Setting the Stage at the Playshop

When the curtain lifted on Zelie Pforzheimer's Wilton Playshop Presidency in 2007, she had her work cut out for her. Yet in two years time, Pforzheimer has taken a floundering classic and breathed life back into its sets and performances.

The Playshop first opened in 1937, charging 50 cents a seat for shows like “The Tavern,” held in the Wilton’s Town Hall auditorium. As it grew, and after two years of renovating a donated 100-year-old sheep barn and the old parish house of the Congregational Church, the Playshop moved into and still maintains its own unique space near Wilton Center on Lover’s Lane. 

“When I first came to Wilton (19 years ago), it was a really beautiful theater,” said Pforzheimer, a graduate from University of Utah with a degree in theater.

However, when key individuals left the Playshop’s committee, the facility and its operations suffered. Pforzheimer recalled seeing the theater “spiral down” and wanted to change direction and bring back what had been a beloved part of the community. 

Her first step was to create an accountable Board of Directors and at a local benefit dinner a few years ago, she went to multiple friends to create a committee that had a theater background and was as passionate as she was about performance art. Second, as president, Pforzheimer knew running the theater day-to-day would be taxing but, fortunately as her three children grew older, it left her with plenty of time to devote to the Playshop’s renewal. 

Pforzheimer dedicated the entire 2007-2008 season to renovations in the interest of fund-raising and resurrecting the location's grandeur. With one of the backstage walls rotted away, the facility desperately needed a face-lift. The Board put together a letter-writing campaign to friends and potential benefactors and that, coupled with a lot of hard work, has since outfitted The Playshop with a renovated technical control booth, a greenroom, and dressing areas for the cast.

Since the Playshop is a community theater, it relies almost entirely on volunteers. According to Pforzheimer, the problem is not in finding actors who are “always looking for parts,” but in finding reliable crew members, a task she described as “excruciating.” The entire Board remains ever-willing to work with interested people to teach them the necessary skills, but they have a hard time retaining workers. 

The main problem the theatre encountered in 2008, however, lay in securing enough financial resources to keep putting on shows. In the years before Pforzheimer became president, the Playshop easily sold around 150 subscriptions annually. But due largely to the economy and people curtailing their spending, there were only 10 subscriptions last season.

For the current 2009-2010 seasons, subscriptions run anywhere from $65 to $500, depending on the package, and they and ticket sales account for approximately 35 percent of the Playshop’s revenue (some also comes from selling advertising space in programs). So with subscriptions not selling the way they used to, revenue is now based significantly on day-to-day ticket sales for the 125 available seats, which has caused some financial concern for the Board.

“People are so surprised,” Pforzheimer said, when visitors come to the Playshop to see a show and enjoy it as much as they do. Unfortunately, this does not always lead patrons to purchase longer commitments.

Currently, the Playshop is in rehearsals for the “Greenbrier Ghost” performances taking place on Oct. 23 and 24. Directed by Scott Brill, these weekend shows are the “first time both acts have been done in concert version,” said Pforzheimer. She described it as an “up and coming musical show," with the original winning awards and having garnered lots of interest. Benefit performances similar to this one are put on bi-annually by the Playshop and typically include the option for a three-tiered ticket for a reception, show, and dinner. 

“We’re still not up to capacity,” Pforzheimer said, since the Playshop used to put on up to 5 shows each season and now can handle only 3 major productions and a couple of benefit performances.

Yet, with all the hard work Pforzheimer and the Board of Directors have put into the theater and it’s revitalization, the lighting is starting to brighten on the Playshop's stage once again.