Season One: 2014 - 2015
5th Wall Began in 2014, meeting and performing in living rooms, bars, and coffee shops. Our staged readings were presented at Coastal Coffee Roasters in Summerville. Our makeshift rehearsal spaces were Breck's Restaurant and Tua Lingua. For our inaugural performances we infiltrated the local restaurant scene to produce six short plays by six local writers in six different venues at the same time, without audiences knowing what was happening until they were in the middle of a play. We staged readings of four new works, and finished the season at Threshold Repertory Theatre with Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men.
Season Two: 2015 - 2016
By our second season, we had found a home in Citadel Mall, transforming the abandoned shoe store into a 50-seat blackbox theatre. The mall had its challenges, as our audience could attest. But we made it into something special and it was our home for the next few seasons. This season saw our first full length workshop productions of previous staged readings. We put up 5th Wall Co-Founder Blair Cadden's The Stray Englishman, and New York Playwright Brian Petti's Like Drowning, with casts and directors collaborating closely with the writers to hone the working scripts into finished plays - solidifying our new work development model - which we still use today. We also produced a holiday show by local artist Kem Welch, and closed the season with the controversial Fat Pig by Neil Labute. Our new work submissions saw some growth, and we staged readings of several new plays. We also hosted a number of guests and special events, and invited local artists to showcase their work in our lobby.
Season Three: 2016- 2017
Season 3 saw our new play submissions grow even more, and we considered hundreds of plays for development. We kicked off the season with an midsummer exploration in devised theatre with the acrobatic workshop of Aglaonike's Tiger by Claudia Barnett. We took a farcical turn with the boisterous Clue The Musical, which became a crowdpleaser and our first sold out performance. Several other new works filled out the season, including new plays by 5th Wall co-founders Blair Cadden and Jason Olson, local favorite Richard Ridley, and Buffalo veteran playwright Donna Hoke.
We also made our first appearance at the annual Piccolo-Spoleto Festival, presenting Snowblind by Laura King.
We opened our doors to more local talent by hosting comedy troupes Interabang and Vernon Moses and writer Cameron Tubbs.
Season Four: 2017- 2018
Blair dubbed our fourth season "no apologies," which ended up being a bit of a portentous motto. New ownership at the mall began to take issue with some of our programming and wanted to censor what we were putting on the stage.
Rather than give in to our bigoted corporate overlords, we once again took our show on the road. However, before we packed up, we managed to put up our boldest and busiest season yet. We opened with a bang, with Spring Awakening. Staging such a large scale musical in our small space was a rewarding challenge. The intimate setting made for an in-your-face, immersive performance, and it was well received by critics and the sell-out crowds. We followed that up with a workshop production of Ghost Walks Into a Bar by Mora V. Harris, and left the mall on the heels of Big Love by Charles Mee. We may or may not have lost our security deposit due to all the glitter our resident drag queen, Ivana Jungmann left as part of our legacy.
Now that we were on the road again, we returned to Threshold Rep for our Piccolo offering. This time, we brought an original play by Blair Cadden and April Bandy-Taylor, and devised by the all-women cast. We consider Crazy Bitch to be a shining example of our new work mission in full effect. You can read the script and apply for the rights through the New Play Exchange.
SEASON ONE: 2014-2015
PRODUCTIONS:
A FEW GOOD MEN by Aaron Sorkin
STAGED READINGS:
THE STRAY ENGLISHMAN by Blair Cadden
RETREAT by Henry Snyder
RIOT ACT by Jason Olson
LIKE DROWNING by Brian Petti
SPECIAL EVENTS:
5TH WALL PRESENTS DATE NIGHT
5TH WALL PEP RALLY
WRITER’S BLOC WORKSHOPS
24 HOUR PLAY To Get to the Other Side by Blair and Jason
(WHAT IF? PRODUCTIONS PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL)
SEASON TWO: 2015-2016
PRODUCTIONS:
CRAZY LITTLE THING
(an evening of 10 minute plays)
THE STRAY ENGLISHMAN by Blair Cadden
HEART OF CHRISTMAS by Kem Welch
LIKE DROWNING by Brian Petti
FAT PIG by Neil Labute
STAGED READINGS:
NEVER LIVING by R.W. Ridley
SOMETHING WIKI THIS WAY COMES by David Graham
BEAUTIFUL BROKEN by Benjamin Brownson
SNOWBLIND by Laura King
ON THE ROOF by Donna Hoke
LIKE A PORCELAIN DOLL by Samantha Oty
GODMAKERS by Enrique Acosta
AGKAONIKE’S TIGER by Claudia Barnett
FAIR VISTA by Frederick Dejaco
THE MATING INSTINCT by Aren Haun
SPECIAL EVENTS:
ONE MAN CHRISTMAS CAROL by George Younts
AN EVENING OF THE ARTS (one act plays and visual art)
SAFE WORDS OPEN MIC SERIES
INTERABANG COMEDY - BLACK HAT TRILOGY
TO DATE OR NOT TO DATE (A dating game for actors)
SEASON THREE: 2016-2017
PRODUCTIONS:
AGLAONIKE’S TIGER by Claudia Barnett
CLUE THE MUSICAL by Peter DePietro, Tom Chiodo, Galen Blum, Wayne Barker, and Vinnie Martucci
THE WAY IT IS by Donna Hoke
CHRISTMAS IN CRISIS by Blair Cadden
ONE BEAR LAKE by R.W. Ridley
RIOT ACT by Jason Olson
SNOWBLIND by Laura King
STAGED READINGS:
SUNFLOWERS by Alexander Utz
GOD’S MADMEN by John Patrick Bray
ON THE EXPECTATIONS OF WHITE CHRISTMASES by Brian Petti
RETCON, OR VILLAIN by Micheal Smallwood
THE HOME SHOPPING NETWORK PAGEANT PLAY by Noah Diaz
ENDS OF THE EARTH by Lia Romeo
THE NIGHT WE BOMBED LINCOLN TOWING by Steven Young
SPACE GIRL and GHOST WALKS INTO A BAR by Mora V. Harris
SPECIAL EVENTS:
V DAY - A MEMOR, A MONOLOGUE, A RANT, A PRAYER
THE INADEQUATES (staged reading) by Cameron Tubbs
VERNON MOSES COMEDY
INTERABANG COMEDY - IMPROV
INTERABANG COMEDY - SORRY NOT SORRY
SEASON FOUR - NO APOLOGIES - 2017-2018
MAIN STAGE:
SPRING AWAKENING by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater
GHOST WALKS INTO A BAR by Mora V. Harris
BIG LOVE by Charles Mee
CRAZY BITCH devised by 5th Wall Productions & April Bandy-Taylor
STAGED READINGS:
DARK MATER by Jack Cassidy
SPECIAL EVENTS:
THE NIGHT OF THE IVANA
HALLOWEEN HORROR FEST
5TH WALL AND FRIENDS VARIETY SHOW
KAY THORNE - BETTER THAN TV
IVANA WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS
THE WELLS ALBUM RELEASE
SILENT TWIN
THE BIG LONESOME
UNCLE TIMS BENCH