The following is an extended version of the article that appears in our July 2024 issue.
The late Firehouse Theatre founding artistic director Carol Piersol (Courtest Firehouse Theatre)
Firehouse Theatre’s 30th anniversary season has been a big year for the community performance venue at 1609 W. Broad St. It merged with The New Theatre; appointed its new producing artistic director, Nathaniel Shaw; underwent renovations; and developed new programming, including a resident company initiative. It also created The Carol Piersol Legacy Project, naming the stage after the Firehouse founder who died in May 2023 from brain cancer. The yearlong celebration of Piersol’s life and the impact she made on Richmond’s theater community culminates with a production of “Buried Child” at Firehouse. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Sam Shepard play was first performed under the direction of Piersol at the theater in 2000, and it’s a work she selected personally to take the stage again.
Morrie Piersol, Carol’s husband, says of the legacy production selection process that began in spring 2023 prior to her passing, “[Nathaniel] asked, ‘Is there something that, a) she wanted to do and never got around to doing, or b) something that she did that she was particularly proud of and thought was particularly emblematic of the height of Firehouse?’ … I asked Carol that. … Interestingly enough, her answer was ‘Buried Child,’ and I thought that was interesting because I thought, ‘Well, surely [she’d select] something she never got to do or she may want to follow through with the one she was working on when everything got shut down [due to the pandemic],’ and I thought that was pretty significant.”
Morrie says he is grateful to Firehouse for its efforts in reconciliation after the late 2012 ousting of Carol as the founding artistic director, a divisive decision that rocked the local theater community.
“Nathaniel was the first one to really step up and want to try to address it, so that led to the reconciliation,” Morrie says. “She knew about the idea of having something that would coalesce people around this reconciliation, or whatever you want to call it. It was something that, as Nathaniel said when I first asked him why, ... he said because, first of all, as the new leader of the organization, he didn’t want it to have that kind of vibe that was anything other than positive, and it was important to him for the theater that he was working for, it was important to him for the theater community of which he was a part, and he thought it was a right thing to do for Carol and the family. And my point is, she was very aware of that, and it did mean a lot.”
After departing from Firehouse, Carol Piersol co-founded 5th Wall Theatre with Billy-Christopher Maupin in 2013. As artistic director, she produced more of the edgy and contemporary works she had become known for. Upon her retirement in 2023, her husband served as interim artistic director for 5th Wall, and in May 2024, Kaitlin Paige Longoria was named the new artistic director of the company. A Texas native, Longoria has a Bachelor of Arts in theater from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. She studied acting at William Esper Studio in New York, where she also worked as a resident artist with the New Light Theatre Project (with which she’s still affiliated) prior to relocating to Richmond in 2021. She says with most arts organizations still shuttered due to the pandemic, moving then wasn’t easy, but she was impressed with the spirit of the Richmond community.
“I was excited to see that there was still art happening in the community, and actually the first production I ever saw was a porch play with 5th Wall Theatre, and it was incredible, and Carol was there, and Morrie was there, and I was excited about the fact that a theater company had found a way to create art in this really trying time that we were going through and foster community,” Longoria says. “That was my first experience with 5th Wall, and I knew it was going to be a company I wanted to be a part of.”
Longoria has been involved with 5th Wall for about a year, serving as producing artistic director for the theater’s co-production of “Lonely Planet” as the first resident company of Firehouse during its yearlong programming in honor of Carol, and she co-starred in the recent performances of “Radiant Vermin.” She recalls meeting with Morrie for coffee as 5th Wall was in a bit of a holding pattern mourning the death of Carol and deciding on next steps for the theater company.
“They had some play ideas, but they really were unsure of exactly how they were going to execute it because, with Carol being the magnificent woman that she was, she really did everything. I mean, she was a wealth of knowledge for this theater company,” Longoria says. “I sort of came in, and I said, ‘Well, let me help guide you through this. I’ve helped produce work before.’”
After assisting with the “Lonely Planet” production, Longoria says she discussed continuing with 5th Wall with its board. She worked with the theater company during its time of transition to continue bringing insightful productions to the region. “It was great to be able to discuss with [the board] the sort of things 5th Wall had done in the past and how we can move that into the future, so I kind of came in and was like, ‘What do you need, and I’ll help you figure out how to do it.’”
She acknowledges that she has some big shoes to fill in her new role.
“Carol was such an institution in the community, and I know that no one can compare to anything that she’s done,” Longoria says, noting positive feedback 5th Wall has received with its recent programming. “I’m trying to work to make 5th Wall proud and the community proud, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are many times that I have asked, ‘What would Carol do?’ Because she was a smart, intelligent and wonderful spirit in this community, and continuing on in those steps is a lot, but I feel like with the support of 5th Wall and all of our patrons, it’s become a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Everyone’s been super supportive and helpful and wonderful in every way.”
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A ticket from the Firehouse production of “Buried Child” in 2000 (Image courtesy VCU Libraries)
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A ticket from the Firehouse production of “Buried Child” in 2000 (Image courtesy VCU Libraries)
As 5th Wall approaches a 10-year milestone, Longoria says they’re already at work on the 2024-25 season, with two new performance venues secured and productions planned for the fall and spring, with the hopes of additional summer shows. The company’s vision, she says, is to work with budding local playwrights and to build a diverse repertoire of programming.
As for current productions, the “Buried Child” performances are being produced by Firehouse and directed by Chelsea Burke. The play follows a struggling Midwestern family with a haunting past. Set in 1978 in rural Illinois, it’s a glimpse into an American Dream lost.
“I think [Shepard] uses that idea of quintessential Americana [and allows] this dark sin that lingers in their past [to] slowly kind of erode and eat away at what that family could have been,” Shaw says. “I think it’s a really intelligent way to look at the decline of the American Dream and the way in which the sins of our past as a nation have slowly, over generations, eroded the promise of what could have been.”
As The Carol Piersol Legacy Project concludes, Shaw reflects on the Firehouse founder’s life and her impact on theater and the Richmond community.
“What is most exciting and meaningful and impactful in regards to this production is the opportunity to complete our yearlong recognition of Carol’s excellence that began with the naming of the stage, which continued with having 5th Wall in residence and now concludes with ‘Buried Child,’” Shaw says. “So, it’s that appreciation of her work and its really significant contribution to Richmond theater that’s most meaningful to me.”
“Buried Child” runs July 2-21 at Firehouse Theatre. Tickets are $35.
