Show & Tell

SHOW & TELL Rescuing the Stray

By Mark Bretz | photos courtesy of Stray Dog Theatre

As with dozens of other professional, community and college theaters locally, Stray Dog Theatre’s artistic director, Gary Bell, was forced to reassess his company’s situation in March 2020.

“When we had to halt our production of ‘Annie,’ I knew in April that my artistic and creative sensibilities would not survive a long shutdown,” he says. “So I had a conference with Stray Dog Theatre’s associate artistic director, Justin Been, about how we could weather such a time, and we came up with our ‘acting pods’ – individually sealed pods with plexiglass on three sides that could house an individual actor. Each pod came equipped with a state-of-the-art microphone. Our board approved the purchase of the microphones and eight high-end cameras, so we could film and then stream productions.”

That idea bore fruit when Stray Dog was able to present its production of “Lobby Hero” later in 2020. “‘Lobby Hero’ was one of the shows scheduled for our canceled season,” Bell says. “It was the next show coming up directly after ‘Annie.’ Our safety protocols were intense. We rehearsed ‘Lobby Hero’ outside on our Tower Grove Abbey [Stray Dog’s home theater] lawn, socially distanced and masked.

“Then,” Bell continues, “we brought the [four] actors into the theater individually and had them access the acting pods one at a time. Once safely inside the acting pods, actors could then remove masks. Justin and I remained masked at all times while filming and directing the actors.”

Once they had accomplished the difficult task of safely producing “Lobby Hero” within strict COVID-19 pandemic protocols, Stray Dog turned to another, different artistic venture. Its broadcast production of “Poetober,” Bell says, “was also recorded individually with actors. Each actor arrived on different days and times to ensure safety.”

Last summer, as cases of COVID-19 were decreasing throughout the metro area, Stray Dog and other local theaters began venturing back onstage. Bell adds: “We decided to begin our Limited Series 2021 season when COVID began to wane in July 2021. We decided to start outside with [our production of] ‘Art’ [on the lawn in August], then moved into the Tower Grove Abbey in October.”

Once back inside its actual Tower Grove Abbey theater, Bell says, “We concentrated on masks, vaccine requirements, sanitization and social distancing endeavors. Before every show/ production, we reviewed our health and safety protocols and implemented and changed them based on the federal [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and Missouri state requirements.”

Other precautions included finding plays with smaller casts. “We began our Limited Series with two and three actors per performance,” Bell explains. “We then rescheduled the shows we had licensed previously pre-COVID based on the number of actors in the productions – putting the productions with smaller casts closer to the start of the season and the productions with larger casts later in the season.”

While scrambling like other theaters to remain solvent during the pandemic, Stray Dog was able to find financial help from outside sources, such as federal, state and local government entities and various arts organizations. “Rob Ogden, our exceptional and talented executive director, worked extremely hard to access the assistance we needed to stay afloat,” Bell says. “That was extremely crucial in getting through these rough times.”

Stray Dog operates an after-school program and other community efforts in addition to its regular theater schedule. Those had to be considered as well when the pandemic hit with such a devastating impact. Bell adds: “We also created a virtual after-school program with the guidance of the Saint Louis Public Schools, so we could continue our Arts-in-Mind After-School Program.”

Amid the uncertainty of the past two years, Bell adds that owning its own theater property, the Tower Grove Abbey, was of major benefit to the company.

“Having our very own theater was immensely helpful in continuing our streaming and virtual work during this crazy time,” Bell says. “We didn’t need to search for a place to create, and we could control the safety measures we wanted to enforce to keep everyone as safe as possible.”

Bell and his talented cohort are now hard at work on their next venture, “Triassic Parq, The Musical,” which will run through April 30 at the Tower Grove Abbey.