SHARE

Greater Bridgeport's Vagabond Theatre Seeks Help To Stage Inaugural Season

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- John R. Smith Jnr. will do anything in his powers to keep producing the kind of shows expected by fans of the former Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport.

Betzabeth Castro will star in "The Scarlett Letter," which will be performed at the Vagabond Theatre Co. of Greater Bridgeport at Fairfield University.

Betzabeth Castro will star in "The Scarlett Letter," which will be performed at the Vagabond Theatre Co. of Greater Bridgeport at Fairfield University.

Photo Credit: contributed

Since the Bijou Theatre closed down, Smith, a Trumbull resident, has set up the theater group on the campus of Fairfield University. He has renamed it the Vagabond Theatre Company of Greater Bridgeport.  

He is asking the community to help support its inaugural season and has set up a GoFundMe page for that purpose. To date, the GoFundMe has raised over $800 of its $2,500 goal.

The next production at the Vagabond Theatre Company will be "The Scarlett Letter," which will be performed Oct. 21, 22, 23 and 28, 29, 30, with Friday and Saturday shows at 7 p.m. and Sunday shows at 5 p.m.  

Smith, co-founder of the Vagabond Theatre Company, explained that the productions staged by the Bijou Theatre had made a name for itself in Fairfield County.

"The Fairfield County area, for your local theater, is generally a more family-friendly classics-oriented type of programming," he said.

In Bridgeport, the Bijou Theatre had strived to create productions that broke that mold and produced works that aren't done in other places.  

"In producing the style of things that we did before and after I came on board, we carved out our own little niche."  

"Murder Ballad," "Take Me Out," and "Assassins" are social and emotional types of stories that "allowed the actors to really stretch their muscles, and we were very lucky to have a space that allowed us to do that," he said.

""What we're trying to do now at VTC is to build on that foundation of doing the rarely produced works," he said. "It basically allowed us to to define what we do and we aren't going to do the stuff that everybody else does. We want to do something that pushes the envelope and shoves it off the table if we can."

To make a donation to Vagabond Theatre Co.'s GoFundMe page, click here.

For more information on the Vagabond Theatre Company and its upcoming performances, click here.

To read an earlier Daily Voice story on Smith, click here.

to follow Daily Voice Bridgeport and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE