When entrepreneur Michael Presley Bobbitt couldn’t find a home for his southern gothic play, he did what he’s used to doing as a poet, playwright and novelist: He created one.
Bobbitt, 38, is one of three founding partners of the Nitty Gritty Theater Company at The Salt on 2222 NW Sixth St. The company will exclusively produce four original Gainesville shows a year with the first one, “Across the River,” written by Bobbitt, previewing today before its opening night Friday.
The attempt to get the play, centered on a father-and-son relationship, to the stage through several venues, including the Acrosstown Repertory Theatre, came to no avail.
“We immediately ran into some backlash about how controversial they thought it was and how some of the scenes were too difficult or too challenging for a Gainesville audience,” Bobbitt said.
Instead of letting the script sit on the shelf, he said he decided to produce it himself and bring Gainesville a theater for playwrights to showcase their work.
“Suddenly, we had a whole group of talented people in for that mission,” Bobbitt said.
Partnering with the owners of The Salt, a venue that caters to punk-rock shows, the company has struck a deal with a rate upfront for each night, and if projections of the turnout are close, the company could make a profit.
Bobbitt has invested $5,000 of his own money into building the company and producing the show.
Bobbitt said he hopes the company will lead a renaissance of creation for local artists. After the first production of “Across the River” finishes at the end of the month, the company will hold open-call auditions for playwrights to submit their work. A review board will then select one show for each season backed by a budget and a producer, Bobbitt said.
“We’re going to create a real model for how to put on art in town work. People get paid for their time and something of, you know, professional quality gets made,” Bobbitt said. “We’re about trying to make Gainesville a real cultural center of the state, of the Southeast.”
The culture and identity of a theater community is something Kelsey Côté, a UF theatre sophomore, said she’s noticed among her peers.
“We all want to be in a theater or be involved in the aspect of storytelling,” Côté, 19, said. “There’s a common goal there.”
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 2/12/2015 under the headline “Local entrepreneur to open ‘Nitty Gritty’ theater Friday "]
