A group of teens spread out and sat at tables with diners at Restaurant Laura, where they engaged the guests in conversation and then burst out into a 60-minute performance of “Fame Jr.” during the pop-up dinner theatre that kicked off the children’s program at Fiddlehead Theatre about two weeks ago.
The partnership that Restaurant Laura and Fiddlehead created to make the pop-up theatre dinner possible is an example of the type of community building Fiddlehead Founder and Executive Director Meg Fofonoff hopes to accomplish for the theatre company as Strand Theatre’s new resident.
“We’re not just there to produce theater. We’re there to embrace the community and find out what they’re looking for, make theater accessible and at the same time produce, in our long-term tradition, Broadway-quality shows,” Fofonoff said about Fiddlehead’s residency.
Fiddlehead, which started in Dedham and later moved to Norwood, became the resident theatre company at the Strand after the 20-year-old company performed “Ragtime” at the Strand last October.
At the time, Fiddlehead had already left its home in Norwood. Fofonoff began looking for a new home and decided to focus on the city.
“I think although we were in the suburbs, I was always interested in looking further afield. It was limited in terms of what those audiences wanted and what we could do,” Fofonoff said. “I was always interested in a more urban kind of setting and bringing something different to a community that really needed it.”
Fofonoff said she chose to perform “Ragtime” at the historic Dorchester theatre because it’s topics — discrimination, women’s rights and immigration — remain important to the world today and are reflective of some of the issues in the community.
During Fiddlehead’s time at the Strand, it became evident that it was the theatre Fofonoff had searched for.
“It really started a whole new chapter where I said it was really the place for us to be,” Fofonoff said. “It was our destiny, as someone said to me, to be there and revitalize that beautiful theatre.”
After the performance and some discussion, Mayor Thomas Menino and City of Boston Director of Entertainment, Tourism and Special Events Chris Cook decided Fiddlehead would be a good fit for the Strand.
“I’m delighted Fiddlehead Theatre Company’s 2013–14 season will be as resident company of the Strand Theatre,” said Menino in a statement on fiddleheadtheatre.org. “The city invests in the Strand because we recognize that it is an irreplaceable part of Dorchester’s community and culture. After the success of Fiddlehead’s 2012 production of ‘Ragtime’ at the Strand last year we knew this would be a valuable partnership for the Strand and for the City of Boston.”
As Dorchester’s new theatre company, Fiddlehead has two goals — to build interest in theatre in the immediate community and attract theatregoers from outside of the community.
Fofonoff hopes to do this by producing shows like the upcoming performances of “A Little Princess” and “Aida” that have some relevance to the community, but are high-quality shows.
“A Little Princess” will open Fiddlehead’s season with a Boston-area premier from Nov. 21 to Dec. 8.
The musical, based on a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is about a young girl separated from her father and sent to boarding school in London where challenges unfold. Unlike the book which has the main character originating from India, in the musical she is from coastal Africa.
“It’s the same story which is all about inner strength, all about really believing in yourself against all odds and all about adversity,” Fofonoff said. “Even if you feel very alone and there’s no one by your side that is going to help you stand strong and weather it through there is someone out there that believes in you.”
Due to the reinstallation of a new sound system, there will not be any winter shows, but Fiddlehead will pick back up its season in 2014 with “Aida” from April 24 to May 11.
“That show has a very important message about our world today, about senseless warring between countries, about discrimination, and two people who are going to love each other against all odds,” Fofonoff said.
The prices to see shows are significantly lower ($25 to $45) than they’d be to see a performance in the downtown area, according to Fofonoff, who wants to make it known that the lower price does not reflect the quality of the show.
“We’re trying at the very first step to be very mindful of the fact that we’re not just riding in there to do shows, we are there to bring the community into the theater and I think that’s a really important piece,” Fofonoff said.
A reflection of the quality of Fiddlehead’s productions is the backing it received from the local Playbill Magazine.
“When Meg [Fofonoff] said, ‘I really want the identity of a Playbill. I want to bring Playbill to the Strand,’ in order to make that happen, I need to talk to our counterparts in New York and get the official green light,” said Rita Fucillo, vice president of New Venture Media Group, the local publisher for Playbill. “When I explained the quality of her work, which is stellar and Broadway quality, and you couple that with the mayor’s involvement and the dedication to reviving the venue, reaching out to the community and opening the opportunity of theatre to people who may have never set foot in a theatre before, Playbill was proud to be its publication in the Strand.”
The other important piece for Fofonoff in engaging the community is the education program for children ages 8 to 17, which will take place in four separate sessions throughout the year: fall, winter, spring and summer. The summer session will be broken down into smaller sessions, Fofonoff said.
Activities will range from playing a booked show to improv classes.
Fofonoff is working on gaining grants that would allow children from the immediate community to attend the Fiddlehead Children’s Theatre Division for free while bringing in youth from the outside to continue the diversity that Fofonoff hopes will reflect the Strand’s following.
“We want to just make the Strand, a busy, live, constantly open kind of place,” Fofonoff said.
