Spyridon Stratigos, 77, has lived in Bloomington for nearly six decades and has acted since the 80s. But Friday night was his first time acting on stage in a decade.
He acted in the first play in a series of one-acts at the Constellation Playhouse, hosted by the collective Fourth Wall.
Stratigos, known to many as Strats, acted in "A Blooming of Ivy," playing a widow trying to find love again. Being a widower himself, Strats was in familiar territory.
“When I first read it I thought, ‘what a nice little simple play,’” Stratigos said. “It wasn’t that simple because there’s a lot of changes of moods, you know, there’s the nervousness and then the funniness of getting more confidence as the play evolves.”
With lots of positive feedback, even immediately after the play, the packed house seemed to appreciate the show. The frequent laughter and reactions from the crowd confirmed to Stratigos that the show went well.
“There’s nothing like a live audience, I mean seriously it’s just, every night is different and I’m very fortunate to be a part of it,” Stratigos said. “I thought it was a really fun little show. I mean it was short, sweet and funny.”
Fourth Wall founder and one of the producers of the event, Emelie Flower, didn’t know what to expect in terms of turnout as it was the company’s first event. The show, however, ended up being completely full. With around 95 attendees, every seat of the theater was filled, with extra seats added for audience members. They turned about 10 people away after reaching capacity.
Flower said Fourth Wall stemmed from years of talking and thinking about starting a group for likeminded artists with her friend Kate Braun, one of the other founders.
“We had ideas sitting at the kitchen counter and they were just ideas and then like about six months ago we finally said, ‘You know, let’s just do it,’” Flower said. “We had no idea how to do it or what we were doing and we’ve kind of just learned as we’ve gone.”
The event included three one-act plays of different lengths tackling themes of aging, family and faith. The first one, which Stratigos acted in, followed an older woman and a man, who are both widows. In the play, the man confesses his love for the woman and they spend the rest of their time on stage discussing growing old and moving on with someone new. The second play showed three siblings in a “dysfunctional” family as they learn to show their affection for one another.
The final, and longest, of the three plays told the story of a wife and husband, who had just had an accident that confined him to a wheelchair, discussing the idea of growing “old and mean,” among other things like questioning your faith.
All of the plays at Friday's event included volunteer actors. Flower said the group had worked with or seen many of the actors before, but they all came from different backgrounds with different experience levels.
“A big thing with this is we do have a lot of roles that are a little bit older, I think that’s kind of a hard thing for a lot of local actors who are above a certain age,” Flower said. “A lot of these stories do talk about aging or there’s older adult siblings, or there’s finding love again after being widowed or questioning your faith. So, there’s a lot of opportunity for actors who might not have roles elsewhere.”
With a goal of bringing people together and providing more opportunities for local theater, Fourth Wall aims to highlight talented screenwriters and local actors.
Even though many of the actors were local and came from different levels of experience, many of the attendees had experience in the film or theater industry.
“I mean this has been my life, you know, I’ve made movies since I went to film school at USC, you know, many many years ago, so I’m a great believer in the craft,” Angelo Pizzo, Bloomington filmmaker and producer of “Hoosiers” said. “There’s just not enough spaces, there’s not enough opportunities for people to even make a living at it, especially in Bloomington Indiana and especially in the state of Indiana.”
Pizzo, along with many other attendees, was drawn to the event due to his connections with those involved in the show and the opportunity for people to show off their work to the community. Especially in Bloomington, he believes there should be more opportunities for performers.
Jeff Freemas, 76, who came from Indianapolis to watch the show and support Stratigos, shared Pizzo’s sentiment. He admires the opportunities Fourth Wall offered local actors, writers and performers in Bloomington and emphasized the need for art in our society.
“Arts are always what leads culture and society,” Freemas said. “We need the arts even more now than ever.”
Freemas, who lived in Bloomington from 1967 to 1983, said there wasn’t anything like this when he lived here, and he enjoyed being able to see people’s work. He attended the show with his wife, Bonnie Maurer, who is a poet and artist and got a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from IU.
“Well, all three (plays) were provocative, I think,” Maurer said. “They brought up issues to think about later, not only while you’re watching, but to contemplate when you think back on what you saw and experienced by the actors.”
