A 2nd Stage of Development

Springfield’s most quizzical new entertainers are back with a vengeance

Jared Lee keeps the first legal dollar Springfield’s 2nd Stage Performance Theatre ever made framed on the wall behind the theatre’s makeshift box office. It’s a reminder of the struggles the theatre had in getting open, and a source of initiation for those who may not know the story of how 2nd Stage debuted, then was shut down for two months by inspectors when a temporary occupancy permit ran out on November 1, 2007.

Plus, it sort of makes him feel like a bad ass.

“The whole ordeal did kind of add to our reputation,” says Lee, the owner and manager of Springfield’s buzzed-about new performance venue. “We didn’t want to be the ‘bad boy’ theatre, but we did get away with doing illegal shows. It’s fun to look back and make fun of ourselves.”

Technically, the shows weren’t illegal; they were under a so-called “in-process” occupancy permit, which a business receives while waiting for a permanent one from the city. The temporary permit expired one day before Dog Meets God—a Peanuts-gang-on-meth sendup—was scheduled to open. That day, a sign was posted, and Lee says he and other performers were threatened with jail time if anyone so much as set foot in the space at 440 S. Campbell Ave. before a permit was approved.

Eventually—weeks later—it was approved and 2nd Stage reopened January 12. Lee says the delay was a possible blessing in disguise despite “sucking horribly.” The layoff allowed the group to make the theatre into more of a true venue.

The 2nd Stage’s digs are minimalist, with concrete floors, unfinished walls and various moveable stage platforms. It has the feel of the Skinny Improv’s original downtown location below Riad, and Lee—who worked for Jeff Jenkins’s UpsideDown Creative Group for several years—is pleased by the look. The no-frills, easy-cleanup space will allow them to hold almost any event they want; on a recent afternoon the risers were basically flat to accommodate a dance troupe.

The next major happening at 2nd Stage is Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, a crowd-participatory style of theatre that consists of 30 two-minute plays, performed at random at the crowd’s whim. 2nd Stage performed another version of TMLMTBGB last October, before the hiatus.

Another March event, Blackout Sketch Comedy, is scheduled for March 17-18, and Lee hopes it will be, in essence, Springfield’s first interactive drinking game (think Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, where instead of screaming when a word is said, you sip a beer). Blackout is a hybrid of Skinny–style improv and SNL, where players take random concepts like “clowns with syphilis” and turn it into an hour or so of scripted comedy at the next month’s show.

Other items on Lee’s agenda include local film viewings (Bryan Moses’s In No Sense opens April 24) The Last 5 Years April 3-12 (which Springfield Little Theatre recently announced as part of its tentative 2008-09 lineup) and October’s Evil Dead: The Musical, which Lee hopes will set the bar for how 2nd Stage plans to shock Springfield’s relatively docile theatre fanbase.

“The community is really ready for this,” Lee says. “We’re not another Vandivort, or another Landers … The theatre scene is so cliquey. We want to bridge the gap but still contribute something new."

UGO

Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, Round 2

March 6-8, 13-15, 7:30 p.m.
$10, $8 students
440 S. Campbell Ave.
the2ndstage.com