After a nearly 22-season run, the final curtain is coming down this summer on the Broadway West Theatre Company in Fremont.
The little community playhouse — tucked inside the second floor of a brick building atop a coffee shop in the Irvington district — has been cranking out six full-length productions a year. It will close in June after the final show, its owners said.
“It’s just devastating to have to give it up,” Mary Galde, co-owner of the company, said in an interview Monday.
Galde and theater co-owner and founder Paula Chenoweth, both 72-year-old Fremont residents, attributed the closure to rising rents and the significant efforts required to keep the theater running
Chenoweth said Tuesday she has mixed feelings.
“We just loved it, loved being there, loved the season ticket-holders and all the support and encouragement they give you, even when you’re really tired,” she said. “I’m going to miss it every day.”
But, Chenoweth added, the “drudgery” of running the business — cleaning the theater after each show, lugging food and drinks upstairs for the pre-show lounge, making reservations, paying the bills — is taxing, and she is looking forward to a “more restful” life.
Locals value Broadway West for its accessibility and affordability.
“It’s nice to have good, live theater where I live, and not have to go to San Francisco,” Joan Matlack, a season ticket-holder at Broadway West, said in an email.
Chenoweth and Galde said the season ticket-holders who supported the company for decades are “like family.” Chenoweth calls every season ticket-holder a day in advance of the show to remind them of their reservations.
“The personal touch given by Paula and Mary makes it feel like a small town, but the performances are professional,” Matlack said. “The prices are good, and I’m sorry to see it go.”
The 75-seat theater also provided a space for local actors, directors and technical staff — many with other full-time careers — to express their creativity and pursue their passions.
“It’s a real small black box, but what it lacks in size it makes up in charm,” said John Rutski, who is currently directing an adaptation of Antigone at Broadway West.
Rutski said the community is losing “an artistic gem,” where people who cared about making quality productions more than money or fame put their “blood, sweat and tears” into each show.
“Without the art that happens at places like Broadway West … you don’t get that perspective that art can give you, where it can poke fun at the government or poke fun at a societal change that’s going on,” Rutski said.
“Art and theater in general can … light the fire in people to get them thinking beyond what they’re just seeing in black and white,” he said.
Chenoweth said she is proud of the variety of shows put on at Broadway West every year, which typically included six full productions, as well as shorts and stage readings in the summers.
“We did comedy and farce and drama and mysteries, a little bit of everything,” she said. “I don’t know how many places do that with the setting we had. I don’t think it’s anything that will happen again any time soon.”
Chenoweth and Galde met at another production company that Chenoweth founded in Milpitas in the 1980s, known as the North Valley Players. The acting troupe put on weekend shows at Milpitas City Hall, and the mayor’s office was used as the green room.
After Chenoweth left North Valley Players, Galde ran it for a few years, and in December 1996, Chenoweth started Broadway West. She said the community “wanted it so badly” there were 50 season ticket-holders before the first production even started its run.
The space where Broadway West operates will remain a home for the arts, at least for now. Chenoweth said a local improvisation company called Made Up Theatre will be moving into the space after Broadway West closes.
Chenoweth and Galde say they wish the company success and are happy to see local arts continuing in the venue.
Over the years, Galde and Chenoweth have played all the roles; acting in and directing shows, painting and designing sets, and managing productions, but they said they always had fun doing it.
“The arts, you know, if you love it, you love it,” Galde said. When the theater closes, she said, “there’ll be a bit of a hole there for a while.”
Broadway West Theatre Company
Where: 4000 Bay St., Fremont, second floor
Current show: “Antigone,” directed by John Rutski. Runs until April 14; shows on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights
Tickets and information: broadwaywest.org.