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After three years off, Redwood City Community Theatre is back! The organization performed on Friday in Redwood City’s Fourth of July parade and will make a proper return to the stage this fall.
RCCT had performed at Sequoia High School’s Carrington Hall for over a decade in the summer, but the school told Redwood City Community Theatre they could no longer use the venue for free after 2022.
That decision put RCCT on a three-year hiatus. Producer and director Lesley Hoelper announced that the organization would perform a cabaret with numbers from previous shows by the end of the year. RCCT will perform in a new, 279-seat venue as part of the new Veterans Memorial Building.
“In October or November, just to test out the new theater,” Hoelper said. “Then the show that I really want to do is (in March), and I have the rights for it: ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’”
For Lindsay Schulz, who has both performed and stage managed in RCCT productions, this hiatus has been extended. She first got involved with RCCT 12 years ago.
“I was just out of college, had just started my first job, and a lot of my friends were not based in the Bay Area,” Schulz said. “I missed theatre. I didn’t really do it in college. I did in high school. I was looking around for a show to do, or theater to join. I was living in San Carlos at the time. I found RCCT and decided to audition.”
Not only do RCCT and other local theatres put on shows with talented community members, but they also provide a needed break from day-to-day life.
“I do finance for a living,” Hoelper shared. “To have something creative that I can do, that I enjoy doing, is really worth it to me because it’s so different [from] what I do for my career.”
Schulz called it “adult summer camp.”
“When you go off to summer camp as a kid, that’s how RCCT feels to me,” Schulz said. “It’s not just the rehearsals and work all the time. [Hoelper] does a great job of fostering a really social environment, more than any other theater company.”
That environment is what propelled Hoelper to make sure RCCT returns. Between COVID and their recent issues with Carrington Hall, Hoelper has put on just one show in five years. But orchestrating the theatre’s return, hiring a music director and choreographer, and finding costumes is a lot of work for someone with a full-time job.
Why does she stay with it?
“I’ve actually asked myself that,” Hoelper admitted. “I love the people and I love the family atmosphere. I love watching the people grow from the standpoint of their confidence. They become better singers, actors, and dancers; but I believe they become more confident individuals.”
Schulz, who has worked with other local theatre companies, attributes that growing confidence to Hoelper’s directorial decisions.
“[Hoelper] can always see the potential in people,” Schulz said. “Sometimes in other theater companies, they might just cast people that they know or look at the resume and other things that they’ve done.
Hoelper’s risk taking allows for more community members to build their confidence through singing, dancing, acting, and performing.
“Someone could come to Redwood City and just have some raw talent… If [Hoelper] sees something in them, a quality that she likes, a personality element that she thinks will bring something important to a character, they don’t have to be the most perfect singer or the perfect dancer. If she sees something that she thinks is going to be perfect and right for the character and the vibe she’s looking for, she will work with that person and bring that potential she sees in them out.
“That’s not something you see at every community theater.”
To get updates on auditions, show announcements, and tickets, Hoelper recommends checking out RCCT’s website and social media.
