When the Birmingham Police’s vice squad paid its first visit to Terrific New Theatre (TNT) in 1996, they came prepared to bust felonious debauchery. Their source? A promo poster for the play, “The Normal Heart,” that Artistic Director Carl Stewart had slapped up around town.

“The poster was of two guys kissing. I told everyone, ‘Be prepared to get arrested tonight, but we’ll get you out of jail if you do,’” Stewart says remembering the infamous poster image.

Handcuffs in tow, the police squad was gearing up for a salacious showdown. Instead, the tensions climaxed with a newfound, mutual respect.

“They loved the play! They had a wonderful time and called us afterwards. They were ready to shut us down before they saw it wasn’t a sex play,” Stewart recounts, chuckling.

It was a forgivable fumble on the police’s part. TNT’s original location on 21st Street was just a stone’s throw from an adult entertainment theater. Occasionally, patrons looking for a different type of entertainment would get their wires crossed, to Stewart’s and his partner Steve Stella’s delight. But the couple’s brainchild was provocative in its own right, as all theater should be, according to Stewart.

As a youngster, Stewart was a precocious puppeteer, whose works enlivened his family’s barn in Florala, Alabama. Ambition swallowed his humble origins, and he moved to New York to study under Stella Adler, a nationally renowned acting coach who molded many of the mid-century’s greatest theatrical minds. Untethered by his talent, Stewart stunned his contemporaries by deciding to come home. Little did they know, button-pushing in a place like Birmingham was Stewart’s vocation.

“I think he let people know that the arts can happen,” says Cari Oliver, a jack-of-all-trades who stage-managed Stewart’s plays for three decades. “I always tell Carl that one of his legacies is that there’s theater in Birmingham. The joke is you can’t swing a cat in this town without hitting a theater.”

TNT opened its doors in October of 1986. By virtue of a convenient rapport with the publishing agents at Samuel French, Stewart enjoyed early access to coveted scripts fresh off a Broadway run. His reputation lured

local talent who felt privileged when chosen for parts, and it allowed him freedom to upend traditional notions of how a community theater should operate.

“We didn’t have any marketing; we had a postcard that went out before the show. People just came out to see what he was going to do. As a director, he had some very unusual ideas,” Oliver says.

Stewart didn’t let the concept of community theater get in the way of his creative vision, hence Stella’s stock phrase, “It wasn’t art until someone walked out.” Even with a volunteer cast, having fun was no excuse for sloppiness. “He felt it could be just as good as anything else,” Oliver explains.

Stewart and Stella also believed they had a duty to broaden the accessibility of community theater in Birmingham, an idea that provided the foundational impetus for TNT’s TADA, “Thursdays are discretionary admission,” a practice adopted by many regional theaters, in which patrons pay what they prefer.

“Theater was becoming very elitist, so we did as much as we could to make it available to everyone. A lot of times, we went hungry,” Stewart remembers.

On one night, indelible in Stewart’s memory, a homeless man who would occasionally sweep the theater for a few bucks took a seat after his work, mesmerized by the rehearsal underway. He eagerly inquired about tickets, and Stewart and Stella invited him to TADA night. He came.

“He had found a way to clean up a bit, but not very much. He paid in quarters, precious money that he had panhandled. Carl and Steve were beside themselves,” Oliver says. “They treated him like a king, because it embodied everything they did theater for—that this guy was so moved by what he’d seen to the point that he spent his life savings to come and see that show.”

Stewart spent his 30 seasons at TNT flying by the seat of his pants. He never set a season, which meant no season tickets and no menu to prime his patron’s palates. He directed every show, concurrent with his role as artistic director, a grueling feat by all standards. He found a rare match in life and business with his partner Stella, who was the left brain to his right, sharing in his singular vision. When AIDS claimed Stella’s life in 1996, Stewart persevered through the pain, unfailing in his commitment to TNT.

“After the funeral, we were back in the theater a day or two later. That was his business, his passion, his calling. So, we were there,” Oliver says.

For nearly two more decades after that, until his 2016 retirement, Stewart built upon his crowd of loyal habitués, hooking them with his raucous Southern comedies before exposing them to more titillating material. Finding the sweet spot between commercial success and food for the soul is at the core of what it means to be the Terrific New Theatre.

“Carl used to do what he’d call ‘One for them, and one for us.’ He would select something mainstream so that he could do this subversive little thing later. He knows weird, existential, experimental theater isn’t sustainable,” Oliver says.

When Stewart took his final bow in 2016, TNT braced itself for an identity crisis, which fortunately, never came to fruition. Stewart ungrudgingly handed the reins to actress and director Tam DeBolt, a sweet-singing firecracker with business acumen to boot.

The forward-thinking Indiana native hasn’t shied away from the edgy elements that encapsulated Stewart’s style, but her emphasis on collaboration is a definite redirection.

“Carl directed every show for 30 years. He did it all. But I wanted to offer this theater to the community and say ‘Look, here’s one more place you can direct now, if you want to,’” DeBolt says.

So far, in DeBolt’s three seasons as artistic director, she’s facilitated at least six local directors’ TNT directorial debuts. She’s also the brains behind “Written in the South,” a self-sustaining off-season series that held a Samuel French world premiere in December 2016.

Celebrity salutes and critical acclaim aside, the Terrific New Theatre isn’t Broadway, nor does it strive to be. The intimate near-100-seater in Pepper Place offers its guests a chance to become wholly immersed in the narratives portrayed by their fellow Birminghamians—and to take on an active role in the city’s downtown renaissance.

“I don’t ever want the audience to feel like they weren’t part of it,” DeBolt says. “Because without them, it doesn’t mean anything.”

Upcoming Shows

Fun Home (Jan. 26 - Feb. 9)

Morningside (March 6 - Apr. 6)

The Royale (May 2 - May 18)

Details

Terrific New Theatre | 2821 2nd Ave. S. (Pepper Place) | terrificnewtheatre.com