This year, MLT has two productions to be performed at the 134-year-old Sorg Opera House: “Children’s Letters to God” (May 9-10) and “Seussical” (auditions will be held May 18-20).
The first full joint season under this partnership is scheduled for 2026 and will be announced soon.
The two organizations will have three performances of “Rehearsal for Murder,” a murder-mystery play, Sept. 19-20 to raise funds for Sorg Opera House lobby and dressing room renovations. There will be a 8 p.m. performance Friday. Sept. 19; and a 3 p.m. matinee and 8 p.m. show on Saturday, Sept. 20. Auditions will be held in early June.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
MLT announced its closure late last year after 46 seasons and 16 years at 1530 Central Ave. Its last show, “The Glass Menagerie,” was in September.
Shafor said last year the board of directors had been discussing the possibility of closing for a year, though the news came as a shock to some longtime season-ticket holders and supporters.
“When the time came to make the announcement, it was so hard,” Shafor said.
As for the idea behind the collaboration, Griffith said, “It’s a long story.”
Griffith and Shafor were both born and raised in Middletown and met at the city’s Summer Youth Theater. Griffith worked with Shafor at MLT before she joined the SORG, where she started as a box office volunteer, treasurer and now president.
“I said to him, ‘Why don’t you bring something to us?‘” Griffith said of working with Shafor on early collaborations.
Shafor brought a few MLT shows to the Sorg Opera House several years ago. “He’s super easy to work with, and it was a good fit for our space, and we were real happy to have him,” Griffith said.
I think arts are the perfect way to create community.
MLT, which started in 1978, was housed in the Arts in Middletown (AIM) building. After AIM closed in 2002, Middletown Fine Arts Center (now known as the Middletown Arts Center) bought the building and took over operations.
Shafor said MLT “happened on a space” on Central Ave., which became its home for 16 years. Shafor, who had been living and teaching in Delaware, moved back to Middletown in 2007 and took over MLT as president.
“After the pandemic, there was a period of time where we struggled to come back and exist and recreate what we did [before the pandemic],” Shafor said.
“Having been born and raised here and involved in multiple organizations, I really have this desire to, not necessarily repeat the past, but at least bring all the good things from the past into a modern world or modern age and try and bring that back together as a community. I think arts are the perfect way to create community.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Griffith reached out to Shafor around the time MLT left its Central Avenue space to see if he’d be interested in using the Sorg Opera House.
Shafor said he was unsure on what to do. “Through conversations with people from the past who were past contributors to MLT, I started feeling this would be a good fit.”
With the SORG’s mission of bringing the Sorg Opera House building “back to life,” Shafor said it “made sense” that MLT could contribute to that goal and continue to do theater.
“We can do theater just about anywhere, but it’s nice to be able to do it in a space where you know you have a home, you know you are working with people that are driven and like minded like you and you know that in the end, hopefully that it’s a common goal to see and make something better in our hometown,” Shafor said.
“At the root of theater, it is about the audience,” Shafor said. “The shows you choose, the work you put in, the time you spend. You’re trying to entertain people that have come to you to escape whatever it is in their lives for a brief moment.”
Shafor said there are now 80-90 theaters in the area between Cincinnati and Dayton.
When MLT first started, though, he said there were around five in the area.
“Now, there’s a ton of competition and performers, and they tend to go where their passion is, so it’s a lot of work to decide what [shows] you’re going to do.”
MLT’s old location had around 100 seats; the Sorg Opera house has around 700.
Both Shafor and Griffith agreed that the response to the new partnership has been “great.”
Shafor sees this partnership as the “next phase” of MLT as it finds its new home at the Sorg Opera House. “There’s a lot of exciting things ahead, I think, for both organizations,” he said.
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