BY SARAH BARBAN, Eastern Shore Post —
Melfa native Josh Dooley has been acting since he was 4 years old, when he took an acting class for children with Terry Bliss of the North Street Playhouse. Four decades later, Dooley is still working in the theater.
Now, he’s returning to his home turf and, after a 20-year hiatus, to performing. Much of Dooley’s recent work in the theater has been on the production side, but on Friday, July 17, he was part of the cast premiering the musical “It’s On” at the North Street Playhouse.
“I started acting with the North Street Playhouse when there was no playhouse,” Dooley said. “There were four shows a year on the second floor of the town hall building.”
Dooley continued acting with the playhouse through its move to North Street and its move to its current location on Market Street.
After graduating from the University of Virginia in 2005, he returned to the Eastern Shore and continued to work with the playhouse and later the Virginia Opera Company, but he started to wonder if he could make it in New York.
Taking a chance
In 2007, fellow Eastern Shore native and theater professional Cartland Berge happened to have a room to sublet in New York for the summer. It seemed like the right time to try.
“The room was $400 a month and I had $400 in my bank account, so I thought, ‘Great, let’s go,’” Dooley said.
He sang with several small opera companies in New York City and spent some time working as a karaoke DJ. While it was fun, he eventually stepped back from doing theater.
“Its a very expensive thing to do, and it’s very tiring to work a survival job and work on your passion,” he said.
Dooley began working more on the production side for shows and events around New York.
Then he met his fiancée and production partner, Claire Feuille, in a game group.
They began producing together, and eventually a passion project turned into a Tony Award nomination.
After seeing a production of “Operation Mincemeat” in London, Feuille was determined to bring the show to Broadway, Dooley said.
They worked together to raise funding and make the connections needed to bring the show to New York.
In the process, their company, Feuille Dooley Productions, was born and “Operation Mincemeat” was nominated for a Tony Award on the production side.
Feuille Dooley Productions went on to produce two plays for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, “I was a Teenage She Devil” and “How not to Fund a Honeymoon.”
Stephanie Greenwood, the writer of “How not to Fund a Honeymoon,” wanted to take the show from a 30-minute play to a larger production but was struggling to figure out a place to feasibly do so.
“I said I know a great place where not only is the theater genuinely interested in new work, but the entire community of the Eastern Shore is really art-focused in a way that’s unique,” Dooley said.
They brought the play to the North Street Playhouse. Greenwood expanded the show into a 70-minute production, which was performed for an audience at the playhouse who was asked to provide feedback at the end of the evening. Greenwood then rewrote the play overnight, the actors relearned it, and it was performed for the same audience a second time.
“The community was able to put a stamp directly on a show which is going to a festival in New York for three days this month,” Dooley said.
Coming to the Shore
He’s hoping to formalize this process so that playwrights can come to the Eastern Shore to produce plays outside of the high-pressure environment of New York, the local community can continue to enjoy new productions, and the North Street Playhouse can be sustained into the future.
Whatever comes in the future, Terry Bliss is savoring this production and its cast.
“This is family,” she said. “I’m so pleased and I’m so proud of all of them and it just warms my heart a lot to have all of these people, and particularly all these people who have such a history with us and I feel so close to.”
Feuille Dooley Productions is also bringing a production of playwright Stan Zimmerman’s play “Right Before I Go,” which was also staged at the North Street Playhouse, to Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so Feuille and Dooley joining the cast of “It’s On” seemed like a good way to work for Zimmerman before working with him, Dooley said.
“The synergy and the connection with Onancock is so exciting,” said Zimmerman. “So for this group to come together to help me put on “It’s On” for the very first time, I really get to hear what the play is about as a writer and a director. This is just a dream come true.”
“It’s On” premiered at the North Street Playhouse on Friday, July 17. The musical features the theme songs from popular sitcoms and hearkens back to a simpler time, Dooley said.
“This show is nostalgic and fun,” he said. “It’s reminiscent of a time when everyone sat down at the same time of night to watch the same set of programs.”
When the curtain went up Dooley stepped onto the stage as a performer for the first time in 20 years.
It was also his first time acting alongside Feuille, who is a professional actor. The place where his career in theater began saw him return for what can only be called a full circle moment.
“Fundamentally, it’s good to come home and remember my roots and do something for the people I love and the place that made this possible,” Dooley said.
There will be performances of "It's On" on Friday, July 24, Saturday, July 25, and Sunday, July 26. For tickets and more information visit www. northstreetplayhouse.org
