HISTORY, NOW, AND WHAT’S TO COME
The Back Porch Players Founding Members, Summer 2002
In Houston, TX, the summer of 2002, a group of friends from the High School for the Performing a Visual Arts, including founding members Dan Gordon, Matt Hune and Morgan Rosse, came together to put on the play Brighton Beach Memoirs. They didn’t have a theatre space to perform in, or space that didn’t charge money rather, so they decided to use Dan's backyard. Since they had no budget, they went dumpster diving for wood and furniture to build the set. This group of friends created a stage from scratch on Dan’s back porch, along with improvising lights with clip lights and hemp chord, rehearsed and rehearsed...until, voila, theatre.
The debut production of Brighton Beach Memoirs went off beautifully. Two performances on the back porch were followed by a closing performance at Bien Venue Theatre. Soon after , they set off to get their non-profit status as a 501(c)3 organization.
In 2003 Nick Collins and Troy Scheid joined the company.
Growing steadily in size and patronage, they mounted productions of WAITING FOR LEFTY in 2003, BALM IN GILEAD in 2004, continuing with the tradition of opening on the back porch and then moving to a professional theatre space for the duration of the run. In 2005, The Players produced MOONCHILDREN which became their largest scale production with a very successful 3-week run at Stages Repertory Theatre.
Soooo, What are they doing now? The Back Porch Players is a group of working theatre actors/professionals that are actively involved in their own projects as well as being a part of this company. You will find them in Houston, New York City, Chicago and occasionally Los Angeles. Soon, the Back Porch Players will come together again to a porch near you!!!
. . ..stay tuned for their next show!
These people we like A LOT:
- Rosse family
- McGinty family
- Hune family
- Collins family
- Scheid family
- Andrew Gordon
- Gordon family
- Joan Murrin
- Bobby Ellerman
- Robert Singleton
- Suzie Jennings
- Ann James
- Peter Garcia
