A theater and a stage - an essential combination to perform a play. But don't tell that to the members of the Offstage Theater Company who have written, produced, directed and starred in many plays performed around Charlottesville. And they're at it again.
The company, which formed in 1989, just finished performing their latest endeavor, "Barhoppers."
Fliers floating around town described "Barhoppers" as, "short plays about bars, performed in bars" by local playwrights who gained the chance to present their work to the Charlottesville community.
The show aims to bring entertainment from the people of Charlottesville to the people of Charlottesville, and troupe members claim it offers a chance to watch local talent in an enjoyable and comfortable setting.
"Offstage's mission is to stage new work, so we meet our mission with 'Barhoppers' and nothing more," Offstage Artistic Director Joel Jones said.
The collection of five short plays and nine monologues made up an entire evening of theater entertainment contained in three different bars over the course of three weekends this past month. The bars - Orbit, Miller's and Rapture - served as the actors' set or the stage.
"It's neat in that we can experiment with different spaces but it's the same play," said Caroline Ridley, a resident assistant in the biology department and a member of the "Barhoppers" ensemble. "Different spaces allow you to do new things every time."
Such an emphasis on variety has kept the troupe going for the last 12 years. And although Orbit, Miller's and Rapture have hosted performances for the past few years, the locations may change in the future.
"It really depends, a lot of owners just don't want that kind of hassle," Jones said. "Other owners like it because it brings people into the restaurant."
Events like this do bring in the people. And if you perform, they will come.
Although the shows do attract audiences, Drama Prof. Doug Grissom said he worries the crowds at "Barhoppers" include few University students. Grissom teaches a playwriting class, and the exaggerated personal ads his students create became the monologues serving as fillers between the show's longer plays.
Although the company used student writings during performances, and students helped with the production, only a few actually performed in "Barhoppers."
"In this town there seems to be a real split between what happens around the Grounds and what happens in town," he said. "A lot of students don't even know what's going on downtown. This is a good type of venue that I think students would really enjoy."
One student actor, fourth-year College student Jamin Mendelsohn, said she enjoyed doing "Barhoppers," her first experience working with Offstage.
"I'm not a drama major or anything," Mendelsohn said. "It was just kind of a fun thing to be involved in. The cast is a really neat group of people from all ages, from students at U.Va. to older members of the community."
She performed an embellished personal ad written by a friend, second-year College student Danny Grinberg, a student in Grissom's play writing class.
"As a playwright, you write a play and you look at the piece of paper and you read it out loud in class, and you get something out of that" Grinberg said. "But seeing it live with real people on stage, with actors that have memorized it and directors that have worked with it, it really brought the material to life with a completely new amazing dimension."
And members of Offstage appreciate the contributions of University students.
"We're very open to students becoming involved with us at any capacity," Grissom said. "Anybody who wants to call and find out about upcoming auditions, or if they want to direct something, we're actually open to people doing their own projects."
But taking on such a project is no easy endeavor. According to Grissom, the directors have experienced everything from actors not showing up to perform to dealing with noisy theater spaces. To some, such difficulties add to the excitement of performing offstage.
"It's a little like a circus," Jones said. "I think part of the fun of watching the trapeze is that they might fall. Every year we choose plays, and some of them may not work and that, to me, is fine."
Ridley, an actor who deals with the unexpected on a nightly basis, agreed with such sentiments.
"This is my eighth show, and I still find there are new things every night," Ridley said. "This is the first thing I've done with [Offstage] and it's a good way to test the waters."
Gaining acting experience without the time commitment of joining the cast of a full-length play is best part of "Barhoppers," according to Jones.
"People have busy lives, and to set aside time to do a [full-length] play is kind of exhausting," Jones said.
Other troupe members agreed with Jones.
"It's been really cool because, since I'm doing a monologue, its just my own personal time that I get to put in," Mendelsohn said. "It's been pretty much on my own schedule except when I met with Doug [Grissom]. It's nice to be a part of a production like that and still be able to do it on my own time."
Audience members also expressed their approval - crowd response during breaks was overwhelmingly positive.
"I thought it was really great, it was the perfect mix of humor and drama," said Vivian Ching, a first-year College student who saw "Barhoppers" at Rapture. "Things kept moving so you never got bored."
Although Offstage members dedicate a substantial amount of time to productions, their ultimate aim is not to win rave reviews.
"We're not stamping all these plays and saying this is great art," Jones said. "We're saying this is what people in your community are writing right now."
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