While many theater companies face uncertain futures and potential closures, a daring group of Colorado theater-makers is taking a gamble by launching an entirely new company.
The Third Side Theatre Company was born out of the members' shared experience working on the play "The Old Man and the Old Moon" by PigPen Theatre Co. at Evergreen Players in 2022.
"Sometimes you just got to bet on yourself, bet on ourselves," said Brian Dowling, one of the nine founding members.
Leann Ritter, another founder, explained the group’s motivation: "We wanted to have the opportunity to create new original works and specifically start with those of us in the company who had ideas and had things already written to give those of us who had those things, an opportunity to produce them."
The company's unique name was inspired by a line from that formative production. Board president Michal McDowell recalled, "It was a line in the show that says, ‘On this side of the coin, we could do this, and that side of the coin, we could do that.’ And someone else said, ‘There's a third side.’ That's what we are — we’re that other side of the coin that's got this out of the box idea."
Their inaugural production, "Legacy of Baker Street," written and directed by Dowling, follows the adventures of the daughters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Dowling said it is “flattering” having his script be the first production for the company. “It was humbling. It was terrifying because now I've got these people that I admire, I respect and I trust and I love, and now they're going to be doing this thing I somehow wrote."
Dowling drew inspiration from the powerful reactions he witnessed by women in the audience of the movie “Wonder Woman.”
"I could see just tears in the eyes of almost all of them, or at least they were enraptured or they were tearing up. And that's what struck me … this is something very special," he said.
His goal was to offer that same feeling of empowerment through his two lead female characters. "If I could make women of all ages … feel empowered as they're leaving, just like when I was a little kid and I left Superman or Batman or the Ninja Turtles and I'm pretending to do kicks and punches and flying and stuff, even just in their head of going, ‘Oh, I want to be Charlotte. I want to be Felicity. Those are just kick-ass women.’"
For Ritter, who plays the lead role, the experience of creating a new theater company has been both challenging and rewarding.
"This was born out of friendship and love and discovery of something new, and then I think there's a little bit of a rough and tumble, rough and ready in there too."
The group's motto of "Theatre From Scratch" evokes a nostalgic, grassroots spirit, as McDowell described: "It feels like when I was a kid and we would do theater for the neighborhoods in the garage."
While risky, the Third Side Theatre Company hopes to inspire others just as they were inspired by PigPen Theatre Co.
"My hope is not only to entertain and to enrich our lives, but if we're able to inspire somebody else to take this ball and make something else, that's pretty awesome," Dowling said
Ritter added that community theater is evolving.
"There is a way, and it might be a different way to bring back that feeling of community and that feeling of creation in a way that is sustainable in the climate we are in now,” Ritter said. “And those theaters out there who are struggling, and I know there's a lot of them. I mean that there's hope in avenues that may be different than what has always been done."
Third Side Theater Company's "The Legacy of Baker Street" runs through May 19 at the Evergreen Players Black Box Theatre.
