PRHMUSIC&ART
I T H E AT E R
have a deep, passionate love for musical theater. I love when a character is too emotional to speak how they are feeling, so they sing or put it to movement, instead. But I know that musicals can be seen as “cheesy” or “fluffy” to many people. Enter 11th Hour Theater Company, a boutique musical theater company based in South Philly. Flashy showstoppers and big budgets won’t be found here. 11th Hour brings small, intimate, character-driven musical theater to Philadelphia with 21 full-scale musicals prior to this season. Steve Pacek, who co-founded the company 17 years ago, recently transitioned from Artistic Associate to Artistic Director. He and his team strive to find an accessible way for audiences to come and experience the magic of a musical. “We want to find a way that doesn’t scare people but also celebrates all parts of the musical.” The company has received more than 50 Barrymore Award nominations (with 15 wins) since its inception. When asked why 11th Hour solely focuses on musicals, Pacek says it comes down to the obvious - music. “We all have a passion and a love of music and the power of music. It’s a time machine that can transport you to different emotions, different memories, different feelings. So, musicals are that part of theater that has that magic portal to be able to transport an audience to places far away from reality.” 11th Hour likes to push the limits of what people expect from musicals. In fact, Pacek is thinking of new and immersive ways of presenting them. “What I’m really interested in exploring is how people experience theater differently. What I mean by that is by thinking outside of the box of a theatrical space and possibly doing some more site-specific things. How do you take something like a show and put it into a real-world environment like a bar and still create the art form we create which is musical theater?” The 21-22 season will take place at Christ Church Neighborhood House in Old City. The venue is the biggest that the company has used at 126 seats, but the feel is still going to be small and intimate. The first show, Soon, follows a woman as she hunkers down in her home during the end of the world. Sound familiar? Though Pacek didn’t say the show was necessarily inspired by the pandemic, it was part of why it was chosen for their first production in 18 months. “Hopefully, we provide some gateway for our audience to see situations that they have been in, or they can kind of see people working their way through difficult situations so if they are in a difficult situation, they’d be inspired because they’ve seen something like that happen,” he explains. “They have an example to help them get through it.” As for theater in a post-covid world, Pacek is looking forward to a time where we can be in our own “Roaring ‘20s.” “I definitely hope we can experience being in a room with people, laughing and singing along carefree without having to wear a mask; where we can get back to that point and enjoy ourselves again fully.” In the meantime, Pacek is on a mission to inspire kindness. “If I can help inspire the community here at 11th Hour... and help inspire the world around us to practice empathy and what that looks like, I believe the world can start to get back to being a kinder experience and place.” Soon opens on October 28th and runs through November 7th. A world premiere concert, PROUD: A Cabaret in Color, takes place January 14th to 23rd. A final production, running April 23rd to May 1st, is Sweetwater, about the female pilots of World War II. For tickets and up-to-date health/safety info, visit 11thhourtheatercompany.org. PRH
11 HOUR THEATER COMPANY TH
On a mission to inspire kindness
by Marialena Rago
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| ROWHOME MAGAZINE | October / November / December 2021
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