Making a Scene: Wit, Bohemian, Shattered Globe and Stage Left to shack up

Extending the legacy of theater on Belmont Avenue, Theater Wit is moving its headquarters to 1229 West Belmont in 2010, promising to renovate and revive the former Bailiwick Arts Center, and to reestablish it as “one of the exciting venues on the Off-Loop scene,” Theater Wit artistic director Jeremy Wechsler says. Theater Wit will share the space with local stalwarts Bohemian Theatre Ensemble, Shattered Globe Theatre and Stage Left Theatre, and Wechsler says that this sharing will produce a special kind of community, allowing the theaters to bring together “their entire variety of audiences and artistic vision[s].” Rather than competing, the theaters will cooperate, cross-market and share responsibilities for building upkeep. “Under the current economic climate, I think the best way we can all prosper as arts organizations is to consolidate our efforts,” Wechsler says. Bailiwick Repertory Theater left the space after fifteen years when theater “repair and upkeep had become too taxing,” as it says on its Web site. Stage Left managing director Laura Blegen says that having multiple theaters use the same space helps to avoid this problem, that “resource sharing… is very helpful” nowadays. Wechsler notes the importance of working together: “None of us believe that theater is in competition with itself. The best inducement to see another play is to have just experienced a great evening in the theater.”

Blegen says that, for Stage Left, the decision to move was partly strategic. Noting the large seating capacity and convenient location of the theater, Blegen says, “It will bring us room to bring people in, and provide accessibility so people can get to us.” By moving in with other theater companies, Blegen says that Stage Left would be “creating almost a theater district on Belmont”—the Theatre Building is next door—and she said that this sort of environment “creates a kind of energy” that motivates the artistic process. (Ilana Kowarski)