Midpoints: Farewell, Fiddlehead

When the Fiddlehead Theatre company purchased the old Norwood Theater building 13 years ago, people in the town gave the news mixed reviews. Many were saddened that Norwood Cinema had closed, ending an era when local families could see a movie together and older children could have a safe place for weekend entertainment right in the center of town.

Non-profit Fiddlehead promised to be a community theater and to play an important role in enriching life in Norwood. The Board of Selectmen welcomed the group to town and entrusted it with the responsibility of being an organization with ties to its host community.

There was a great deal of excitement when the theater was renovated and lovingly restored to its former glory as a venue for live performances. It was a joy to see a show there, to hear the orchestra warming up in the pit, to watch earnest young actors treading the boards, learning their art, and earning their theatrical stripes.

Fiddlehead found a home in Norwood, but it soon became evident that the theater company was not interested in being a place where Norwood could find a home in the arts. Although some residents loved what Fiddlehead was doing, others were turned off and turned away by those in charge.

Poor decisions, like producing “The Wizard of Oz,” while knowing full well that Norwood High School was already committed to putting on the show, drove a wedge between Fiddlehead and members of the community. Local talent was not welcome on the Fiddlehead stage; the company preferred to look elsewhere for actors, singers, dancers and musicians for its musical productions.

Recent comments by Fiddlehead’s executive director Meg Fofonoff confirmed that Fiddlehead was not a good fit for the town.

 “We’ve tried it in Norwood, and it’s just not the perfect setting for us,” Fofonoff said, alleging that staying in Norwood would make it difficult to meet its long-term creative and financial goals. She claimed surprise at the number of Norwood residents who didn’t even know Fiddlehead existed. That certainly is surprising, since the marquee is prominent in the center of town and virtually everyone sees it on a regular basis.

Fofonoff, who hopes to find an urban location and expand the company’s repertoire from traditional musicals to newer, more serious works, claims, “Those don’t work in the suburbs because there isn’t a volume of people interested in that.”

Tell that to the Walpole Footlighters, who have continuously staged varied productions for 84 years. A true community theater, the Footlighters are also an award-winning company that is not afraid to produce cutting edge works in the suburbs. Their Nov. 2005 production of “The Laramie Project,” by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project, which explores the events surrounding the murder of college student Matthew Shepherd in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998, earned three awards and was nominated for six additional awards at the Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theaters 2005 festival.

In 2006, the company won an award for Best Lighting Design for a play for its production of Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance,” a well deserved nod to its high production values.

You will invariably find Norwood residents in the audience at the Footlighters’ theater on Scout Road in Walpole. And you’ll find them on the stage there, too, and working behind the scenes.

But survival is difficult for any artistic endeavor in the current economic climate. This past week, the venerable North Shore Music Theater, a highly-regarded, not-for-profit organization that staged award-winning musical productions at its theater in Beverly, gave its last performance, unable to raise the $2 million that it needed to stay open.

Wherever the Fiddlehead Theater company decides to put on its shows, those in Norwood who love the theater, this writer among them, wish them success. It is vitally important for theater organizations of all sizes to attain their goals in order to keep the arts thriving and alive in our society.

Norwood resident Candace Leary’s Midpoints column appears Mondays in the Transcript.