Short plays, long view

Heller Theatre Company wobbles but won’t fall down

Until last month, Heller Theatre Company technically didn’t exist. Oh, it has plenty of history, but as another civic theater company under another banner. It is a phoenix rising from the ashes after a hard fight.  

In its former incarnation (Heller Theatre), HTC was the resident adult company at the Henthorne Performing Arts Center program through Tulsa Parks. When the proposed budget for the year was published, Heller’s future looked grim. That’s when a group of longtime volunteers banded together to support local performing arts, including Clark Youth Theatre and the Tulsa Performing Arts Trust. City Council and many community members worked tirelessly to secure victories, but Heller remained on the chopping block. A decision had to be made: Form a new company, or pack it in and quit?  

With characteristic determination, Heller supporters pushed through to make the new Heller Theatre Company a reality. (For the sake of transparency: I’m production manager for HTC.) To celebrate, HTC premieres its inaugural season with “Heller Shorts: Taking the Fifth.” 

HTC Board President Susan Apker has been producing Shorts since its inception and looks forward to the fresh start. 

“This year was more fraught with drama than most,” Apker said in an email to The Voice. “With the City issues, it looked like at one point that Heller Shorts would just not happen.”  

This year marks Heller Shorts’ fifth anniversary, and there’s plenty to look back on. Apker said the show has “given many novice and experienced playwrights the chance to see their work performed, as well as served as a training ground for directors and actors.”

A one-act festival, Heller Shorts produces 10-minute plays to highlight Tulsa’s homegrown talent. This year, due to tight scheduling at Henthorne Performing Arts Center, the cast and crew have only three days in the theater before opening. Apker must rely on the talents of fantastic directors and actors to put on six plays a night. With only a few weeks to coordinate, how does HTC make all this happen? “I have to trust the directors to bring polished performances to the space … as we iron out technical issues and prepare for opening night, September 11th,” Apker said. 

With some of Tulsa’s best talent, Shorts runs the gamut from absurd to giggle-worthy. Past shows have included everything from an unusual incident in an elevator to a full-blown musical. (Yes, really – a 10-minute musical!) Some playwrights who started with Shorts have gone on to publish in literary magazines, win awards in the short play format and have their works produced nationwide.

Though it had just a “short” time to come together, this year’s lineup makes for a night filled with plenty of variety. And if you don’t like one play, there’s a whole new one coming up in about the same time it takes Oklahoma weather to change. Donny Bailey, who wrote “Experiment Number 5,” described his play as a “mix of excitement, happiness, suspense, and terror rolled up into one of my favorite genres: sci-fi time travel thriller.” For “Ars Longa, Vita Ferris,” David Blakely took on a writing prompt to tell a story of a man selling a Ferris wheel. Shorts veteran Robert Young is both writer and director in “Moving On,” a paranormal drama about a father and daughter trying to move past the death of a loved one.

More than just a show, Shorts encourages local talent to step out and try something different. The response has been enormous, and shows sell out – often before opening night. It’s this sort of creative incubator that keeps Apker engaged and looking to the future. “I would love to see Heller Shorts build on its success and provide the opportunity for the production of original, longer works by local writers,” she said. Plans are in the works to expand HTC workshops in upcoming seasons to include writing and directing elements. And for a season that almost didn’t happen, the future of HTC looks bright with stage lights. 

Heller Shorts: Taking the Fifth

September 11-13, 7:30 pm

September 14, 2:00 pm

Henthorne Performing Arts Center, 4825 S. Quaker Ave