Recently, the Baton Rouge theater community welcomed a new arrival. In a time where theater is becoming more expensive and inaccessible for many, the Shoestring Theatre Company is taking a new path.
In May, the company launched on Instagram with its motto, “Anywhere. Everyone. All In,” and announced a focus on people, community and storytelling, not a singular theatrical space.
Founding member Matt Miyagi said that since the closing of Theatre Baton Rouge, he’s noticed an emerging gap of what stories were being told. He noted shows TBR produced like “Rent,” “The Laramie Project” and “The Cake” – lesser known shows that are important but are riskier investments.
The Shoestring Theatre Company’s first event was a June 6 staged reading of “The Temperamentals,” a play written by Jon Marans in 2009 about the founding of the first gay rights organization, the Mattachine Society. The performance was in celebration of Pride Month and set the stage for the Company’s future.
From the examples Miyagi gave and what the company has already done, there’s a theme of highlighting the queer experience, but he says they’re not boxing themselves into that category. They want to produce anything that would normally be seen as not viable.
“Like a two-person cast show,” Miyagi said. “It’s going to be harder for a theater to want to do that if they’re relying on ticket sales alone.”
Miyagi said the goal for the Shoestring Theatre Company is to “give people the space to feel like they’re represented, wanted and able to express themselves freely.” The focus isn’t commercial viability but the passion of the people creating.
“We don’t have a whole lot of money to work with, but we’re doing it in a way where they can still get something out of it,” Miyagi said.
The Shoestring Theatre Company isn’t the first Louisiana-based company to not have a set location. Both The Red Magnolia Theatre Company in Baton Rouge and the Louisiana Shakespeare Company in New Orleans function and produce plays outside of a single building.
Miyagi said this adaptation of the theater community in Baton Rouge is a reaction to the growing expense of theater.
“It’s really hard right now with how expensive theater is, how expensive it is to maintain a space, to really have a theater that you own,” Miyagi said. “Putting in the expenses for putting on a full-fledged production, I mean, it’s a lot of pressure.”
Miyagi complimented Red Magnolia on its ability to produce at least one full show a year, and he said that’s what his team is focused on: one full show accompanied by staged readings throughout the year.
So why does the theater community continue in the face of changing circumstances and financial hardship?
“I think the reason we push is for the people who are into the arts, and the people who grew up in them,” Miyagi said. “I mean, you’re passionate about it. You live it, you breathe it.”
For anyone not well-acquainted with theater or hesitant to see a Shoestring Theatre performance, Miyagi has a word.
“Just come see a show,” Miyagi said. “There’s a lot of beauty to art… Especially with what’s going on in the world, right now, I think the arts are incredibly important… The arts were always a way to escape that or touch on it, to talk about things in a way that may not feel so in your face or so personal to you, but getting people to open their eyes to things they may have not realized beforehand.”
The group may not have the funds, but it has the passion and heart to create something truly worthwhile. To learn more, The Shoestring Theatre Company has a website and Instagram for anyone who wishes to donate or get involved.
