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Though it’s been nestled in a storefront space on Seventh Street at Long Beach Boulevard for two decades, The Garage Theatre is still no less edgy than when it was first founded 25 years ago — and no less rooted in community.
With a self-described history of creativity, passion and innovative offerings, The Garage is “dedicated to producing independent, non-commercial performances that resonate with the human experience,” according to its season announcement.
Co-founder Eric Hamme said in an interview that he and fellow co-founder Matthew Anderson knew for sure that the Long Beach community valued the theater after the 2020 pandemic shuttered it and donations came pouring in — more than double what they expected — allowing The Garage to reopen again in 2022.
“We’re so grateful to be part of this community,” Hamme said. “I feel more honored to be a part of it now than ever before.”
Perhaps one of the reasons for the theater’s longevity — and what differentiates it from other local theaters — is that there is no single artistic director. Instead, a collaborative ethos pervades The Garage.
Directors, playwrights, set and lighting designers, and others are given the freedom to exercise their imaginations in staging shows, with many coming back to the theater as volunteers while holding professional gigs elsewhere, Hamme said.
Though Hamme and Anderson ask that productions fit The Garage aesthetic, no one could ever really define what that is.
“The theater is not the vision of one person,” he said. “It’s built as a community. We put very few limitations on creativity. They know our aesthetic, but they get to express themselves. We try to get out of their way. It’s fun, creative, collaborative — it’s that kind of environment.”
So named because the company was literally founded when a group from Orange Coast College’s theatre department staged a show in a friend’s garage, The Garage Theatre now has 90 performed shows under its belt, including 20 world premieres.
“We didn’t have the resources to wow anyone with the latest and greatest in technology,” Hamme said of the theater’s beginning. “It really became about creating an atmosphere, an environment to break down that wall between performer and audience. Everyone’s there together in a shared experience.”
The theater first put on shows to entertain and “impress” their friends, Hamme said. But then more people started coming, and the group of friends grew, with some contributing or volunteering.
“That’s how we’ve always seen and treated our audience — we’re friends,” Hamme said. “Anyone who chooses to drive to a little sketchy part of 7th Street and park their car and walk into this little storefront and hand over their money — it’s incredible.”
The theater’s 25th season lineup includes shows that fit the theater’s mission of “bringing unique and thought-provoking performances to the community” and “promise to captivate and inspire.”
Currently on stage through April 5 is the world premiere of Ryan McClary’s “The Tragedy Giftshop.” The play is set in the small town of Townesville where a new shop opens in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy, highlighting the “intersection of grief and consumerism in modern day America.”
Anderson, who is directing this play, notes that taking small steps like going out to a theater to participate in something larger than ourselves is important when political events make the world feel like it’s turning upside down.
“When we break free of our little isolated bubbles of our lives, we have the opportunity to experience something new, feel some feels, and think some thoughts,” he says.
The season continues in May with “The Call List” by Brian James Polk, about a law firm assistant who must phone a list of strangers to let them know that a client has passed away. Directed by Diana Kaufmann, the play brings to life how “one night can change a life forever.”
“Witch,” written by Jen Silverman and co-directed by Hamme, follows next in July and August, a play in which the Devil prowls a small village seeking to make Faustian bargains, only to be refused by a woman branded the “town witch.”
Continuing the season in September and October is “Predictor” — written by Jennifer Blackmer and directed by Jessica Variz — a story about how one woman radically advanced women’s bodily autonomy.
Set in the 1960s, the play focuses on Margaret Crane, who invented the world’s first home-pregnancy test, before which women had to wait weeks to know if they were expecting, having to first make an appointment with a doctor and then await the results of a urine test.
Rounding out the season in November and December is Part 3 of Jamie Sweet’s local melodrama, “Long Beach is Sinking! Or, Hard Times are Better than a Lifetime of Injustice.” Directed by Rob Young, the annual holiday series centers on the Long Beach Pike and the “local heroes who save it from oblivion.”
The Garage is offering a $150 annual subscription to see all of the above shows — as many times as you like, based on available seating — and includes 10 free drinks plus a one-time free friend ticket.
I have invariably found The Garage Theatre’s productions to be compelling, well-acted and thought-provoking — surprisingly so given its intimate, somewhat scrappy venue. There’s not much room between the set, actors and audience, allowing its shows to have an immediacy and in-your-face quality that makes them feel visceral and alive.
And as Anderson notes, attending such lively theater right now may be just the communal remedy we need in a time of uncertainty and fear for many.
“It is in the coming together of community, to share in something that only exists in this moment,” he says, “where change happens, and we become somehow stronger, together.”
The Garage Theatre is at 251 E. Seventh St., with metered parking available on surrounding streets. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Tickets are $28 or $20 for students, seniors, teachers and military members. Two-for-one tickets are available Thursdays with promo code TWOFER. Tickets may be purchased at the theatre’s box office 30 minutes before each show or online at TheGarageTheatre.org.