CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Lynne Bolton and Michael Kopko from the White Heron Theatre Company on Nantucket.
NANTUCKET – The White Heron Theatre Company, which was born with connections to Yale University’s distinguished acting program and began its life in New York, will soon have a permanent home on Nantucket—in the form of a $5 million building in the heart of the town center.
White Heron Artistic Director Lynne Bolton began the professional equity theater company in New York in 2004 with Earle Gister, who was the dean of the graduate acting program at Yale.
She works now with Michael Kopko, who serves as executive director of the White Heron.
A rendering of the new theater planned by the White Heron Theatre Company on Nantucket.
They recently broke ground on the new theater, which Kopko says will be “an iconic building” on the island. Nantucket’s rules forbid construction downtown during the summer, so the seven-foot hole will wait until after Labor Day for the work to begin.
Kopko, who grew up in Westport, Connecticut, and who studied Stanislavski Method Acting as a teen, moved to Nantucket in 1977 at age 18. Over the years, he has put down roots on the island, raising a family and even serving as a selectman for six years. He is also a musician who performs locally.
When the theater company moved to Nantucket three years ago, the organizers had no intention of having a building, Kopko said. But they acquired one of the rare empty buildable lots downtown and put up a tent.
A rendering of another view of the new theater planned by the White Heron Theatre Company
The lot is located behind the Whaling Museum on land that had been filled in long ago. They purchased a large tent and 160 theater seats from a church in New Orleans and began offering a rotating repertory season of theater productions, using professional Equity union actors.
In a nod to what could be considered an old-fashioned style of theater production, the troupe puts on three plays that rotate, playing at the same time during the season, with the same actors appearing in different roles in all of the plays, Bolton said.
Bolton said when the theater was first formed, it was committed to work on mid-century existential plays and plays by Chekhov, but its offerings have developed into both classical plays and new work.
Kopko said issues like noise and weather caused White Heron to consider constructing a building. They made it through the regulatory hoops on the island, winning approval for construction from all the necessary boards, including the historic districts commission.
The White Heron plans year-round programming on Nantucket with not just theater but also workshops for actors and playwrights. Those will take place under a new entity they have created, the Nantucket Theatre Institute, which is committed to the development of new plays.
Bolton said, “We have some exciting programming coming.”
In the meantime, fundraising continues for the $5 million project to construct a new building and have some left over for the future.
“We’d like to be able to create a fund that will help us maintain the facility going forward and keep the programming going,” Kopko said.
This summer the White Heron’s productions will take place at the Nantucket Dreamland Theater.
The season begins on July 1 and 2 with the Long Wharf Theater Play Collaboration, the presentation in a reading of a new work in development. Last year’s workshop production moved to the Long Wharf and then on the Broadway. This year’s production is Samuel D. Hunter’s “The Harvest.”
Also on the boards this summer is “The Gin Game” playing July 6 to 22; and “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” playing August 22 to September 9. The play is being directed by the producer of the recent Broadway production.
Listen below to Lynne Bolton and Michael Kopko discuss the White Heron Theatre Company.
