’s the time for Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again and Overtones to be produced, and the time to bring unusual, challenging and provocative works to the stage. Our community had an artistic void left by the loss of another innovative company Scene D. Left a “wanting” from artists, designers, and audiences alike who were all looking for a new theatre, a different theatre. Timing is everything means finding that balance between supply and demand.
Rising Fire Theatre believes the demand is there.
Here comes the supply!
-Alan Malone
President, RFT's Board of Directors