Virginia Stage Co. is busy this summer — preparing for its season, hosting a summer camp for kids and a community day at the historic Wells Theatre on August 23. WHRO’s Barry Graham caught up with Managing Director Jeff Ryder to discuss the Norfolk-based company and its enduring role in Hampton Roads.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Barry Graham: I worked in downtown Norfolk in the late ‘70s; I remember what it was like down here. Norfolk was a ghost town in the evening. How much of a chance was it?
Jeff Ryder: Well, I mean, first I would say it was a chance, but a huge opportunity to revitalize the treasure that Norfolk has in the Wells Theatre. The building is from 1913. It's a real asset to our community to have this beautiful historic building, but we felt that we were going to be an important part of the revitalization of downtown, having a cultural venue that attracts people is an important part of the fabric of what makes a city like Norfolk great.
Norfolk is an arts city, and we're a big part of that. So we want to be the community's living room where people come together, gather together to have a good time, but also, maybe, have a difficult conversation or address important topics and that's what we're doing here, 47 years later.
BG: So you would say that the Virginia Stage Co. was really one of the first sparks that lit the fuse for the renaissance of downtown?
JR: We were certainly part of it. I mean, around that same time, the opera had started just two years before us. There was certainly a revitalization effort here that I think was led by community members and volunteers, but the Virginia Stage Co. became a big part of it.
BG: What is the role of a theater company in the community, especially a community like Norfolk, like Hampton Roads? How much does a theater company play into the livelihood of the city?
JR: Theater companies and the arts in general are a critical component of quality of life in a city like Norfolk; we both provide entertainment but also enrich the lives of people by addressing important topics, bringing new ideas into the discourse in the community. So we want to balance being fun but also giving people something to think about, which is critical when people are considering where they want to live, where they want to make their lives and how much they enjoy that life once they're there.
BG: I've seen productions here, you tackle some of society's ills, racism, homophobia. Is that really a part of a company's mission to bring these issues to light, to educate?
JR: Absolutely. I think it is part of the work that we do, to address important ideas and to reflect what the important conversations that a community needs to have. Even in just the last couple of years, we've addressed prejudice in various forms — racism, homophobia, sometimes all at once — and we do lighthearted and fun things too, but addressing the important topics of the day is critical to our work.
BG: Do you take that into consideration when you're planning the season?
JR: Absolutely, we do. And it's a balancing act, we try to do things that draw people in and that get people excited to come to the theater and also things that address important topics. Oftentimes, those are the same thing. In the last couple of years, I think we've had fun and addressed the critical issues in plays like “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” That's our sweet spot when we can do both at once.
BG: Do you hear back from the community when those productions are going on? Do people say, “Wow, I actually really started thinking as I left the theater tonight.”
JR: We do get that feedback. Once in a while, we get feedback from somebody that we pushed them a little too hard or they weren't ready for the conversation that we were starting. But more often, I think people really enjoy bringing those ideas to the forefront.
BG: Before we started this interview, we were talking a little bit about the shutdown during the pandemic. Some arts organizations are saying they have yet to completely recover from that. Can you tell me a little bit about the Virginia Stage?
JR: When COVID began, things shut down overnight. When we lifted the restrictions, it has taken time to rebuild what we had in 2019 and prior. Even today, we don't quite have the same attendance that we had prior to COVID. We've made big strides in rebuilding, but we're not quite there.
Subscriptions is one of the areas that took the biggest hit; in some cases, subscribers did not return or they chose instead to purchase single tickets rather than committing to the full season. People's behaviors and interests have changed pretty dramatically during COVID. They got accustomed to staying home or found other activities that they enjoy, got more accustomed to streaming rather than going out for live arts experiences. So we're adapting to a new world and a new marketplace, but we have made great progress in the last three years and our attendance numbers are getting close now to what they were before COVID.
BG: How frightening of a time was that?
JR: We didn't have any full productions from spring of 2020 until the fall of 2021. Then there was another, almost a year, where we were limited capacity, asking audiences to mask, not quite our regular operation. It's about 2 ½ years that we were really disrupted. We lost a lot of staff during that time, when we didn't have work for carpenters, stage managers and actors, they had to find other work. Many of them did not return.
BG: While we were doing this today, you actually have a summer camp going on. How important is it to introduce young kids to the concept of the theater?
JR: First, it's incredibly important to expose kids to theater. Theater has been one of the most cut areas in public schools. We're not the only organization doing this but we're filling an important need by offering theater opportunities. Theater is a place where kids get to learn about themselves and the worlds that they navigate. It's not necessarily about learning to be a professional actor but it's learning about your own emotions and how you express them, or how you understand the world around you and what other people are communicating to you. You learn about self-confidence and how to express yourself, and there are just skills for life and for navigating the world that are often best learned through theater exercises.
We do offer education programming throughout the year. It also does help to prepare the next generation of audience for us. People who appreciate theater become ticket buyers or even professionals in the field. So, it's important, for many reasons, to let the kids come to the building and have a good time with us.
For plays that are appropriate for young audiences, we do offer student matinee performances. We have great kid audiences that sometimes respond very differently than the adult audiences to the shows. Our biggest student matinee production is “Christmas Carol,” which brings nearly 5,000 students into the building. It's wonderful. Many of them are at a professional theater for the very first time, which is a great, great thing for us and for them.
Occasionally, we do a play that's more geared towards adults and we'll skip the student matinee. But we offer a study guide that connects the themes in the play to the learning standards that they're learning in their English class, or sometimes history or other classes.
We also offer other educational experiences, where we might send some artists who are working in a play to their school and do a workshop in the classroom; or after they've attended a play, we might go and follow up with them and sort of unpack what they saw with them.
BG: It just dawned on me that how much this theater company is so much more than a performing arts organization.
JR: It is absolutely our goal to be ingrained in the community and to be a good neighbor here in Norfolk. So that starts with the play that we put on the stage, but we are out in the community trying to make Norfolk a better place all the time. So I think the arts are an important area where we get to explore difficult topics, to come together and build connections with our neighbors.
Virginia Stage Co. is a financial supporter of WHRO and does not participate in the editorial decisions.
