First Street Playhouse looking for smaller digs

Batavia's First Street Playhouse is going on hiatus.

The theater group told audiences in the program for its current play that it will be closing up shop at its location at First and Water streets at the end of November.

Members hope to find a smaller space and reopen before spring, said Eric Schwartz, executive director of the group.

"It makes sense to take all that energy that we're using keeping the theater afloat financially and send that energy to moving us to a new location," he said.

The group's Batavia space was too big and utility costs were too high, he said.

The group likely will stay in the Tri-Cities area, but with a new name. Officials have already had talks with the Geneva Cultural Arts Commission, Schwartz said.

"I would prefer to go somewhere where there isn't someone already established," he said.

If the troupe returns in February, they will have missed a handful of plays, workshops and comedy performances.

"This seems like the responsible thing to do," Schwartz said. "We could have kept it afloat until it crashed, but we're going to take it now while it's still afloat and rework it."

The group started when theater founder Julane Sullivan organized a group of actors to perform Shakespeare on Clark starting in the summer of 1999.

Earlier this year, the group split with Sullivan's All Dressed Up costume shop, which moved into the Campana building.