Buckham Alley Theatre has long referred to itself as “Flint’s only alternative theatre,” and the organization lives that mantra by simply making theatre happen in whatever environment they happen to be in.
Buckham is currently an itinerant theatre as they don’t have a “homebase” that they work out of. Instead, they tailor performances to available space. Their first performance of their new season, Doubt: A Parable, is set to open this weekend with shows October 3, 4, and 5 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church downtown Flint.
“It’s kind of fun to work in different venues and different places with different groups of people,” said Mary Smith Powers, who is directing Doubt and has been involved with Buckahm Alley Theatre for close to 30 years. “You learn something new from each of them. Here I am right now in St. Paul’s, to create a theatre in a space that wouldn’t typically be a theatre, which is in itself kind of intriguing and interesting.”
The show she’s setting up for is also interesting. Doubt, a drama originally written by John Patrick Shanley, had its off Broadway premier in 2004. It was later adapted as a film that starred Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
The play is set in a fictional Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, just after President John F. Kennedy’s assasination. The story is focused on conflicting values between the two main characters, with Sister Aloysius representing old, traditional ways of doing things and resisting new ideas advocated for by Father Flynn.
“It’s a clash of values between the two main characters,” Powers said. “And it leaves the audience, sort of like solving a mystery, who’s right? Who do you believe? How far should you go to protect your own beliefs and values?”
In addition to directing the play, Powers is also playing Aloysius. That’s not a typical arrangement for Buckham Alley Theatre productions, but the experience of this cast has made it work well.
“I don’t usually perform in and act in a show that I direct, that’s just really hard to do,” she said. “But this particular show, I wanted to play the part of Sister Aloysius for many, many, many years. And when we came together to do the show, I could not find a director. So luckily two of the other people in the show with me are also directors. So when I’m on stage performing, they can sit back and give us some input about movement and what looks good and what doesn’t look good. So it’s kind of a team effort putting the show on.”
Other performers in the show are Steven Shelton as Father Flynn, Kendall Smith as Sister James, and Recalia Miller as Mrs. Muller. Tickets available online and are $10 each. Performances are at 7 p.m. October 3 and 4 and 2 p.m. on October 5.
Following Doubt, Buckham Alley Theatre is planning to perform a series of original plays in January, and then next spring, they’re planning to do an outdoor performance of the Greek comedy Lysistrata. They also have an improv group that meets and performs regularly (their next shows are October 10 at Café Rhema) and they do karaoke during Flint’s Second Friday Art Walks. Their website, Facebook, and Instagram pages are the best sources to find out about upcoming performances, auditions, and other ways to get involved.
The upcoming season adds to a long history in Flint of exposing people to theatre and creating a lifelong love for it. Powers is among those devotees. Her first performance with the group was in the 1990s, and her daughter also performed with them. The theatre began in the early 1980s as the Agree Theatre and then moved to a small venue in Buckham Alley downtown in 1987, which is where the group’s name comes from.
“It was a very small, intimate venue and really unique,” said Powers, who is a retired teacher and also helped with a high school theatre program in the district she worked in. “We did shows that most other theatres didn’t do, because we were small and the space lent itself to those interesting kinds of productions. I did a show with them, and then just ended up doing lots of shows and joined the board and continued to work with them.”
They moved to their “itinerant” model in the 2000s when their building was sold. They began using the Greater Flint Arts Council building for storage and occasional performances, and also performed at other churches and locations in Genesee County. The changes and demands of operating without a venue, leadership changes on their board, and other issues caused them to have a dormant period, but they’ve been back strong for about three years, Powers said.
The theatre also has hopes for another change on the horizon. The Greater Flint Arts Council is renovating its space, including a small second floor theatre, and Buckham Alley will be able to use that as a more permanent location in the future.
“Buckham has always had a special place in our hearts just because it was such a unique setting and such a unique group of people,” Powers said. “It’s where I got my start. It’s where my daughter got her start. I just love theater. I love what it provides for the people I love bringing art, bringing ideas, bringing stories to people.”
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