Despite the various challenges the coronavirus pandemic has unleashed on the performing arts, Baton Rouge’s Red Magnolia Theatre Company is continuing to shine a spotlight on significant roles for women, both onstage and behind the scenes.
The organization—which was unable to perform a main stage production this year due to COVID-19 restrictions—recently unveiled its 2021 lineup, which includes a planned main stage production of The Revolutionists by Lauren Gunderson. Auditions and show dates will be announced in the near future.
Paula Shreve, who co-founded Red Magnolia with Michele Johnson three years ago, says she’s looking forward to not only the full-blown stage production but also to the four “reader’s theater series” plays the group selects to perform each year.
“We look for plays that are either written by women or those that represent the women we know,” Shreve tells The Network. “There were so many plays that we read in our reader’s series that I had never heard of, and there are some great women writers out there. These voices should be heard.”
Some of those voices are local. On the reader’s series slate for next year, for instance, is a play called Interlocus, written by Tiffany Gilley-Forrer, who is currently pursuing her MFA in theater at LSU.
Heading into the new year, seeing what’s coming out of LSU’s theater department is exciting, says Shreve, as are the “wide range of expertise”—from acting to directing to singing and more—she says she sees within Red Magnolia’s 10-member board of volunteers alone. But many Baton Rouge natives, both women and men, have also gone on to perform their craft nationally and, in some cases, internationally, which Shreve believes should be recognized.
Among those local success stories is Evan Roider, who is serving as music director and conductor on the National Tour of Wicked, and who, several months ago, held a virtual voice master class for some Red Magnolia members. The master class marked the first of many educational initiatives the organization plans to chase.
During COVID-19, the theater company had to prove its resilience, paying homage to the name its founders came up with in 2017.
“We really kicked off the education component this year,” Shreve says. “The magnolia represents strength and endurance in changing times.”
Because it could not hold its annual fundraiser, it participated in this year’s inaugural 225 Gives campaign, also raised some 75% of its fundraising goal for the upcoming season.
At the same time, the group is looking forward to the return of live performances to shed further light on women’s traditionally overlooked scripts and roles..
Last month, members of Red Magnolia were able to do a live reading of Laundry & Bourbon, a one-act comedy, outdoors at the Pointe-Marie development. Shreve says she was “pleasantly surprised” to see how many men attended the performance and found it encouraging.
“It’s through art, music, dance and storytelling that people get raised, feel better and find connection,” Shreve says. “Don’t forget that your organizations here in town are there for you.”
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