Cover Story | Shadowbox Live celebrates 30 years!

Learn how the theatre started, why they started and how they've impacted Columbus for 30 years

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Columbus looked different 30 years ago. The Short North Gallery Hop was just a few years old, and the area’s iconic steel arches hadn’t yet been reinstalled. COSI had not moved to the Scioto Mile. The terms Nationwide Arena and Columbus Blue Jackets meant nothing. However, something in the air was changing.

Columbus was about to get a little more rock ‘n’ roll.

The year was 1988, and Shadowbox Live was born.

Founded by Stev Guyer, Shadowbox had a goal to bring sketch comedy, full-length plays and musical shorts to Columbus, and it all started with Guyer’s first rock opera, The Dawn of Infinite Dreams.

“It was not good at all,” says Stacie Boord, executive director, who has been with Shadowbox since its inception. “There were tremendous flaws all the way around, but the idea of telling a story through modern music was incredibly compelling to me. … That’s kind of how it started.”

The small group of artists decided to stick together and continue to create. While at first things were tough, the Shadowbox team never lost sight of that original goal.

“We were a bunch of misfits. We had no idea what the hell we were doing,” says Boord. “But we had a lot of grit and we had a passion for what we were doing. … There was a sense of freedom in experimentation.”

The team enjoyed the creativity that came with the rock opera, but they knew they had to do more in order to stay afloat.

“The side of Shadowbox that people know today came out of the necessity that we needed to make some money on an ongoing basis,” says Julie Klein, 28-year Shadowbox employee, executive producer and marketing director. “We challenged ourselves to write our own shows and put it up like a Saturday Night Live feel, and the rest is history.”

However, Shadowbox didn’t make it to its 30th anniversary without a few bumps in the road.

On March 1, 1999, Shadowbox’s home at 232 E. Spring St. burned to the ground. However, as Shadowbox employees showed up to the scene and began to separate what could be salvaged, the mood wasn’t somber – it was hopeful.

“After the fire, (Shadowbox executive) David Whitehouse wrote on a mirror with his finger, ‘Can’t stop us,’” says Klein. “That’s kind of been our mantra ever since.”

Shadowbox’s original plan was to move to a location at Easton Town Center and retain the Spring Street location, but the fire changed those plans.

The next few years included a lot of experimentation for Shadowbox. In June 1999, the Easton location opened full time, but the team knew downtown would always be its true home. In February 2000, Shadowbox opened 2Co’s Cabaret in the Short North, a smaller location to help Shadowbox keep its finger on the pulse of the downtown arts scene. Then, Shadowbox Cabaret opened in Newport, Kentucky, in October 2001. However, maintaining Shadowbox’s intimate team while spread across three locations was difficult.

“We thought we’d branch out for a while,” says Head Writer Jimmy Mak, who has been with Shadowbox for 23 years. “We decided, let’s just have our one location and get back together. That was a real turning point to get everyone back in the same location.”

Both 2Co’s and Shadowbox Cabaret closed in the following years. Finally, in August 2011, Shadowbox moved back home full time. The historic Worly Building in the Brewery District was the perfect place, and the move was a triumph.

“It was really overwhelming,” says Chief Operations Officer Katy Psenicka, who has been with Shadowbox for 24 years. “But there was also a sense of kind of like the day after Christmas; it flew by and it was incredibly overwhelming.”

Despite location changes, Shadowbox always stayed true to what it does best: original rock ‘n’ roll productions, laugh-out-loud comedy sketches and pushing the boundaries of theater in Columbus. With original tributes to greats like Back to the Garden (Woodstock), Bigger than Jesus (The Beatles), Which One’s Pink? (Pink Floyd) and Evolutionaries (Prince and David Bowie); regular holiday shows like Cratchit and Holiday Hoopla; and shows that mix the risqué with the hilarious like Hellraiser, The Rocking Dead, and Sex, Love, & Rock ‘n’ Roll, Columbus audiences know to expect something great every time they walk through Shadowbox’s doors.

However, it was one show – born out of tragedy – that may be what truly defines Shadowbox forever. Guyer had been diagnosed with brain cancer. During a meeting, Guyer wrote down four simple words in the margins of his notepad: F#(K Cancer: The Musical.

“I looked at it and said, ‘Do you have any ideas for this?’ and he shook his head,” says Boord. “I said, ‘I do.’”

Boord took the note – and an opening date – to Mak. He then had a tight deadline and a tall order: write a funny but poignant show about cancer.

“I wanted it to be a real, human story. In my mind, I came up with these three stories,” says Mak. “At the end, I told all three: the young man who just started college, a 30-year-old woman who was a performer and an older man who gets brain cancer.”

Stev Guyer passed March 29, 2018. He was 63 years old.

Once again, Shadowbox was faced with two options: let the tragedy consume them, or continue moving forward. The team took the opportunity to revisit Shadowbox’s goals, make changes and take risks under new leadership.

“We worked really hard to examine some of the flaws, or things we felt were flaws, within our organization,” says Psenicka. “It felt liberating to be the final voices, to propel the company forward. Terrifying but exciting and exhilarating at the same time. … (Guyer) set us up really well, unbeknownst to ourselves.”

Now, a year after Guyer’s death and during Shadowbox’s 30th anniversary, the organization continues to push the envelope, create daring original productions and keeps the audience dancing, laughing and, sometimes, crying.

“There’s a sense of pride in what we’ve accomplished – accomplished as a group,” says Klein. “We’ve been lucky in not just persevering, but succeeding. At the same time, staying true to what we want to do as artists. And we’re very lucky that our audience agrees with us and continues to support us.”

To learn more about Shadowbox Live including upcoming shows, afternoon performances, gallery exhibits and more, visit www.shadowboxlive.org. 

Amanda DePerro is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.