Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Cunningham.
Hi Heather, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Well just over two decades ago I was just another actor working and auditioning in New York City. I was cast in a few shows in a row with a group that was doing some outdoor classics and, well, I was disheartened by the quality of the productions. One day one of the actors turned to me and said “I’m tired of making other people’s shit look good” and that is when I realized I could make my own shit look good! I have such a varied background within the theater that I was pretty sure I could create better productions than most of what was happening in off-off Broadway at the time.
It’s quite a long story from there – but the short version is it is just over 20 years later and my company, Retro Productions, is gearing up for our 20th Anniversary year.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Making art is never smooth unless you are independently wealthy – and I am not.
The biggest hurdle has always been fundraising. There’s simply never enough money.
Of course that means we have to get creative, and sometimes that means we just have to wait until there is enough money to proceed, so our productions are not always on a schedule.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
So our mission is to do works of “Retro Theater” – which is 20th Century period stories. For the last 20 years we have brought stories to the stage that illuminate the human condition throughout the most rapidly changing century in history. We do both drama and comedy, and we focus on lesser known plays. I think it is our mission that sets us apart.
I am most proud of the four plays that we have premiered on our stage:
WOMEN AND WAR by Jack Hilton Cunningham premiered 15 years ago, in 2010. It is published by Bakers Plays, a division of Sam French, which is now owned by Concord Theatricals. Through correspondence and monologues, in the style of reader’s theater, Women and War is a collection of fictional stories based on historical fact, told by generations of Americans impacted by conflict from The Great War to the War in Afghanistan. From housewife to worker, young bride to nurse, mother to widow, and now, young woman to soldier, these are tales of sacrifice, love, determination and hope told by those who bravely persevere on the home front and on the battlefield.
AN APPEAL TO THE WOMAN OF THE HOUSE by Christie Perfetti Williams premiered in 2014. It takes place on one fateful night in May, 1961 in the farmhouse of Rose and Gideon Walker on the Alabama-Tennessee border. It is just after midnight when David and his fellow lost Freedom Riders knock on the door seeking assistance in the form of a phone and a place to stay until daylight. But Gideon, who knows this is Klan country, is reluctant to let in this band of mixed race college kids until Rose forces him to open the door with the acknowledgment that “they’re just babies.” What follows is a touching story of race, love, acceptance and learning how to stand up for what you believe. APPEAL was honored with several award nominations including a win for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role for Heather E. Cunningham as Rose Walker.
WE ARE A MASTERPIECE by Gina Femia premiered in 2018. It is currently published by Steel Spring Stage Rights. It takes place at the dawn of the AIDS crisis, when the disease was still a mystery. In Kalamazoo, Michigan, Joan, a no-nonsense nurse, becomes a sort of fairy godmother to the town’s gay community when no one else will step up to care for them as they die one by one. She becomes their friend, their mother, their sister, as they navigate life and death with this new plague; caring for them, taking in John – an artist who becomes like a son to her, burying the dead on her property. Out of the ashes of their collective lives, lifelong bonds are forged and beauty is found even at the darkest of moments. It was nominated for several awards.
BETTYE AND THE JOCKETTES SPINNING RECORDS AT THE HOLIDAY INN by Christie Perfetti Williams, now published by Eldridge Plays and Musicals premiered in 2024. It’s July 3, 1956 and the jockettes of WHER, America’s first “all-girl” radio station in Memphis, Tennessee, are having one heck of a day: the copywriter has run off to elope, they have just found out that the Elvis Presley is coming to the station to be interviewed on-air and their star DJ Bettye has shown up… in pants! When Elvis’s record promoter arrives and is none other than Bettye’s former flame Benjamin, sarcastic zingers fly, sisterhoods are forged, and secrets are exposed.
I am incredibly proud to have recently learned that someone admired BETTYE so much that they sponsored its nomination and it is now an entrant nominee for the Pulitzer Prize!
What makes you happy?
So many things make me happy!
Great theater, doing great work, wonderful art.
Cocktails, New Orleans brass band music, great meals with great company.
Most of all, time spent with friends is always time well spent.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.retroprodouctions.org
- Instagram: @RetroprodsNYC
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RetroProductionsTheater
Image Credits
Headshot, Women and War, and We are a Masterpiece photos by Ric Sechrest
An Appeal to the Woman of the House photos by Kyle Connolly, ConnollyPhotoNYC
Bettye and the Jockettes photos by Reed Yurman and Greg Kanyscka