MT Celebrates Twenty Years on Stage

There is an organization in Marshfield that has been entertaining audiences for the past (almost) 20 years. In 2003, Marshfield Community Theatre kicked off its first official season by performing The Wizard of Oz. The Marshfield Mail sat down with two members of the community theatre who have been involved since the first season to learn about the organizations twenty year history.

“It would go all the way back to 2002, is when MCT kind of first formed as a group. It was the Marshfield Performing Arts Society back then,” explained Kelby Lorenz, the current Vice President of Marshfield Community Theatre and Marketing Director. According the the MCT website the board voted to change the name to “better reflect the group’s theatrical focus” in 2012.

“There was an event, a fundraiser, called a Night with Gershwin-was the first, to my knowledge, event that was held. Then the next year was the first season,” added Toni Lorenz, Planning Director for MCT and coincidentally, Kelby’s mom. 

Over the last twenty seasons the Marshfield Community Theatre has come along way. From locations to the number of performances the underlying theme for MCT seems to be growth.

“I think growth is the word that we would use the most. I think back to when I was young doing those shows, not really paying attention to a lot of the business stuff, but just thinking about the shows we did and the people involved,” reflected Kelby. “We started off with the golden age classics that everyone loves like: Sound of Music, The Music Man, Hello Dolly-those kinds of things. Really just kind of got our roots in those classics…but one of the cool things over the last few years is that we at MCT are making our mark by still honoring the classics, still doing the family friendly stuff…but also getting into some things that are a little different.” 

“Growth in the shows that we do, growth in the volunteers that we have, growth in the number of shows that we are doing. Back then we did 2-3 shows a year,” shared Kelby. “We actually have seven shows planned for our next season.”

“While there was always structure, we are really working on that now,” added Toni. “To really solidify everything that we have been, into something that we can grow the next twenty years.” 

“In the early days we didn’t even have anywhere to rehearse, we didn’t have a building to house anything. We did all rehearsals in maybe a church hall-or anywhere that was big enough. People stored things in their houses,” reflected Toni. 

MCT often refers to themselves as the “traveling theatre” due to the fact that they are always performing in a new space. “Sometimes it’s the unexpected. Area churches have been great to us over the years-especially with our youth shows…” reflected Toni. “…obviously we’ve been in the auditorium every summer…the Jubilee theatre, the community center on the stage there. Before Unique Antiques existed, we did one show in that store front…Webco Custom Industries, where the Sports Shack is now…Tiff’s Market now Split Verse…The Ritz…Niangua and Strafford Auditorium…pretty much anywhere if there is a remotely open space we are like ‘can we rent it?’,” laughed Toni and Kelby while they reminisced the unique locations MCT has performed.

While MCT travels to perform, they do have a “home base” in Marshfield to store props, costumes, tech supplies and some set pieces. “The building next to the depot was the first (MCT home). Then we kind of outgrew that and we moved into where the Depot is now-the front and the back and we were actually able to do some small shows there,” Toni explained. “Then we moved to our current location here on McNabb road…and here we are, needing to grow again.”

“We are having conversations now about what’s our next space going to be,” laughed Kelby.“…I think to clarify, the building that we are in now is our rehearsal space. We have a room in the back where we do rehearsals, teach classes. We don’t have our own dedicated performance space,” added Kelby. The rehearsal and audition building is located at 430 McNabb Road in Marshfield, right beside Marshfield Electric.

“Over the years we have developed relationships with a lot of people in the community that have buildings that we like to use, that as we are planning things we are like ‘this would be a good show for this space’,” explained Kelby. 

To celebrate the organizations 20th season, the group has planned a jammed pack season for the next year featuring seven performances. “The seven shows are seven solid shows,” explained Toni. 

“We are tackling different types of shows too,” added Kelby. “We are trying to offer more non-musical options…we are looking to try and bring in some more dramatic pieces…different types of content, educating our audiences about the different types of theatre that are out there.” 

Another, possibly less noticeable to the public, change coming to MCT this year is the way the season runs. In the past an MCT season ran from June-May of the following year, however, “We recently made the decision and our twentieth season will run from January and end in December,” explained Kelby.

“…In those early days, funding sometimes was even more scarce than it is now. Those were the days where sometimes the board members or the people involved would take up a collection to pay our rent or pay for things just so we could put those (shows) on,” reflected Toni.

And while MCT is long past the days of passing the hat at board meetings, the organization is proud to say that these days they are “mostly” self funding. “(Changing the season schedule) was a fiscal decision,” explained Toni “…We need the support of the community: underwriters, sponsors, advertising and most businesses run a January to December fiscal year,”

“We wanted to align with that,” added Kelby.

In terms of when the organization decides a season, it actually happens a lot earlier than one might expect. “Obviously we have 2023 decided, and it has been for a couple of months. We immediately began looking at 2024 and 2025. We are already starting to read perusals…talking pros and cons…” shared Toni.

“What goes into choosing a season is a lot of hours, a lot of coffee,” laughed Toni. “(And) a little research,” added Kelby laughing too. 

“It’s more than just saying “this is a fun show”. We really do try to be aware of a lot of things-what are our resources? Do we have a facility that that show would fit in…could we borrow or rent a place, do we have people to staff it on the production side, do we think people will audition/will we have the cast, can we afford it-because the rights get pretty expensive,” explained Toni of the planning process for MCT. “Plus the expense of the show itself: what’s it going to require technically, costumes, etc. We look at the community we live in-will people want to come watch the show? Is it something that will be accepted?”

“While theatre has always been about maybe expanding the boundaries and acceptance of everyone…to be fiscally responsible, we have to look at “will people buy the tickets and come?”,” shared Toni. “We have to look at content too. So, it could be a year long discussion.” 

“Ticket sales are the biggest part of how we stay open, that’s a plug to come see our shows,” laughed Kelby. “But at any point people can donate. We have a link on our website marshfieldtheatre.org…go online, fill out our donation form…we would be so appreciative of that…financially we are dependent on our community and we are thankful for them.”

“In a time where the cost of everything is going up, we’ve certainly talked about increasing ticket prices, and then backed away from it….we want people to be able to come and just have that fun night out, that escape from life for a while,” reflected Toni.

So what is the show line up for 2023 you may be wondering?  

Almost Maine: February 16-18

The Great Gatsby: April 13-16

The Little Mermaid Jr.: June 8-11

Hello Dolly!: June 22-25

Peter Pan Jr.: September 28-30 & October 5-7 (education institute)

Night of the Living Dead: October 27-29, 31

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: December 14-17

“We are excited about Hello Dolly! because it’s the first time in MCT’s history where we’ve repeated a show…” shared Toni and Kelby. “We ended up on Hello Dolly!. We have a lot of strong female talent…it’s a golden age classic.” 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is also a repeat. “It was one of our first holiday shows we did way back when,” Kelby explained. 

“When we realized it was our twentieth season, it was like an ‘oh my gosh, I can’t believe we are here’. A big thank you to our community. They have supported us, encouraged us, donated, come and seen shows for twenty seasons…We couldn’t have done it without our community,” reflected Kelby. “It’s great to stop and acknowledge at twenty seasons we can look back at where we came from, we can look forward to what’s coming up…our mission is to be able to provide a creative outlet for people in our community…for us to be able to say that we’ve done that for twenty seasons is pretty incredible.”