Mark Zimmerman and Elynmarie Kazle, who launched the Wild Thread Theatre this summer in downtown Akron, have created the company to produce plays that spark connection, empathy and meaningful conversation.
The Akron couple started out in July at the 45-seat Wild Oscar’s behind the Akron Civic Theatre at Lock 4 with a series of four “First Stitch” play readings that run through the end of this month. The first was a staged reading of the play “Wings,” an aviation-themed play set in 1917-18 by Alaina Tennant, a 2024 Firestone CLC graduate.
Others have been Sarah DeLappe’s “Wolves,” about a pack of “adolescent warriors” during warmups for their girls’ soccer team, and Craig Pospisil’s “Journey to the Poles of Inaccessibility,” a globe-trotting epic fantasy that Zimmerman directed Aug. 9.
Ever the educator, Zimmerman, who recently retired from Akron Public Schools after nearly 30 years teaching and directing theater at Firestone, has created study guides for the staged readings that provide key context and insight into the plays.
The final staged readings this month will be “5-2: Eyes of Blue” by Akron playwright Eric Mansfield at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 23, followed by Tracy Letts’ “The Minutes” at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 30. Both will be directed by Kazle.
Letts, who is the husband of Copley native actress Carrie Coon, premiered “The Minutes” comedy in Chicago in 2017. Its setting is a city council meeting in the fictional town of Big Cherry. The play premiered on Broadway in 2022.
In Mansfield’s play, a young woman can’t decide if she wants to head for the lights of Broadway or continue working as a decoy in the police department to catch predators. Actors will be India Wray, Auggie Nieves Bucey, Atlas Nielsen and Max Winer.
“I like the way Eric writes the dialect. I think he takes a lot of care to write things that seem real so it draws you in,” Kazle said.
It’s important to Zimmerman and Kazle to present new theater works such as the staged readings “Wings” and “5-2: Eyes of Blue.”
“We’re interested in a lot of things but I think primarily we’re interested in new work and recent work,” Zimmerman said. “That’s the hole in the (Akron theater) market.”
The more people that see new theatrical stories, the better, Kazle said. Wild Thread aims to make these works accessible to many, with staged readings that cost $10 each and fully produced plays that cost $20.
Theatergoers can not only enjoy plays that should have people talking, they also can go out to a downtown restaurant beforehand or a bar afterward, she stressed.
By presenting new works locally, playwrights also get the opportunity to polish their plays more after hearing them read or performed.
“That’s the advantage of working with playwrights with new pieces: It helps them to develop it because they get to work with the director and actors and get to hear it out loud and to kind of evaluate it,” Zimmerman said.
First season announced for Wild Thread Theatre
The name Wild Thread Theatre comes from Zimmerman and Kazle’s belief that “every story is a thread in a larger tapestry.” Their goal is to create collaborative and inclusive performances.
For the theater’s first season at Wild Oscar’s, it will offer four fully produced plays from September through February.
● “Marjorie Prime,” written by Jordan Harrison and directed by Zimmerman, will run Sept. 17-27. The play was recently revived on Broadway in 2025, starring June Squibb. The play is a “science fiction-y” family drama Zimmerman said, set in the future with multigenerational characters.
In this story, an aged woman’s children contracts with a company to create a younger, AI version of her deceased husband, which causes family strife.
“It’s really interesting that this first play out of the chute, it’s a moral dilemma,” Zimmerman said.
● “Shelter,” written by Mansfield and directed by Kazle, will run Nov. 5-15. In this story, the Akron playwright chronicles a tense lockdown at a high school, where assumptions are made about who the dangerous person is in the group’s midst. Mansfield is currently working on revisions for the drama. Audiences will have the opportunity to give the playwright feedback after performances.
● “Seasonal Shorts” by Kelsey Celek, Chris Leyva, Marley Masterson, Aleah Vassell, Torie Wiggins and Robb Willoughby, directed by Zimmerman, will run Dec. 10-20. Five comedies explore the adult holiday experience, ranging from a playlet about Joseph’s bachelor party to a comedic short about a man setting up a surprise Kwanzaa celebration.
● “The Trial of God,” written by Elie Wiesel and directed by Elynmarie Kazle, will run Jan. 28-31 and Feb. 4-7. The play, set in a pub in 1649 during the Purim Jewish holiday, is based on Wiesel’s own experience witnessing three rabbis imprisoned at Auschwitz putting God on trial for crimes against humankind. “The Trial of God,” published in 1979, isn’t often performed.
Dubbed a tragic farce by Wiesel, “The Trial of God” is a play that Kazle has always wanted to do.
“I think it’s castable because it’s small,” she said.
New beginning in theater
When Francine Parr of the Akron Civic Theatre offered Zimmerman and Kazle space to produce plays at Wild Oscar’s, the new artistic home for Wild Thread Theatre was born.
“What I wanted to do was get back to directing,” said Zimmerman, who hadn’t directed for two years.
Parr, who studied theater with Zimmerman and Kazle as a Firestone student, said she was happy to partner with them to set up a residency at Wild Oscar’s. She’s starting a performing arts maker space at the tiny Wild Oscar’s, which is open to different theaters and groups.
The couple’s fully planned season of theater programming makes it an anchor for Wild Oscar’s.
“What’s great is we are able to provide the space and basically work all of those other amazing projects around what they’re doing,” Parr said of the Wild Thread Theatre founders. “It’s really giving frequent life to the space and frequent events to the space so that we can start getting people more familiarized with that Wild Oscar’s space, because it has so much potential.”
Parr described Wild Thread’s productions of new works from local artists and former students as well as small, more obscure pieces both “really special” and “really cool.”
“I know what they are capable of because they were my mentors and they trained me,” Parr said of Zimmerman and Kazle.
Tickets for the theater’s mainstage season are $20 each. Check akroncivic.com in the next few weeks for links to the shows, starting in September. Tickets for the final two summer readings are available now at akroncivic.com.
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Wild Thread Theatre explores power of modern stories in Akron theater scene
Reporting by Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
