A Thriving Theater Scene

Opera House Theatre Company

The Opera House Theatre Company is active at historic Thalian Hall. This troupe has been performing since 1985 and this season will present such outstanding musicals as South Pacific and Company. When you can see wonderful productions with music by Rogers and Hammerstein and Steven Sondheim for about the price of a burger and a beer in New York City, you know you’re blessed to live or visit here.

Opera House was founded by Lou Criscuolo, one of those rare individuals who was a New York actor born in New York. He trained at The Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan and performed in Broadway productions including "Man of La Mancha" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Criscuolo came to Wilmington to do a play at Thalian Hall after a renovation, and has been here since.

Red Barn Studio Theatre

Actress Linda Lavin and husband Steve Bakunas opened the Red Barn Studio Theatre in 2007, a combination art studio, theater and venue for art, acting and music classes. The pair’s first production was Doubt by John Shanely. Their second show was Collected Stories by Donald Margulies; both productions were highly praised. The facility is located on 3rd Street in downtown Wilmington.

Lavin appeared on Broadway in a number of productions, starting in 1960 in Oh, Kay. She won a lead actress Tony Award in 1987 for her work in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound and was nominated for a Tony three additional times. She also won two Golden Globe awards for her portrayal of the title character in the television show, Alice.

Lavin and Bakunas, a talented actor and gifted musician who appears frequently in Wilmington, are extremely active in and supportive of the Wilmington arts and historic communities.

Diverse Downtown Wilmington Venues

Other theatrical venues in downtown Wilmington are quite varied, and in some cases rather unique. For example, Level 5 at City Stage presents unusual performances such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fahrenheit 451 and The Full Monty in a century-old theatre on the fifth floor of a former Masonic temple. There’s even an adjacent rooftop lounge with spectacular views of the Cape Fear River and downtown Wilmington. In the building’s basement is the Soapbox Laundrolounge, a combination laundromat, saloon and entertainment facility.

Wilmington’s Guerilla Theatre Company’s live productions – sans glitzy sets, special effects and amazing costumes – focus on the characters portrayed by talented actors. In 2007, the group got raves for an anti-Shakespearian performance called, “I Hate Hamlet.” Formerly located in the Soapbox, Laundrolounge, Guerilla Theater recently moved into its own place, the Brown Coat Pub and Theater on Grace Street.

In all, upwards of a dozen or more theatre groups offer performances in a variety of locations including the recently renovated Hannah Block Historic USO Building (previously known as the Community Arts Center). A former World War II USO facility that opened the same month the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the center provided entertainment and socialization, not to mention coffee and donuts, for hundreds of thousands of servicemen stationed nearby. Today, arts programs are offered to the community in stage plays, dance, painting, vocal music, pottery and more.