The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on theater companies locally and across the nation. But the resilient management of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts made use of the pause in performances to rethink and invent.
The latest result is a new, in-house producing theater company, 100A Productions, set to open its first full-scale production on Aug. 31 with a cast and crew of San Antonians.
Rick Frederick was already the Tobin Center’s director of resident companies and community engagement, working with President and CEO Mike Fresher to program content that would fit pandemic restrictions, including a series of outdoor theater events in the Tobin environs.
“Mike’s wheels started turning,” Frederick said, with the suggestion that “maybe we should be looking into the viability of creating content” on a regular basis.
Starting small
First came Borderland Rogues: The Story of Los San Patricios Battalion, a musical production written by Mike Ryan and directed by Nicolás Valdez. Produced in September 2022 in the Tobin’s 190-seat Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater, Valdez said the musical served as proof of concept for the potential of locally-focused in-house productions.
“It was wildly successful. And I think it really inspired the Tobin to pursue more of a producing role,” Valdez said. “I’d have to give Rick Frederick a lot of credit for intuitively trusting the local arts community to produce quality work.”
Frederick retains his former title, but now added to it is producing artistic director of 100A Productions. With decades of theater work in Detroit and Chicago before coming to San Antonio to help run former Tobin resident company Attic Rep, Frederick brings a wealth of experience to the new theater company.
While Fresher tends to the bigger picture, Frederick said his focus is to start small, with sustainability in mind given the harsh pandemic-related financial climate facing theater companies and his natural focus on community engagement.
“We have to introduce ourselves to the community. And we have to find our place there,” he said. “We can’t make assumptions. We have to listen to what the community wants.”
The inaugural season began July 31 with a staged reading of A Dog’s House, the first of a series of four Industry Night Readings, informal productions that Frederick said are designed to make theater more accessible to anyone with at least a vague interest in seeing live theater.
The staged readings are immersive, Frederick said, because audience members witness the creative process as it unfolds: actors take the stage holding their scripts and the director gives stage directions aloud as the play is performed.
Tickets for the readings are $15, whereas the price for full productions will be $35.
The first full production of the inaugural season is The 39 Steps, a 1935 Alfred Hitchcock classic spy thriller adapted for the stage. The adaptation is set in wartime Europe, with a theater company touring Europe to boost morale, Frederick said, comparing the scenario to putting on productions during the uncertainties of the pandemic.
The stage props are mismatched and set on wheels to emphasize just how resourceful a theater company must be during times of stress and strain. Four cast members take on 150 roles in the frenetic play. Gloria Sanchez-Molina is cast as one of two clown characters.
“The show is very dynamic,” Sanchez-Molina said. “With all the different transitions and costume changes, character changes, we have to be fully committed for this story to work.”
‘A South Texas twist’
The second full production, Crimes of the Heart, is another theater classic. But Frederick said 100A Productions will approach it with the company’s founding mission and vision in mind.
“They’re well-established plays that can be served well with a new interpretation or a fresh take,” he said. “In that is diversity and innovation, which is pretty much the nutshell of the mission.”
Frederick recruited Alison Vasquez to serve as director for the March 2024 production and to give the play set in Massachusetts “a South Texas twist.”
Vasquez said the play revolves around a family drama, which resonates with her as a Latina. “I grew up in telenovela culture,” she said of Spanish-language television soap operas that the melodrama of Crimes of the Heart resembles.
“This is a story that can resonate across the lines, and I would really love to see that come into play,” she said. “What if we [use] a cast of color, what happens then?”
Telling stories that resonate with San Antonio audiences is important to the vision for 100A Productions, Frederick said, acknowledging recent concerns aired by the local theater community following the departure of Claudia de Vasco from The Public Theater of San Antonio earlier this year.
Frederick said he went to see De Vasco’s last production, Merrily We Roll Along, which featured people of color in prominent roles.
“When the cast walks on stage, you’re like, ‘Yeah, this is what it should be,” Frederick said. “It’s diverse and solid and supported.”
Several shows of the Aug. 31-Sept. 3 run of The 39 Steps have sold out, but three shows have been added Sept. 8-9. Tickets are available through the Tobin Center website.
