How We Found Our Harbor: The Origin Story

Written by Jordan Matt-Zeitler

Tonight, the lights come up on Gooseberry Lane. It is the first production of Harbor Theatrics’ inaugural season, the world premiere of a new play by local playwright Jim Danek, and the beginning of a season that we have spent months dreaming about, planning, building, and occasionally wondering if we were completely crazy for attempting.

But before we look ahead, opening night feels like the perfect opportunity to tell the story of how Harbor Theatrics came to be. Because, appropriately enough, it started with Harbor.

Before Harbor

Not very long ago, we were Valley Park Community Theatre. There were things about VPCT that we were incredibly proud of, but we were also struggling to find our footing. We knew we wanted to produce theatre. We knew we wanted to create opportunities for artists. But we were beginning to realize that the organization we had built wasn't quite matching the vision we had for its future.So we started having conversations.

What should this company become?

What kind of theatre did we want to produce?

Who did we want to serve?

And, perhaps most importantly, what did we want people to feel when they worked with us?

At about the same time, several of us had just shared an experience that would ultimately answer those questions for us.

A Little Show Called Harbor

We had just finished a production of Chad Beguelin's Harbor at the Theatre Guild of Webster Groves. It was an intimate production with a tiny cast, but the group surrounding that show became incredibly close. Jordan Matt-Zeitler, Lisa Pearson, Denise Chappell, Aarin Kamphoefner, Ling Pace, and Max Friedman weren't simply people who had worked on a production together. We had become a family.

Anyone who has spent enough time in theatre knows that occasionally a show comes along where something just happens. You can't manufacture it. You can't schedule it into the rehearsal calendar. Somewhere between rehearsals, late nights, inside jokes, stressful moments, opening night, and closing a show together, a group of people becomes something more. Harbor was one of those experiences.

And when the conversation turned back to what we were going to do about the future of Valley Park Community Theatre, Lisa Pearson said something remarkably simple:

“Let's just form a new company and call it Harbor!”

Sometimes the right idea doesn't require a committee meeting. We knew almost immediately. Harbor. That was it.

More Than a Name

The more we thought about the name, the more it represented exactly what we wanted this company to become. A harbor is a place of refuge. It's somewhere you can come in from rough waters. Somewhere you can catch your breath. Somewhere you can find other people before heading back out into the world.

We wanted to create that for artists. We wanted a theatre where someone could walk through the doors without knowing anybody and eventually realize they had found their people. We wanted playwrights to have a place where someone would take a chance on their work. We wanted actors to have opportunities to play roles they might not get somewhere else. We wanted directors, designers, musicians, technicians, volunteers, and people who had always wondered whether there might be a place for them in theatre to hear one very simple answer:

Yes. There is.

That's where our motto came from:

Everyone has a place.

Those aren't just words we put underneath a logo. They're the promise we're trying to build this company around.

Building the Family

The group that came together through Harbor became the foundation of Harbor Theatrics: Jordan, Lisa, Denise, Aarin, Ling, and Max. As the organization began taking shape, that family grew. Bruce Jehling, Richard Matt-Zeitler, and Amy Hanson joined us on the Board of Directors, bringing their own experience, talents, ideas, and passion to what we were building.

And the family hasn't stopped growing. Every actor who auditions. Every volunteer who picks up a paintbrush. Every playwright who sends us a script. Every musician who sits down at the piano. Every technician who hangs a light. Every person who buys a ticket and takes a chance on a show they've never heard of before.

They're becoming part of this story, too.

And Now, Opening Night

Which brings us to tonight. Tonight we open Gooseberry Lane. There is something wonderfully appropriate about beginning Harbor's first season with a world premiere. We could have chosen something familiar. We could have built our inaugural season around titles everyone already knows. Instead, we're choosing to take chances.

We're starting with Jim Danek's Gooseberry Lane. We'll continue with Guest Artist by Jeff Daniels. We'll bring another world premiere to the stage with Good Show, Everybody. We'll welcome playwrights and their stories from across the country through the Safe Harbor Play Festival. And eventually we'll close our inaugural season by giving a brand-new musical its opportunity to come to life.

At our new home at The Screenhouse O'Fallon, we're also building something bigger than a traditional season of plays. Cabarets. Improv. Open mics. Workshops. Script readings. Family programming. Special events. New works. We want the lights on as often as possible. We want people coming through those doors. We want connections being made. We want Harbor to actually feel like a harbor.

This Is Only the Beginning

It's funny to think that all of this can be traced back to one little production and one almost offhand suggestion: Let's just form a new company and call it Harbor. So we did.

We didn't know exactly what Harbor would become. Truthfully, we still don't. And that's one of the most exciting things about it. We're building this company in real time, alongside the artists and audiences who are choosing to build it with us.

There will be successes. There will be mistakes. There will undoubtedly be moments when we have to change course. But the reason we started this company will remain the same. Six people worked on a show together. They became a family. That family decided to build a place where other people could find that same feeling. And tonight, the lights come up on the next chapter.

And To My Harbor Family

Before I close, there is something I need to say to the people who started this crazy adventure with me; Lisa, Denise, Aarin, Ling, Max, Bruce, Rich, and Amy:

I don't know if I can adequately put into words what each of you means to me. What started as a group of people making theatre together has become something so much bigger in my life. You have become my Harbor Family, and I love each of you dearly.

Thank you for believing in this idea. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for the meetings, the rehearsals, the late nights, the laughter, the disagreements, the ridiculous ideas that somehow became real ones, and all the moments when we've looked at each other and thought, Are we really doing this?

We are. And I couldn't be more excited about where we're going.

Tonight, as those lights come up, I hope each of you takes a moment to look around and realize what we've created together. This isn't just my dream. It belongs to all of us. Every one of you has put a piece of yourself into Harbor, and Harbor would not exist without you.

I am so incredibly proud of us. I'm excited for the shows we haven't produced yet, the artists we haven't met yet, the audiences we haven't welcomed yet, and the memories we haven't made yet. Most of all, I'm incredibly grateful that I get to do all of it with people I love.

We set out to create a place where everyone could belong. Somewhere along the way, we created that place for ourselves, too.

I love you, Harbor Family. Now let's see where this thing takes us.

— Jordan

Welcome to our inaugural season.

Welcome to Gooseberry Lane.

And most importantly…Welcome to Harbor.

Whatever your story, there's a place for you at Harbor.