- April 26, 2024
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John Sbordone hopes to target the younger generation in Palm Coast with the thought-provoking lineup of City Repertory Theatre at Hollingsworth Gallery.
John Sbordone
Age: 66
Occupation, title: Artistic Director and Co-founder of City Repertory Theatre
Family: wife, Jane; two children,
Quirky fact: He is an inveterate golfer. If theater wasn’t life, golf would be life, he says.
While rehearsing with Evelyn Lynam on her entrance as a woman in the final moments of childbirth for the City Repertory Theatre’s production of “Talking With…” John Sbordone, artistic director and co-founder of the theater, decided to take matters into his own hands.
Having witnessed the births of his own children, Sbordone proceeded to demonstrate. He waddled a few steps, screamed agonizingly and fell to the floor, panting. He then crawled the rest of the way across the room.
This caused infectious laughter, but Lynam promptly recreated the moment. That scene was the highlight of the show.
For Sbordone, it’s about training the actors to know the characters — not just the lines, but the movements and personality: who they really are.
“John is a minimalistic director,” said Diane Ellertsen, co-founder of City Repertory Theatre. “He doesn’t believe in using a lot of props to make the actor look better. He believes the actor can look great by themselves given the proper direction.”
Sbordone and Ellertsen founded CRT after retiring from their positions at the Flagler Playhouse last year, in hopes of bringing a thought-provoking, New York-style, storefront theater to Flagler County.
The theater made a home at Hollingsworth Gallery, with an attempt to piggyback on the art atmosphere that Curator J.J. Graham has created.
“I’ve always believed that theater is something that needs to move people, to make people think, to inform and to entertain,” Sbordone said. “And I think a lot of theaters have forgotten the inform part.”
The theater’s lineup of “The Laramie Project,” “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” and “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds,” was selected to both inform and entertain. But Sbordone acknowledges that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that some may find the subject matter too controversial.
“It’s not cotton candy,” he said. “ … If all you watch is Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies from the 1950s and that’s where you are, we’d love for you to come and see what we do, but it might not be of your taste.”
That’s what makes the City Repertory Theatre somewhat of an experiment. As is the case with any theater in its first year, filling seats can be challenging, and neither Sbordone nor Ellertsen is being paid for their efforts as yet; the theater is just making enough money to pay for the royalties on the next show.
As artistic director of the Flagler Playhouse, Sbordone brought in “Agnes of God,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which he felt were thought-provoking but also mainstream enough to sell tickets. Sbordone and Ellertsen left the playhouse in part to have even more freedom with play selection. They trust their new lineup will still attract retirees as well as 40-, 30- and 20-somethings.
Sbordone has at least one vocal supporter in Maxine Kronick.
“We are a county that should encourage the arts,” said Kronick, founder of Theateriffic, a performing arts program and summer camp for children. “ … John is offering a season of semi-professional fine theater. And I hope that people will realize the quality and the talent at City Rep. and that they will come to Hollingsworth.”
As Palm Coast grows, Sbordone sees his theater and the gallery in which it calls home an asset that the city government and chamber should be promoting.
“It’s the type of play that innovative, edgy business people would want to see,” Sbordone said. “They will go to Orlando or Jacksonville, but you can sell this as part of the town; this is the beginning.”
