Park Slope’s Gallery Players carries on an almost 50-year tradition of bringing top-notch theatre to the borough

by Catherine Gigante-Brown

Now in its 48th season, Brooklyn’s very own theatre company, The Gallery Players, has been the epitome of wandering, show-biz gypsies. Although they’ve been in their current home for almost 25 years, the troupe hop-scotched across the borough when they were first created in 1967. That’s when founder Bruce Wyatt relocated from New Orleans to New York and took the concept of The Gallery Players with him.

Producing both classic and contemporary works, Gallery’s first digs were in Flatbush. After dipping into Park Slope and the edge of Carroll Gardens, they were even homeless for a few seasons before settling into their current permanent residence on 14th Street, just above 4th Avenue.

“Gallery strives to provide our audience with a rich theatrical experience through the high quality of our performers, directors, designers, and playwrights,” said Mark Harborth, who’s been President of its Board of Directors since 2012.

Harborth started with the group as an actor in 1995, became a director the following year and joined the Board in 2009. He staunchly believes that everyone—in the borough and beyond—should see a show at Gallery: “We give patrons an opportunity to see productions, both large and small, in an amazingly intimate environment.”

Although Gallery’s stage is as large as some Broadway houses, the audience is just two feet away. “People continue to marvel at how the intimacy deepened and enriched their live-theatre experience,” told Harborth.

Since its inception, an astounding 156 plays and musicals have premiered at the theater. Harvey Fierstein is a founding member, and celebrities like Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, and Annie Golden have ventured into the wilds of Brooklyn to show their support.

“I’ve seen so many incredible performances that it’s impossible to choose just one as a standout,” Harborth admitted. “But the first that comes to mind is Carolyn Mignini as Maria Callas in Master Class. She was the best I have ever seen in that role. Absolutely captivating.”

Harborth said that from a producer/director’s point of view, the best performances come from Gallery’s enthusiastic audiences, laughing hysterically through Lend Me a Tenor or Run for Your Wife, crying during Proof or The History Boys, and jumping to their feet and applauding the cast of Dreamgirls or Rent. “That’s when you know you have reached out and touched some hearts,” Harborth beamed. “There is no better performance than that. And this is why Gallery is Gallery.”

With such a strong, well-respected lineage, choosing works to produce can be a daunting task, but management takes it in stride. “We’re currently putting together our 49th and 50th season selections,” he shared. “It’s always a difficult process but extremely rewarding. We strive to provide audiences with rich, varied entertainment of all genres—each season, we try to present an intriguing combination of playwrights and theatrical styles, and I think we’ve done an excellent job.

An unassuming brick building (formerly a Catholic school) houses the 99-seat venue, and ticket prices are, by Great White Way standards, shockingly affordable—$18 for adults and $15 for senior citizens and children under 12. Season subscriptions are also available.

Productions include a winning blend of amateurs and seasoned veterans. “The quality of our work attracts actors with all levels of experience,” told Harborth. “I remember having a Broadway vet alongside an artist making their stage debut.” The theater regularly advertises its auditions in Backstage, Playbill.com and other trade publications.

With a healthy touch of pride, Harborth concluded, “Gallery offers a vast variety of options: plays, musicals, world premieres of new plays, new musicals, staged readings, Shakespeare, children’s parties, summer camp, classes, and more to come. There’s no place like it in the world.”

The Gallery Players
199 14th St., Park Slope / galleryplayers.com
The Gallery Players’ 2014 – 2015 Season
The Baker’s Wife March 7 – March 29
Evita April 25 – May 17
18th Annual Black Box New Play Festival: May 28 – June 21