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'Coming Home' to The Depot
Wetumpka Depot Players celebrate 42 years
STORY BY AMY PASSARETTI PHOTOS BY DONNA GRIER & COURTESY OF THE WETUMPKA DEPOT
Miss Abigail (Tara Fenn) and her assistant, Pedro (Jeff Glass), bring up audience members for some instruction in Miss Abigail's Guide to Dating, Mating and Marriage
While the pandemic put a pause on The Wetumpka Depot Players’ plans for its 40th anniversary celebration, it didn’t stop the talent from creating. And artistic director Kristy Meanor is eager to forge ahead on her first full year back to normal operations.
The statewide COVID-19-induced shutdowns caused The Depot to cancel the entirety of its 2020 season, cut off one show in, but staff and volunteers got crafty in still showcasing theater to the community. The Depot launched virtual shows, outdoor plays and radio scenes. Eventually, the nonprofit moved to a modified version of theater with limited seating and small casts.
“We were very innovative in the way we created theater,” Meanor said. “It’s mighty nice to be back and doing shows in a more normal way.”
The last big hoorah for The Depot Players was Big Fish, presented last fall on the heels of HGTV’s presence filming Hometown Makeover. The show, its impact and positive changes instilled in the community made a splash in boosting Wetumpka’s reputation as a tourist destination.
“We are still feeling the positive impacts of the Hometown Makeover,” Meanor said. “We get calls and emails from folks out of state looking to plan their trips to Wetumpka at the same time we are in a production.”
As it enters its 42nd year, The Depot embraces a fitting theme, a sign of the times: “Coming Home to The Depot.” The season features six shows in total, including a Christmas production in December and the return of its children’s camp this summer. Meanor is also jazzed up about the return of the Penguin Project this fall in an abridged format, with a full return next year.
The season kicked off in January with Popcorn Falls. The comedy revolves around a sleepy small town forced into bankruptcy when a neighboring town threatens to turn it into a sewage plant. Two actors played more than 20 roles where the characters scrambled in an attempt to open a theater and save the world.
A Storm Came Up was directed by Meanor, who also wrote the stage adaptation of Doug Segrest’s authored book by the same name.
“It took us back home to our roots,” Meanor said. “It’s a reckoning with our past, has a social justice theme to it and received great audience response.”
The two-act play is set in the summer of 1963 in a small Alabama town where three young boys find themselves entangled in a complex crossfire between George Wallace, the KKK, the desegregation of the local school system and memories of a murder they witnessed five years prior.
A Trip to Bountiful followed. This classic American play by Horton Foote celebrated a widowed woman’s desire to escape the cramped city apartment she shares with her henpecked son and bossy daughter-in-law. It returns to her roots in a small Texas town called, Bountiful.
“Her journey along inspires and touches those around her,” Meanor said.
Recently wrapped up was The Depot’s Youth Academy, featuring 30 camp kids aged 8 to 16 under
Sly Petes (Tony Davison) croons a 1940s standard in Hometown Canteen
Moses (Dre Wingate) and Adele Burks (Tunisia Thomas) share a moment on the porch in A Storm Came Up
the direction of high school volunteers who studied theater at the Wetumpka Theater Guild. The seven-day program closed out with three public performances of Disney’s The Jungle Book. It was the first return of the program since the pandemic.
Meanor said she is also sneaking in a July show, titled Visiting Mr. Green, about an unlikely friendship between an older Jewish man who was almost run over in New York City by a young, urban yuppy. The young corporate exec is then ordered to community service taking care of widower Mr. Green.
“It’s a clash of cultures and age difference,” Meanor said.
Set to debut in September, Fair and Tender Ladies is an adaptation of Lee Smith’s classic novel based on a Virginia mountain woman who shares the nostalgic tale of her life through letters and songs. The dramedy spans 70 years and features folksy music.
The show premiered at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival a few years ago and also has broad audience appeal, according to Meanor.
This fall the Penguin Project will re-energize participants with a showcase and workshop. The project features 25 special-needs students, each paired with a nondisabled peer mentor.
“The disabled artists are front and center,” Meanor said. “They are out there shining in their roles. It’s such a great program, and so much that happens off the stage is wonderful.”
She referred to the acts of empathy and patience shared between the youth volunteers and their buddies. The Penguin Project will return in full force in 2023 with rehearsals ending in a production.
The season will wrap up with its Christmas production, not yet determined. Meanor assures it will be something enjoyable to school groups and the public alike.
And while 2022 is still under way, Meanor said planning for 2023 is in the works. The chosen theme is “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” with a full season of plays and musicals giving nod to theater and film.
The Depot is already under contract for a new work, Hollywood, Nebraska, written by Kenneth Jones. The comedy revolves around two actresses who make a homecoming to their dying small town. They battle their responsibilities and urge to create, finding hope along the way.
“Jones’ work has been presented at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival previously, and we are thrilled to be part of the world premier for his latest work,” Meanor said.
While things are back to running fairly smoothly, the audiences are slow to The entire company performs a return, she Friday Night Lights scene added. in A Storm Came Up During the time the theater was shut down or hosting modified performances, it lost roughly $95,000 in ticket sales. “The Depot Players are certainly recovering from the financial aspect of being closed down,” she said. “We function on ticket sales. We’ve been able to bring in some grant funding, corporate sponsorships but those alone don’t keep us afloat.”
Essentially, what little did come in was enough to pay Meanor’s salary and keep the lights on. The theater also received an Alabama Art Recovery grant and funding from the Small Business Administration, which was a huge help.
“On the whole, things feel much more like old times,” she added. “But we are still having to modify things to an extent, including cast sizes because the pandemic isn’t over, and we’re still seeing cases of COVID.”
To learn more about The Wetumpka Depot Players and purchase tickets for upcoming shows, visit wetumpkadepot.com.
