‘Chilling' play marks theater troupe's revival
There won’t be a sign outside the Lon Chaney Theater advertising the Star Bar Players’ next performance.
But, Lon Chaney or no, for the first time in a long time, there will be a show by the Star Bar Players, the recently revived theater troupe that went dark for a year after cash-flow and venue problems.
The season opener is “The Weir,” a small-cast, Irish play rife with ghost stories running Thursday through Oct. 24 at Five Star Decor.
“Being able to bring something like this back to the surface, I’m really excited about that,” says “The Weir” director Tammy Smith.
“Everyone involved in it is really excited. We’ve had some difficulties. Finding a rehearsal place was rough, and some of the first rehearsals took place in my living room.”
But Alysabeth Clements Mosley, who sits on the Star Bar board of directors and will play the character Valerie, prefers to reframe their lack of permanent theater space as a gypsylike adventure.
“Star Bar started out in weird venues,” before they landed the Lon Chaney, she says.
“They did things in lofts above stores, they were in a church for a while, so I think part of the theatrical experience is the conversion of whatever space you’re in.”
Their space at Five Star Decor, a special-events-planning and -decorating company with a large warehouse, is a black box theater with room enough for the one set of “The Weir,” also the name of the bar where the play’s characters spend much of their free time.
Rather than dwell on size or shape, most of the players embrace the bright side of the unconventional venue.
“It’s going to be a really lovely, intimate show,” Clements Mosley says.
“We wanted to create the feel like the audience is sitting in the bar listening to all the other people talk, that they’re part of the conversation.”
In fact, says her husband and president of Star Bar’s board, Dylan Mosley, the audience is invited to arrive an hour before the show, belly up to the bar and share a pint with the play’s bartender.
Tickets are $10.
Mosley has performed “The Weir” in the past and believed it was ideal for the fall season and as a comeback show.
“It’s a very chilling, conversation-based Irish piece … a bunch of guys sitting around a bar telling ghost stories,” he says. “It covers connection and lack of connection amongst a group of people, past regrets, fear of what the continuation of the past might bring to the future, as well as some old-fashioned spooky stories.”
Other than the spooky-stories part, which is sure to be popular during Halloween season, those themes could describe the recent history of the Star Bar Players and their struggle as a community theater group.
“Any town of any artistic inclination deserves a community-based theater,” says Mosley, who is impressed with the support Star Bar has received thus far in its resurrection.
“We’re making good progress. It’s a long way to go, but I would like to challenge the community with the responsibility of making sure this theater doesn’t go by the wayside.”
THE WEIR
When: Opens Thursday; runs 7 p.m. Thursday and Oct. 22, 8 p.m. Oct. 9-10, 16-17 and 23-24; and 2 p.m. Oct. 18
Where: Five Star Decor, 310 Tia Juana St., Suite B
Tickets: $10, reserve online at starbarplayers.org or purchase at the door.
Something else: Star Bar’s “First Annual Membership Drive and Season Starter” party is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at a private residence. E-mail info@starbarplayers.org for location and to RSVP.
