Catastrophic finds a new home at MATCH

The Catastrophic Theatre, Houston’s foremost alternative stage company, will move its operations to the Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston in January. It will begin producing there with Tamarie Cooper’s annual summer musical — this one with the timely title “Tamarie for President” — in July.

Catastrophic’s current Houston premiere of “Everything Will Be Different,” closing Dec. 5, will be the company’s last at 1119 Interstate 10 E., its home of the past few years.

Before the first show at MATCH, the company will stage two more productions in other locations — details, dates and venues “still being ironed out,” founding artistic director Jason Nodler said.

Why the two interim shows at other venues? “Our lease is up in December,” Nodler said, “and we opted not to renew while we were still working out the numbers with MATCH, determining if we could make it work.”

With its move to MATCH, Catastrophic will join a spectrum of Houston arts organizations in an accessible, state-of-the-art facility, centrally located at 3400 Main.

But didn’t the former Diverse-Works venue seem ideal for an edgy group like Catastrophic? And in presenting its shows at an umbrella facility shared with others, will Catastrophic lose the individuality has in a space all its own?

“It’s not the first time I’ve been asked if performing our plays in a different place might diminish our identity,” Nodler says. “When my former company Infernal Bridegroom moved to the Axiom, many wondered if our identity as an itinerant company would be lost. Later, they couldn’t imagine (us) putting on plays anywhere else.”

Before committing to the move, Nodler needed to find out if the company could afford it and could retain its pay-what-you-can ticketing model.

“It will be a challenge,” he said. “Our bills are going up, and it will cost us more to maintain our ticketing program. But we feel confident the expenses will be offset by new revenues, and we’re counting on the community that has supported us so well since our beginnings to help support the transition and preserve our pay-what-you-can policy.”

‘Silent Sky’ extended

Main Street Theater is extending its Houston premiere of “Silent Sky,” originally set to close Nov. 29, through Dec. 6 — a nice result for the company’s first production back in its newly renovated theater.

Lauren Gunderson’s fact-based play is a gently inspirational portrait of pioneering woman astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt and the women “computers” working at Harvard Observatory in the early years of the 20th century. Shannon Emerick stars in the production, directed by MST artistic director Rebecca Greene Udden. In its championing of both women writers and women’s neglected contributions, as well as the “Masterpiece Theatre” genteel air generated by the play’s civilized text and period setting, this is a quintessentially Main Street Theater show. “Silent Sky” plays at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, through Dec. 6, at Main Street Theater, 2540 Times; $20-$39; 713-524-6706, MainStreetTheater.com.