happy 25ᵗʰ anniversary, Hideout Theatre!
A quick post about the Hideout Theatre for its 25ᵗʰ (!) anniversary.
One performance memory: for the 2015 Improvised Play Festival, Chico and Curtis put on Waiting for Batman, a duo show that had originated in the mainstage Holy 1960s Batman, Batman! The two actors had a great time playing Officer O’Hara and Commissioner Gordon, especially in the odd little conversations that followed putting out the call for Batman to fight the latest villain.
So that spun off into its own show, 20 minutes of those two characters going on a rollercoaster ride of a conversation, Curtis going on intellectual flights of fancy, Chico typically playing a spectrum between confused and terrified. This show went along those lines, with Commissioner Gordon talking about his consciousness-expanding experiences with illicit drugs and the need to take down a corrupt system of law enforcement.
About ⅔ of the way through the show, Commissioner Gordon demands that the house lights come up, and then he… shows Officer O’Hara the audience they’re performing for. We are all howling with laughter at how off the rails this show is, and you can just see the officer’s sense of reality *snap* in that moment and the abyss open out under him until he goes into denial and gets back on solid ground.
That was great fun, but it also embodied so many of the things I love about the Hideout Theatre. There’s the willingness to dive into both high culture and pop art, and the room to let odd little fringe ideas grow and develop, the tech (costumes, lighting, sound) and professionalism that’s invested in even the most seemingly-tossed-off show.
Ultimately the Hideout is a place that has no fear of being called out for caring too much. They commit hard to the art form, and in so doing, they find moments that you just can’t create any other way, no other way besides the performers and the audience discovering them there, in the theatre, together.
I suppose my fondest memory might be one of the giant Same Year’s Eve celebrations, with the audience of 90 or so people dwarfed by the 120-odd improvisors putting on the actual show, and heartfelt toasts, and the joyful silliness of counting down to the Same Year and singing a gibberish version of Auld Lang Syne.
What a blessing to have such a community. What great things you can make when so many brilliant and talented people dive into doing something together. I’m only now seeing how much work goes into building and maintaining such a thing. But it’s good work, and worth doing.
After all, look at what it can do.
