Star Bar Players get a second life
The curtain will rise again on Colorado Springs’ premier community theater troupe, the Star Bar Players, thanks to a group of actors and former Star Bar staff members who refused to let it die.
“Star Bar is a huge, integral part of the cultural landscape here,” said Beth Clements Mosley, actress and Star Bar media coordinator. Lying dormant for a year was too just long, she said.
She and her husband, Dylan Mosley, the new Star Bar president, took over the organization from former artistic director Mark Hennessy, who had mothballed the group in September, 2008. Hennessy cited sparse ticket sales and donations as well as problems with the troupe’s venue, the Lon Chaney Theatre, inside the City Auditorium, which could no longer lock in performance dates.
Hennessy said he was working on creating a sustainable business model for Star Bar.
For actors and others involved in Star Bar, the dormancy was painful.
“We just didn’t know what he was doing with Star Bar,” Clements Mosley said. “He had a clear vision. But for the rest of us, it felt like watching a kid dive into the water and seeing him stay down for too long.”
So the Mosleys rounded up other former Star Bar people, used the old logo and created Star Bar as an entity on Facebook, where it gathered friends and fans.
Hennessy had been paying for storage of Star Bar costumes and equipment and had lost thousands of dollars of his own money on shows.
“I needed to take time to try to figure out what direction needed to move in, how to overhaul of structure,” he said. “I was forced to abandon those plans.”
Instead, he handed all the Star Bar possessions to the new group. He wouldn’t comment on how messy the transition was or could have been, but said he had no plans to continue his involvement in the group.
Beth Clements Mosley said, “We have no animosity at all. He gave us the keys.”
The troupe will go on as it began 35 years ago, as a gypsy theater. Its first show of the season will be Connor McPherson’s ghost-story drama “The Weir” through October at Five Star Decor, a home furnishings shop at 310 Tia Juana St., across from East Platte Avenue near Fargo’s Pizza. The group is looking for other venues.
DETAILS
“The Weir” by Star Bar Players
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 8 and Oct. 22, 8 p.m. Oct. 9, 10, 16, 17, 23 and 24 and 2 p.m. Oct. 18
Where: Five Star Decor, 310 Tia Juana St.
Tickets: $10 at starbarplayers.org or at the door
Something else: A membership drive party is planned for 3 p.m. Oct. 4.; to find location and to RSVP, e-mail to starbar@starbarplayers.org.
