I am currently reading What Is A Playhouse? by Callan Davies (Routledge, 2023). If you are an early modern theatre geek, definitely check this book out. One of the focuses of Davies book is to catalogue and describe performance spaces other than the purpose-built theatres that we might normally identify as playhouses, such as the Globe and the Blackfriars. Touring performance was a regular practice for the acting companies of early modern England, and so when 21st century Shakespeare companies like the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company tour and adapt spaces for the purpose of performance, we are actually engaging in a performance tradition that goes back to Shakespeare’s own lifetime.

Davies writes “There is substantial evidence — perhaps the most plentiful in surviving records — of play and performance taking place in hall or room venues not specifically set aside for public playing but adaptable to it” (43). He describes the frequent use of multi-purpose spaces for play performances, meaning that an audience might experience a play performance in the same kind of space where other forms of entertainment as well as public meetings and other community events took place.

Pigeon Creek recently performed in the beautiful upstairs space of the Harris Building in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, pictured above as set up for our production of Measure for Measure. This is a space that also hosts weddings and other events. Built in 1892, it originally housed a fraternal organization called the Knights of Pythias. While its architecture was not originally designed for public play performance, it is, as Davies says “adaptable.”

Our 2024 season will feature a number of touring venues that we transform into performance spaces. We hope that one of the things that our audience can find joy in at our performances is the transformation of a space that doesn’t seem at first glance to be a theatre into a temporary and ephemeral playhouse.