I am embarrassed to say that until this month, I was a newbie at The Heights Players. Oh, you too? Our delightful community theater spot on Willow Place, between Joralemon and State Streets. Just a left turn from the cobblestone path down to Brooklyn Bridge Park? No? Never heard of it? Heard of it, but just haven’t gone? Join the club, people.
Well, don’t despair…. Whatever your excuse is, you can’t be more embarrassed than I am. My son went to preschool in that Willowtown space, lined with theater posters! Sure, my only childhood role was in the 4th grade chorus of Antigone in Anchorage, Kentucky, but I was community theater-adjacent! I spent nearly two decades watching my dad build and run a community theater company from our local school auditorium. There were tiny set models crafted in our basement and I ran the lights (OK, helped run the lights) at Mame! I still have my mother’s 1970’s crab dip recipe from the cast parties! I bike windswept dunes to the shows at Ft. Tilden’s Rockaway Theater Company each summer near where we go to the beach–Hello, Cabaret and Hello Dolly!
I mean, I love theater. I AM A THEATER PERSON. I saw Hamilton at the Public plus bonus points for the Lin-Manuel Miranda reprise in Puerto Rico!
I’m seeing Hell’s Kitchen there this week and saw Danny DeVito in I Need That on Sunday!
For God’s sake, I wrote about Shakespeare for The New York Times and about taking my brother to Into the Woods for the New York Post.
I am a theater person!
But after over 25 years in Brooklyn Heights, I’d never been to the Heights Players until November 2023!
Oops. “Sorry, sorry, sorry” as Amy Poehler says.
Well never you mind, because earlier this month, my husband James took me to see The MotherF**ker With the Hat.
It took 5 minutes to walk to 26 Willow Place from our apartment. We drank Costco beer and soda and ate Junior Mints in the “lobby” with other community folk. And then we walked through a hallway lined with 68 years of posters from all the amazing shows we have missed and I was dazzled!
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ shockingly funny and poignant play about addiction and community and humanity was performed by spectacular actors just blocks from our home. Hello New York City! How could we have missed this? I particularly delighted in Camila Melgar, our Veronica, and Christian Miranda, our Jackie. The rest of the cast was superb. At intermission, we chatted with our seatmates, went back upstairs for more snacks, and learned all about the cast from our fellow patrons who shared their own journeys, many of whom had traveled to Brooklyn Heights for the performance from various other boroughs. You don’t need to go to Broadway to get Broadway quality performances, neighbors. Just hoof it over to Willow Place.
I didn’t see a single person I knew. I asked around later to long-time Brooklyn folks and people said they hadn’t been in years. I don’t know why. I know it’s not the ticket prices, which are reasonable and have discounts for seniors. Neither did they. “You should go back,” I urged. “We will,” said some.
Well, do it. The Heights Players has been around since 1956 and is Brooklyn’s longest running sustaining theater. It has a delightful community history, starting at the Unitarian Church and performing four seasons in the famed Bossert Hotel. Learn about it all decade by decade on their history link here.
The next show is a radio play of It’s A Wonderful Life.
I’ve already booked my tickets—Saturday night, December 2 if anyone cares! Second row. Stop by and say hi if you come and I’ll buy you some Junior Mints. I plan to become a subscriber. Not sure how, but I’ll ask the ticket lady who also gave me an Advil and also sold me some Dorito’s. Because they wear alot of MotherF**king hats down there.
Check out their website for their full season, including A Prelude to a Kiss, two shows with Murder in the title and one by Steve Martin, so that’s gotta be funny. They will launch The Full Monty in May. I love that they post their audition dates, like my dad did back in Anchorage. Auditions are March 4-6 and I keep nudging my husband for a try out. He was Scrooge in last year’s off, off, off, off Broadway Plymouth Church production of A Christmas Carol.
Watch this space if that happens! They also have children’s theater. They are looking for volunteers. And donations for #GivingTuesday and beyond.
I feel like I’ve discovered a gem. But I know 68 years of theater in our neighborhood is surely a slog of set building, ticket taking, rehearsals, light bills, printing costs, scarce volunteer hours, marketing woes and rising expenses and stress. But it must be love and passion too—because I can see it in the performances.
The show must go on. Sorry, sorry, sorry I’ve missed it for so long, but I’ll be there—at the show about holidays, neighbors, loss and redemption! Hope you will be too!
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