The Sapulpa Times reached out to H. Levi Smiley, President of the newly created Dirty Back Wall Theater Troupe to find out what this avant-garde theater company means for Sapulpa.
Smiley provided the following information:
“The Dirty Back Wall Theatre Troupe started as a group of theatre friends who got together over a year and a half ago. We at first wanted to do one production, in the horror genre, perhaps around Halloween, to bring something new to the Sapulpa area. Then that idea expanded into other genres.
The main question we had as a group was, “Does Sapulpa have room for two theatres?” We believe it does. The Sapulpa Community Theatre is committed to providing family-friendly fare, time-honored classics, and murder mysteries. We love Sapulpa Community Theatre. Most of us have worked with SCT and would love to do so in the future. Even our name The Dirty Back Wall Theatre Troupe is an homage to the often dusty, dingy back wall of SCT’s stage, the wall the audience never sees, the wall where the actors hang out, whispering grand ideas. And while our friends at SCT will continue to produce wonderful productions for the whole family, DBW will be focused on providing a destination, meant more for a Friday or Saturday night out. We haven’t limited our scope to the genres of horror, dark comedy, experimental, avant-garde, interactive, and immersive theatre. We have a lot of ideas and hope to add to, not take away from, the arts and culture of Sapulpa.
Thanks to the pandemic we have been set back a bit and we don’t have a firm timeline, but we would like to be up and running within the next year. We are looking for premises as well as donations and sponsors. We can be reached via email at dirtybackwalltheatretroupe@gmail.com.”
