MI StrEATS

Alcohol aint the answer but it makes you forget the question...

Weekend starts at 5 and so we do tonight!

Closed for private event tonight

Welcome Heritage High School Class of 1993

(wow your old😂)

“In community theater, you can go to a show and find out your dentist turns out to be an excellent vocalist. And you learn this little extra thing about somebody you know or somebody you have interacted with in some completely other way. And that's always really fun for people. On opening night of Streetcar named Desire, I overheard someone saying to a cast member, 'I came to see this person, but I didn't know that you were in it, too! This is so great!' That was that cast member's first show ever, and that feeling is what gets people coming back for more.

I think community theater can help by providing another ‘third place’ to the community. Churches, community centers, the bar, those are all third places—places that aren’t home and aren’t work. Places societies have used for community. And I think recent generations started to get away from the third place because the third place has become the internet, then the pandemic sped that up.

But now that we're here on the other side, we’re finding that this idea of the third place is important to the survival of society. Community theater was a third place, and I am striving to get it back there.

This season, the focus at Pit and Balcony is answering the question, 'Why are we doing this?'. I'm happy to talk about all the shows all the time because I think that the stories we tell are important and we are intentional about the stories we tell, but this season it's really about the ‘why’. For me, it's about bringing the community back together and being that third place, whatever that means to people in 2023. In 1968, it meant a bridge game constantly going on in the basement. People would do their scene at rehearsal and run back downstairs and play their hand. On Saturdays, guys would build sets and women would make a potluck dinner. This was the third place.

It's not exactly that anymore. And that's okay– I don't need a bridge game going on in the basement all the time, but my ‘why’ is the idea of that, a home-like place for performers and designers and also the audience. That we’re all warmly welcomed.”

– Amy Spadafore - Managing Director Pit & Balcony Theater

“I’m the oldest of nine grandchildren and the only girl, and was always a ham, As a kid, I would rally my cousins and we’d put on reindeer antlers and perform skits for the family at Christmas.

When I was a kid, my mom would do sign language interpreting at Midland Center for the Arts, and the first show I ever saw was the Velveteen Rabbit. I think I was four and it was a dress rehearsal – I remember sitting way back in the theater by myself and watching my mom dressed up as a ragdoll, doing sign language. I don't know if I was hooked at that moment, but that is a distinct early memory of mine.

We feel something when we do this thing. I feel accepted here. If you want to get dry about it, we can look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs– community theater touches on love, acceptance, self realization, building something, creating something, being a part of something - that's why I chose community theater.”

– Amy Spadafore - Managing Director Pit & Balcony Community Theatre

1/2 off drinks all night tonight!

Lunch 11-2
Dinner and drinks 5-9

Never Waste Herbs Again With These Simple Tips

Good morning Mi Gente!! We are now offering healthier alternatives to our Tacos!! You can now choose for all dishes!! Including , and Tacos & !! Stop in today to try it out!! 😋

So good!