Edgewater's Redtwist Theatre has occupied a pair of adjoining storefronts on Bryn Mawr Avenue since 2002 (when the company was known as Actors Workshop Theatre), producing bracingly intimate stagings of mid-century works by the likes of Arthur Miller, Edward Albee and John Osborne, as well as more contemporary playwrights like Tracy Letts, Leslye Headland and David Lindsay-Abaire. Redtwist now hopes to double its size by expanding into two currently vacant storefronts adjoining its space.
"You might have noticed the vacant space next door…and next door to that," Redtwist heads Michael Colucci and Jan Ellen Graves wrote in an email message to supporters today (which also appears on the company's website). "So we put our thinking caps on. 'Hmmm, there is no true storefront theater multiplex anywhere in the city. And Redtwist's performance space could use a little breathing room.'"
Redtwist is seeking to raise $60,000 to secure the empty storefronts, formerly occupied by a small real estate agency, which it's now using on a temporary basis at a steep discount. Making its occupancy permanent and building out the space, the company says, would allow Redtwist to host more guest productions by young companies, hold classes, rent out the space for rehearsals and other events, and of course expand its own programming. Colucci and Graves say, "We don't know if this will all come together before another business rents the space at full market value, but we have to try—because opportunity is indeed knocking."