About ITW

Just a little History!

Island Theatre Workshop was founded in 1968 by Mary Payne as a summer workshop for children, calledThe Children’s Theatre. The overall program quickly expanded to include Island teenagers in the winter. Two of the first productions were Antigone and The Barretts of Wimpole Street which starred Gayle Stiller, a former Board member, as Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Nancy Luedeman, Mary’s cousin and a present Board member, helped in all ways—including acting, typing, lighting shows, publicity, etc.. Nancy now describes herself as “the oldest living member of Children’s Theatre.”

Now in its 42nd year, Children’s Theatre has performed original musicals every summer. (The only exception was in 1975, when Mary found a version of Peter Pan and wrote lyrics for the then music director to compose to.) The program for young people, both Islanders and off-Islanders, includes acting, singing, dance, theatre games, improvisation and beach days.

For the first six years, Mary was the sole director, both summer and winter, of all Children’s Theatre. Among the many adult shows she directed were her own original pieces, plus others such as The Rainmaker, Separate Tables and Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was performed outdoors at the Field Gallery. Speaking of theatre spaces, Island Theatre Workshop has always been, and continues to be, a “Vagabond” Theatre organization without a home of its own. Grace Church has always welcomed it warmly, until The Children’s Theatre grew too big for the space and needed to move. Both adult shows and children’s plays have performed on every possible playing space on the Island, with the exception of the present MVRHS Performing Art Center. In the very early seventies, a musical that Mary had written traveled with its entire cast up to Boston to be filmed for television. Other off-Island performances have been The Crucible in Falmouth and, in 1992, One More River (an original play about Harriet Tubman by Lee Fierro) traveled to Boston and the following year to Newark, New Jersey.

In 1972 Mary produced her Passion play And He Shall Reign with a large cast. The play, along with its prequel Who is this King of Glory? was revived in 1976 with a cast of 120 and about 60 Island volunteers doing backstage and technical work. The plays were produced by the Island Clergy Association in conjunction with Island Theatre Workshop, Inc. which had by this time become incorporated as a non-profit organization. In the mid seventies, Island Theatre Workshop expanded rapidly. Lee Fierro joined the organization as Associate Artistic Director. Mary and Lee became a team. In Children’s Theatre Mary wrote the story and lyrics, Lee composed the music; Mary directed and Lee acted and/or stage managed.. Seth Baumrin, a former CT student, founded the “Size Moon Theatre” which was the start of a new branch of ITW—The New Director’s Studio— in which new directors could try their skill under supervision. Several young teenagers expressed a longing to have a winter program like Children’s Theatre, so Lee founded The Apprentice Players in 1978 and is still running to date. Lee began to direct adult plays and musicals, which soon became a summer tradition. Some of ITW’s more recent offerings were Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, HMS Pinafore,
Once Upon a Mattress and Into the Woods.

In 1980 Kaf Warman joined the team and became Associate Artistic Director as well. During the eighties and early nineties there was always something in rehearsal—ITW was presenting fourteen to sixteen productions a year (including CT and Apprentice Players).

On October 28th, 1996, Mary Payne, feisty, formidable and brilliant Artistic Director of ITW, passed away, having been actively ill for only one week. Islanders believed that Mary had created an organization that should not die with her. The Board elected Lee Fierro as Artistic Director—both of CT and the organization as a whole. Kaf had accepted a teaching position in the school of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University. She remains Associate Artistic Director and directs each summer most recently, How I Learned To Drive, Ruthless! The Musical, Love Letters and The Last Five Years. She also offers Adult Acting Class each summer Acting As A Journey Into Self and over the last 11 years has created the opportunity for Carnegie Mellon Theatre Students to teach and perform in Children's Theatre and other Island Theatre Workshop Productions.

Island Theatre Workshop, Inc. now continues into its 42nd year. Many CT graduates are currently working as professionals in the theatre world of stage, television and film. They return from time to time for performances, Master Classes, to work on the Summer Staff, or are cast in adult plays and musicals. Island Theatre Workshop and all of it’s wonderful programs continue to thrive—to sing, and dance—to offer adults and children alike an education and a place to stretch their imaginations in a fun and nurturing environment for all.

Lee Fierro,
Artistic Director