A New Theater for the Theatre District

Top left: Troy Siebels, president and CEO of THT, and Erin I.Williams, cultural development officer for the City of Worcester, at the opening celebration of JMAC. Bottom right: Olivia Scanlon, managing director of the BrickBox Theater. Photos by UnityMike and JMAC instagram

Around the corner from The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, a project seven years in the making, is on the brink of its exciting debut. At 20 Franklin Street, in the back of the building, a space that once housed the sports department of the Telegram & Gazette, has slowly but surely been transformed into the BrickBox Theater, an intimate performance venue operated by The Hanover Theatre on behalf of the Worcester Cultural Coalition. Together with its sister-space, the Worcester PopUp, the BrickBox is housed in the Jean McDonough Arts Center (JMAC), named on March 5, 2020, in honor of arts philanthropist Jean McDonough, who gifted $2 million to support the completion of the venue and subsidize its first years of operation. equipment. Support spaces include well-appointed dressing rooms, a palatial green room and a private rehearsal hall.

The venue will serve as a performance space for the Worcester Cultural Coalition’s myriad member organizations, including The Hanover Theatre itself, which will use the BrickBox for conservatory performances and to launch a new initiative called The Hanover Theatre Rep, or THT Rep, for short. Helmed by Olivia Scanlon, who also serves as managing director of the BrickBox, THT Rep will produce homegrown plays and theatrical events for the BrickBox, with a heavy emphasis on staging classic works.