Excerpt from Nantucket Today 9/06: John Shea
The Little Theatre That Could, Theatre Workshop turns 50
by Sandy MacDonald
A golden era
Under Dixon’s benevolent dictatorship, Theatre Workshop prospered. He alone chose the plays and cast them, and made no bones about his absolute power, reasoning that volunteerism had its rewards.
In 1962, TWN acquired an exclusive long-term lease for the Straight Wharf Theatre in winter. With his Broadway connections, Dixon was often able to score first regional rights. Producers didn’t see the small, under-populated island as competition.
Thus, in 1964-65, Nantucketers got to put on Peter Shaffer’s duo of comic one-acts, “The Private Ear and the Public Eye,” within months of its Broadway run.
In 1966, Barnes, unable to fund the necessary upkeep on her barn of a theater, sold it to Walter Beinecke. But again, TWN lucked out. Beinecke offered to let TWN stay on for 10 years, rent-free, if they covered repairs and taxes on the building.
It was then, despite the distractions of the flower-power era, that Theatre Workshop really kicked into gear. With a year-round lease, TWN was now able to mount shows in the summer, when there was real money to be made: a subgroup called the Summer Operating Board (aka SOBs) oversaw this initiative. In 1968 TWN launched a membership program which offered subscription discounts, while fostering audience loyalty.
It was also in 1968 that a young man named John Shea happened to wander into the theater late one April evening. The Bates College sophomore had only been in town a few hours when, having secured a boarding-house room and two jobs (as a dishwasher at Cy’s Green Coffee Pot and as a plumber’s assistant), he happened upon “this little jewel box of a theater,” where a rehearsal of O’Casey’s “Juno and the Paycock” was taking place.
An elderly couple motioned him to sit and observe, then, during the break, offered to introduce him to the director. “Oh, so you’re Irish,” said Dixon, upon hearing his last name. “Can you do an Irish accent?”
“I said, ‘I can fake one’,” said Shea today. “Mac said, ‘Go backstage. You’re the second Furniture Removal Man, and you’re about to enter’.”
“It was like heaven,” Shea said. “Suddenly I was in this play.” And the fact that he would actually get paid – “ten bucks a performance” – made him feel like a pro, as did Dixon.
“Mac harnessed the best in people and gave them a chance. He encouraged me, and never made me feel that I was any less qualified than the professionals who were working there at the time.”
Dixon accorded Shea ever-larger roles that summer and during several that followed. After attending the Yale School of Drama, Shea soon ascended to Broadway with a role in “Yentl” in 1975, and broke into TV and film. His role opposite Sissy Spacek in “Missing” in 1982 made him an internationally recognized star.
“When I think back to my roots,” he acknowledged, “Theatre Workshop is where I learned all the basic skills.”
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