Fullerton playhouse bridges the gap between stage and screen

It was eight o’clock on the opening night of The Maverick Theatre’s first play, “The King,” when co-founder, artistic director and theater manager, Brian Newell, received a surprise screening of the theater. events from the City of Orange.

With the help of friends and family, Newell worked two nights, making sure everything was ready for their opening weekend. Having never opened a theater before, Newell didn’t realize he needed a permit from the City of Orange’s planning department to open.

As they passed, the reviewers noted how far Newell and Maverick co-founders Heidi Newell and Jim Book had come to the proposal without getting their “blessing,” according to Newell. The inspectors then told Newell to meet them in town at 2pm that day to see if they could open “The King” that night.

Panicked, Newell told his friends and family to keep working while he went home and got ready for the meeting. While waiting for the decision, Newell could hear them laughing as he walked in, and the auditors told him he could open the show if he gave them opening night tickets.

Although the reviewers did not end up going to the show after being given tickets, Newell and his co-founders were excited to begin their journey to open the theater to the public with general rather than sports enthusiasts.

The Maverick Theater opened its doors on June 23, 2005 in downtown Fullerton after being moved from their location at The Outlets in Orange. Even though the theater is small, it is the perfect size to show their original movie shows and introduce the local people to their mission.

“The whole philosophy of deciding to open a theater… was two things: Get non-audiences to come to the theater, and survive on ticket sales and not donations. Those are the values ​​by which we decided to go ahead and open Maverick,” Newell said.

Newell knew that many movie theaters focused on showing old shows to theatergoers, but struggled to attract more people.

“I thought, ‘If I could create a theater that would attract these non-theatre-goers, how would I do that?’ And the answer was easy for me,” Newell said. “I want to make films on stage because the public knows popular films.”

Newell explained that to bring the film to the stage, he tries to organize all his seasons with film changes and choose more films than usual.

Although the programming changes from year to year, four shows are performed each year: “King-Kong,” “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” “Night of the Living Dead” and “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” According to Newell, next year will be “Night of the Living Dead’s” running for the 20th year.

Auditions for the Maverick shows are open to all interested parties, and many of the performers come from Cal State Fullerton, Fullerton College and Cypress College.

“College cinema people are our seeds. We love them. Most of my actors who have been with me for a long time started in college and participated in Maverick,” said Newell. “They’ll go around and do shows around the area to other places, but they tend to come back to Maverick.”

Newell describes the Maverick Theater as a safe haven for all actors and theater professionals, and many actors call themselves the “Maverick Family.”

He said: “32 couples have met at Maverick and now they are married. “Many of those couples now have children. Some of those children will start to be on stage in other sports so it’s like a generation of Maverick.

Maverick operates as a for-profit theater and for good reason. According to Newell, if the public loses interest in the games they put on, then the stadium should be closed.

“At this time, it’s not about growing up, it’s about living. Once the need is gone, so is Maverick,” Newell said. “The longevity of Maverick is how long I can continue to do it. It has a stage of life: it is me. ”