The Culture: Baltimore offers an intimate theatre scene

Ever since I turned thirteen, I’ve been to see a Broadway play each year for my birthday.

My parents live right outside New York City, so it’s no trouble to go in for an afternoon matinée or evening performance.

Also, in high school, my best friend had some sort of deal where she and her family could get tickets for around $30 or $40. We went absolutely rabid, and my teenage years were consequently filled with extensive Broadway theater.

I’ve saved all the playbills and remember the shows I’ve seen in order. I saw some really amazing stuff, especially musicals that composed the soundtrack to my adolescent angst. There was the first, Aida, the best, Rent, and the most scandalous, Equus (starring a naked Daniel Radcliffe).

But when I came to Hopkins, my theater tastes had to adapt to my new surroundings.

First I started to see on-campus plays, most of which were very enjoyable. Then I began looking at the rest of the city.

Baltimore theater is obviously much smaller than its New York counterpart. It also isn’t localized in a specific “Theater District.” Rather, there are a few venues in various artsy areas.

Mt. Vernon has Center Stage and the Spotlighters Theatre, Fells’ Point has The Vagabond Players and Everyman Theatre is right by Penn Station. Then of course, there’s the Hippodrome in the downtown area, which is best for large productions like Broadway shows on tour.

I started reviewing plays for The News-Letter my sophomore year and was introduced to a new kind of theater.

I was used to seeing one or two theatrical extremes: Charming low-budget high school plays or over-the-top, star-studded Broadway exhibitions. However, Baltimore theater falls somewhere in the middle.

The shows I’ve seen here have been genuinely great, with evocative sets. They have also been incredibly small. In Baltimore, you become used to watching a play with about thirty other people. I could never imagine something like that on Broadway.

After my first few shows in my new hometown, I tried to figure out what else was so different about the theater scene in Baltimore. I finally concluded that it was the look of the actors — they weren’t all unbelievably beautiful. (Of course, some of them still were gorgeous, but in Baltimore this made them stand out.)

On Broadway, you take the glamour and the pretty faces for granted. You just expect it.

It’s a shame to say this, but many Baltimore actors could never make it on Broadway, mostly because of this crucial fact.

But small Charm City productions give average-looking actors a chance. And in general, I’ve found them to be fantastic. Some of the best actors I’ve ever seen were in Everyman Theatre’s A Raisin in the Sun and The Vagabond Players’ Sweeney Todd. The latter had some breath-taking singing as well.

You also see some familiar faces on stage if you go to enough Baltimore shows. Then, you really start to appreciate the wide variety of work these actors do.

In a way, Baltimore theater has spoiled me. I’ve been to a good amount of Broadway shows since I started college, but most haven’t given me that thrill I used to feel.

I’m now unimpressed by pure spectacle: the lights, set changes, big acting and singing.

Two years ago, I saw Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter on Broadway. The set and effects were nice, but the story was just awful: old, stale, and dull. It’s about an extramarital affair that I couldn’t even begin to care about. (Of course, the choice of the play is partly my own fault: we picked Brief Encounter because it was showing in a theater that was once the legendary 70s hotspot Studio 54.)

After Brief Encounter, I felt tired with the whole Broadway scene. They could sure do high-budget, showy things, but this began to impress me less and less. Also, I felt like everyone in the audience (okay, it was during the tourist-filled holiday season) was a naive out-of-towner who would be thrilled with any over-the-top mess they saw on stage.

Last year I saw How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (yes, we’re big supporters of Daniel Radcliffe’s theater career). I liked it for the most part, but the whole audience screamed every time Daniel Radcliffe walked out on stage! I couldn’t get over it.

At one point, my friend turned to me and whispered, “This is a play, people, not Taylor Lautner’s shirtless scene in New Moon.” (I admit I do like Twilight, but it has its time and its place, and neither one of these is in a serious theater.)

So I’ve become somewhat disenchanted with big old Broadway. Instead, I’ve grown used to my beloved Baltimore shows. Here in B’more, the audience is much less prone to silly star-stuck antics. (Granted, we don’t have as many famous people on stage.)

But the best thing about Baltimore Theater is that it is so intimate — you can see all the minute expressions on the actors’ faces.

This forces the Theater Powers That Be to place emphasis on acting and storytelling instead of spectacle. This kind of play may not be accessible to all, but when it hits, it hits powerfully.

Of course, Broadway is not the only option in New York. The country’s greatest city has many tiers of theater, and there are easy alternatives to Broadway.

I’ve recently seen inspiring off-Broadway shows and some even more obscure productions. I know I would have missed out on these gems if I’d stuck to the big-money plays.

I don’t think I would have looked beyond basic Broadway if I hadn’t come to Baltimore.

My experiences in this quirky city have developed my appreciation for small-scale theater everywhere. In fact, now it’s nearly all I want to see.