Courtesy of Encore! Theater Group
From left, Encore! Theater Group's artistic director and founder Effrem Thomas Grettenberger, managing director Alexa Seda, and company stage manager Benisha Dorris
Years ago, before Encore! Theater Group was a company, its artists came together and joked about how difficult it was to pursue their craft. “We also mused about how everyone who we approached who was not an artist—our parents or leaders in our church—always said, ‘Well, you know, it's going to be difficult to pursue this career as an artist, so prepare to have a second revenue stream,’” says Encore’s founder and artistic director Effrem Thomas Grettenberger. That bit of real life—specifically the theme of a conventional life versus a sometimes spooky unknown—is featured in Encore’s newest musical and its first original production, The Haunted Pool, running October 18–November 3 at the Thomas Dunn Learning Center.
In The Haunted Pool, Umi prepares to become queen of the fictional Mephaire. She lives by one rule: Do not go into the haunted pool, as commanded by her father, the king. Curiosity gets the best of her, and it’s her journey that makes up the musical.
"The haunted pool is a dark and scary place only because someone said it was,” says Grettenberger. “So we kind of grew from a fantasy and this idea of chasing your destiny.”
If you’ve never been to an Encore production, some background: The company was founded in 2013 and is committed to staging works in South St. Louis. It’s the only community theater there to provide a space for black artists while portraying positive images of black culture. And it works with community partners and agencies for all of its productions, hence the Thomas Dunn Learning Center.
“St. Louis is an art-rich city, and it's beautiful, and there are a lot of different artists here, but I really wanted to find a place where the art I had in mind and my vision could be most effective,” Grettenberger says. “So I started working in a lot of the communities here—on the west side of St. Louis and on the north side of St. Louis. But I kind of fell in love with the vibrancy down in South St. Louis. You can really find every type of art down here.”
The Haunted Pool—A New Musical by Encore! Theater Group runs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. at Thomas Dunn Auditorium (3113 Gasconade) October 18–November 3. Tickets are $20 or $15 for students and can be purchased at encoretheatergroup.org/boxoffice or 314-325-9684.
