Homewood Theatre sets up new home for 2019-20 season

In just three seasons, Homewood Theatre has gone from an initial idea to selling out shows.

With its move to a new spot at Brookwood Village, co-founder Kyle Bass said the theater, which started in 2016, can put on more shows and host them for more weekends.

“We’re excited to get our own space,” Bass said.

Homewood Theatre announced in May that it was moving from the Dance Foundation to the former Z Gallerie space at Brookwood Village, across from Books-a-Million. Bass said the Dance Foundation had been supportive but was too busy with its other classes and performances to give the space that the theater company wanted.

For most of its plays, Bass said, Homewood Theatre would have to build its sets so they could be taken apart each night and reassembled before the next day’s performance. They often held some of their rehearsals in his garage.

Their new home at the mall will be about the same size — seating a little over 100 people, he said — but with the advantage of a permanent spot and more storage for props and dressing rooms. It’s also centrally located to where most of their regular ticket holders live, and the mall offers plenty of easy parking.

“We’re tickled to get it lined up,” Bass said.

The theater company has been working since the announcement to transform the storefront into a stage. Bass said their plays will still be smaller musical and comedy productions, with six to eight actors. They’ll also have the capacity for one-off shows, such as improve troupes and work with Homewood High School.

In its recent seasons, Bass said the theater has sold out several of its performances, and they have had season ticket holders ask for more showings of each production, rather than a single weekend. Having a permanent home should help solve those problems.

For the 2019-20 season, Bass said Homewood Theatre will have six productions instead of five — adding a Christmas show — and add a second weekend of each production except for its first one. That will mean eight performances instead of four.

“We felt like we were selling out all the shows we were doing, so we needed to expand a little bit,” Bass said.

While some parts have already been cast, he said Homewood Theatre will hold open auditions for its entire season on Aug. 12, 7-9 p.m.

Homewood Theatre will start its fourth season off with “Bill Bugg and Friends: Songs from the Great American Songbook, Part 3” on Aug. 22-25.

This will be followed by “Girls’ Weekend” Oct. 24-Nov. 3 and “Inspecting Carol” Dec. 5-15.

Bass said the Christmas performance is about a group putting on a play of “A Christmas Carol” and “hilarity ensues.”

In the new year, the season will continue with “Isn’t it Romantic” on Feb. 20-March 1 and “Catch Me If You Can,” a murder mystery comedy that will run March 25-April 5. 

“We think that’s something kind of different we’ve not done before,” Bass said.

The season will close with “I Do! I Do!” April 30-May 10.

Shows run Thursday through Sunday each weekend. Individual tickets are $20 each, or a season ticket is $100. Visit homewoodtheatre.com for more information, and contact Bass at 873-1816 or kyle@homewoodtheatre.com for audition details.