'Nostalgia' no growth strategy

I can’t help feeling I’m seeing the blind destruction of one of my favorite local institutions.

Rabbit Run Theater has been in operation for more than 60 years and is one of the few barn theaters surviving in the country. It’s hosted the likes of Dustin Hoffman and Hume Cronyn through its history and for years has enjoyed broad support from the community.

I’m just not sure why there seems to be a concerted effort on the part of the organization, now, to splinter that support.

Rabbit Run’s season this year seems designed to appeal only to the over 70 crowd and diehard theater-goers. The season includes:

*Forever Plaid

Four young men donning the loudest of plaids and singing in the closest of harmony bring the joy and innocence of the music of the 1950’s to life in this uproarious revue.

((Fogies of the world relive your youth!!))

* Having Our Say :The Delany Sisters` First 100 Years

Each over 100 years old, Sadie and Bessie Delany take us on a remarkable journey as they recount the last hundred year’s of our nation’s history as seen through the eyes of these two pioneering African-American professionals.

((Are your sh*tting me? Black history in lily white Madison? Remember the trouble we had casting Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy?))

*Swing

Experience the joy and exuberance of SWING!, the `feel-good musical` that celebrates the music and dance of the swing era. Be enthralled as some of Northeast Ohio’s most talented young adults strut, shuffle, and stomp to the music of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and many others.

((More fogeys dancing in the aisles))

* Little Women - The Broadway Musical

Follow the adventures of Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy in this exhilarating new musical based on the beloved novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

((Can’t find a story from the last 100 years, huh?))

* Fallen Angels

Watch the hilarity unfold in this classic Noel Coward comedy as the ups and downs of marital monotony and the thrill of rekindled former romances are outrageously explored.

((A 1923 Noel Coward play? And don’t give me any of that “as relevant today as when it was written” crap.))

The theater has also upped its ticket prices, going to $17 a ticket for the musicals.

All of this, to me, seems designed to appeal to an aged audience or one composed of diehard theater-goers. It’s losing sight of the fact, however, that your aged audience is not going to be there forever; and by appealing to only the elderly, you’re ignoring the task of building a base of Rabbit Run patrons for the future.

This geriatric slate of offerings will also prompt the Rantmeister clan to forego Rabbit Run auditions this spring. This summer…for the first time since we returned to Ohio….the Rantmeister clan will be absent from the Rabbit Run stage. Let’s see…”Fallen Angels” at Rabbit Run versus “The Wizard of Oz” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” to be presented this summer at the Ashtabula Arts Center…it’s no contest…we’ll take our costumes and greasepaint to Ashtabula this year.

In a barn theater like Rabbit Run, nostalgia is nice and certainly has its place. But the past shouldn’t be pursued exclusively at the expense of the future.