Generic Theater plans an intermission, will host volunteer fair over weekend
NORFOLK — Generic Theater has a habit of overcoming crises.
Since Ron Stokes founded the community playhouse in 1982, the theater has been bumped from one Norfolk location to another — from a tiny room in Center Theater to a building on West 21st Street and, most recently, to Little Hall, a black-box theater below Chrysler Hall and Scope.
Chrysler Hall’s impending renovation looms over the theater’s future, but recovering from the pandemic presents an immediate challenge. Coronavirus’ ongoing interruption is something Stokes, who now works in New York’s theater scene, is still trying to wrap his head around.
“It’s almost the beginning of the machine all over again.”
So Generic Theater is taking an intermission and bringing in a fresh crew of volunteers with a fair this weekend. It needs folks to help with set design, lighting, sound, makeup, costumes and just about anything else.
Generic pressed through the pandemic shutdown by dabbling in streaming performances before returning to in-person shows this year.
Still, those first shows “highlighted the need for us to take a breath,” said Sherman McDaniel, the president of Generic’s Board of Directors. McDaniel likened it to getting sick and trying to get out of bed before you’ve fully recovered.
“You go, ‘I can do this,’ and you get up and then it smacks you in the head and
goes, ‘No, you’re not ready to get up yet.’ ”
The volunteer fair is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in Little Hall. No experience is necessary, McDaniel said, but volunteers must be at least 18.
“Sherman’s got to get the motor running again,” Stokes said, “and I just think it’s the best No. 1 step.”
McDaniel said with a full team of volunteers in place, the theater can “get back to the things that Generic was known for.”
“We hope our intermission is not going to be very long,” McDaniel said. “We’re hoping maybe two or three months, and then we’ll be ready to go back full bore.”