Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Calhoun County series.

Live theater is a great escape in Marshall.
 
Since 2011 the Great Escape Stage Company has been entertaining audiences with a diverse lineup of productions, some that are more mainstream such as “Lend Me A Tenor” and some that are more edgy like “Avenue Q” and “Fun Home.”
 
“We tend to do shows that aren’t quite mainstream,” says Randy Lake, Great Escape Artistic Director. “We did Avenue Q last summer and it was really successful for us. I pick stories that I think are cool and interesting or shows that I know the performers like.”
 
Under the direction of Lake or guest directors, these actors take to the stage to bring the words in a script to life within a 30 X 36 square foot black box theater located at 110 E. Michigan Avenue. On average, the theater seats 60 people but can accommodate 80 if necessary, depending on the stage configuration and the production.
 
Randy Lake is the Artistic Director for the Great Escape Stage Company.Lake says when the theater first opened in a building that used to house a dry-cleaning business on the corner of Eagle Street, the stage and audience seating were configured around the best way to tell the story. For five years they operated out of that space which was 18 X 30 square feet before moving into their current building which was built in 1905 and known as the Knights of Pythias Hall.
 
The theater company continues to change up the stage and seating, something that patrons have come to expect.
 
“Our audiences love the fact that when they come in they never know how it’s going to be set up,” Lake says.
 
Unlike their first building where audiences and actors shared one bathroom, the current location has two bathrooms, a basement which is used as storage space for props, and a second floor which is a makeshift apartment where Lake lives. At some point, he says, he hopes to turn that living area into rehearsal and additional storage space.
 
The intimate nature of the theater space provides opportunities for the actors and their audiences to form bonds during performances.
 
“I think the bonus for us is that we’re so small that the audience can’t help but be involved because they’re literally 15 feet from the actors. Our acoustics are really good so we can do really intimate moments,” Lake says. “It’s a challenge sometimes for me being able to get everything into the set that we need. It’s a very small space.”
 
As an example, the set used for “Fun Home” which was performed in June was very tricky to fit in, but Lake says he was happy because the audience never missed props and visuals that couldn’t be included.
 
“You have to be creative,” Lake says.
 
 
Creativity runs deep in this Lake
 
His title as Artistic Director encompasses much more than directing, casting actors in productions, finding guest directors, and determining the lineup of shows for each season. He also serves as props and stage manager, box office, and logistical coordinator.
 
When Great Escape first began, Lake says the majority of actors were from Marshall. Through the years, the pool of technical staff and performers grew to include people from Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and points in between.
 
The number of actors and their interest level varies depending on the show to be performed.
 
“The Heiress” is the next production of Marshall’s Great Escape Stage Company.“Tuesdays with Morrie” had two actors, “The Heiress” had 10, and “Avenue Q” had a cast of 20.
 
“Bigger casts are difficult because our space is so small,” Lake says.
 
The actors are drawn to shows they like which sometimes presents a dilemma for Lake when casting.
 
“Sometimes, I have to beat the bushes. We have auditions for every show but like all theaters, if you pick a show to put on your schedule and a part is difficult to cast and you have someone in mind and they’re not available, you have to be open as a director to new ideas and new people,” he says. “It does feel like in the last year or two we have had better turnouts for auditions. I think it’s because they’ve heard of us or really want to do the show. Some of it comes down to what actors like to work with.”
 
There also are times when he has actors who are stage-worthy, but no room for them in a show.
 
Pictures of the actress Katherine Cornell and her husband, Guthrie McClintic, are on the wall of the Great Escape Stage Company.“With Fun Home we had eight or nine young women audition for the show, but we didn’t have room in the show. We try to tell them that if they didn’t get in this time, ‘please come and audition again. You may be good for another part,” Lake says. “We try to encourage young people with little performing experience. The young woman in 'The Heiress' is hitting it out of the park and her acting is better than people who have been performing for 40 or 50 years.
 
“A lot of people do come through our doors who either have been performers or performed at some point in their lives. We had one woman cast as the mother in 'Fun Home' who stopped acting 20 years ago to raise a family. She said she thought her performing days were over.”
 
Kim Forde is the director of the Great Escape Stage Company’s production of “The Heiress.”There also are actors that are really good at what they do, but “don’t play well in the sandbox” with the other performers, Lake says, adding that he had one actor who quit a show the night before it was scheduled to go on.
 
“If you give actors interesting roles and something meaty to hold onto, they’re more likely to be engaged. 'The Heiress' is an older show, but it’s got a lot of meat to it. The cast says it’s a great show,” he says. “It’s just a matter of trying to get people interested and enthusiastic about being in a show, or working backstage which is just as important.”
 
 
Securing their spot in the local limelight
 
Lake says when the idea for the creation of Great Escape was forming, he put together “a very disparate group of people — businessmen and theater people — and they all marveled at the fact that I picked the right people to make this work.
 
“Unlike most nonprofits, we don’t do a lot of grant writing. We are mostly funded through ticket sales and donations from our patrons. We’ve got a great board and a pretty dedicated audience,” he says. “We usually have a fundraiser once a year.”
 
Noelia Barroso plays Maria the maid and Robert Starko is Dr. Austin Sloper in the Great Escape Stage Company’s production of “The Heiress.”During the pandemic which caused the shuttering or closure of numerous arts and culture organizations, the theater company was able to escape unscathed because of a pool of emergency funds that was set aside. Even though they closed for six months during the pandemic, they did a few productions that were outside.
 
Lake, who grew up in Marshall, moved back from New York where he lived for 21 years while going to school and performing in live theater productions. He took a job with the Kellogg Company in 2018 as a contract worker and immediately started thinking about starting a theater company. Between his job and the theater, he has no life outside of these two places and lives in an apartment above the theater.
 
“We just kind of hit the ground running. My brother, Tim, and I started figuring out how much we had in the bank and if we could do a show,” Lake says. “We started small and built upon it. Our idea was to make it fun and not be a drudgery.”
 
With his last name being Lake, a lot of people, including his mother, thought he should call the theater the Great Lake Theater Company. But Lake says he liked the theater being a great escape.
 
“You can come in and give up a couple of hours of your life and go on a journey. It’s a great escape from whatever life is at the moment for you,” he says. “Our audiences like that we do a lot of different kinds of shows. We just want our audience to trust if they like this story, they’ll like the next one. We don’t ever want to take audiences somewhere they didn’t want to go.”

Katherine Harte-DeCoulx, left, plays Catherine Sloper and Gail Snyder as Aunt Lavinia Penniman. in the Great Escape Stage Company’s production of “The Heiress.”He says it’s an ongoing challenge to figure out ways to get audiences through the doors of the theater.
 
“There’s always going to be part of the population that doesn’t support it because they don’t understand or it’s not speaking to them,” Lake says. “Good theater speaks to everybody. Even when I was in high back in the 70s, funding was difficult to come by. I always end up buying what we need. People who have a passion for it and love it and won’t let lack of money stop them from doing it.”
 
He says a strong patron base and sold-out shows help to shore up that passion.
 
The Great Escape Stage Company is located in downtown Marshall.“I think theater is important. It’s a chance to sit in a room and breath together as a crowd and experience something together as part of a group. It’s something we don't do anymore but it’s a vital experience. As phones and computers have become such a part of peoples live people’s lives, they’ve forgotten how to be an audience. I want buts in seats and I want people to come on a journey with us.”