By Ira Kantor
White Heron Theatre Company’s new Equity theatre, which opens next year, is located and inspired by Nantucket’s nautical and maritime histories.
Nantucket is renowned for its rich Cape culture and inspiring whaling history. Merging the two, White Heron Theatre Company creates theatre designed to give the noted nautical island some artistic oomph.
Where island inhabitants once sailed the globe and exported riches from the world’s oceans, White Heron is now exporting theatre into the American way of life and beyond. In fact, to better attract the island’s cultural masses, the three-year-old company is establishing a brand new, state-of-the-art $5 million four-story theater, inspired by and building on Nantucket’s hallowed nautical and maritime histories.
The theatre officially opens in July 2016. Even though White Heron’s summer season took place at nearby Dreamland Theater on Nantucket, this will be the first theater built on the island to specifically house Equity theatre.
White Heron’s President and Founder Lynne Bolton.
“We are building our theatre in the heart of the historic district in downtown Nantucket – located directly across the street from the island’s Town Hall,” says White Heron’s President and Founder Lynne Bolton. “This area was once considered an industrial maritime neighborhood because of its proximity to the harbor. That’s why our new theatre building is based on the architecture of a maritime warehouse.”
White Heron’s presence will actually be right in the heart of Water Street, directly behind the island’s Whaling Museum, one of Nantucket’s premier attractions. The museum is home to one of the world’s greatest collections of whaling equipment, scrimshaw and artifacts.
Hailed as the whaling capital of the world from the mid-1700s to the late 1830s, Nantucket is inspirational to White Heron as the company crafts its theatre in a maritime-themed setting. The building will be situated on one of the last buildable lots in Downtown Nantucket and echoes the island’s important industries of yore.
White Heron Executive Director and Co-Artistic Director Michael Kopko.
“We are truly excited to build our theatre in a region that holds such strong personal resonance for people,” adds White Heron Executive Director and Co-Artistic Director Michael Kopko. “Rich in history and steeped in beauty, Nantucket is a wonderful home for our company to thrive.”
The theater itself is designed according to Equity rules and contains 160 seats. Additionally, the building will also house the Nantucket Theatre Institute, a company faction dedicated to theatre education and new play development.
“Equity” refers to the Actors Equity Association, the preeminent labor union representing tens of thousands of actors in the U.S. that helps the latter get paid, be healthy and obtain pensions.
“One of the big things that helps differentiate us from other theaters also is that we’re in Nantucket, which has never had an equity theater before,” says Bolton. “Nantucket shapes the character and nature of our work in that we not only provide high-quality theatre to the island community, but are striving to make Nantucket a premier destination for theatre and art.”
In their respective down times, several White Heron board members also sail competitively, according to Bolton, who adds, “We are all very connected to the sea and being on water.”
White Heron produces unique plays ranging from straight dramas to out-of-the-box Tony Award-winners. The company’s 2015 season showcased productions of D.L. Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “The Gin Game,” and Christopher Durang’s madcap “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” directed by the show’s original Broadway producer Martin Platt.
As White Heron Theatre sets the stage for an ongoing capital campaign to ensure the company’s new theater is a hit with art and theatre lovers, the company’s leaders savor the notion that they planted their artistic visions before immersing in the world of financial plans.
“Creative before capital – that’s what we’ve done,” Bolton says. “You can have a creative idea and you can create the product and then build the business around the product. In the arts world, this is a very unique thing to do.”
Initially, White Heron put its productions on in a large tent planted on North Water Street. The tent reached dimensions of 30 feet by 50 feet, had a capacity to seat 75, and remained up from mid-May to mid-October in 2013 and 2014. It was outfitted with floors, full lights, sound and installed seats, which previously belonged to a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom hall outside of New Orleans. Yet White Heron simply couldn’t compete with the outside elements – street noise and bad weather included.
Thanks to encouragement from the Nantucket community, White Heron has provided two means for patrons in its capital campaign that allow them to have their name be synonymous with the theatre, literally. First, White Heron has introduced a “Pave the Way” initiative, whereby people can make a donation and have their names ingrained in bricks paving the theatre courtyard. The second is a “Take a Seat” initiative where people can purchase actual seats inside the maritime-themed building.
“It is a very exciting time on Nantucket,” says Bolton. “We have a movement on this island to create a distinctive cultural district and we’re thrilled to be included in helping this district come alive.”