L.I.C’S Best Kept Secret - The Secret Theatre

In January 2005, longtime musician, playwright & actor Richard Mazda, formed his own acting troupe, “The Queens Players.”

Mazda, a British transplant, founded the acting company, 3 months after making Queens his official home. He told the Queens Courier back in 2011 about the reason he found the acting company, “New York artists possess a bravery and courage stylistically linked to the soul of the city. This is a courageous town and that influence seeps into the pores of the armies of people who come here to study. I wanted to provide an opportunity for these people.”

Eventually, due to the popularity of the acting company, Mazda founded the Secret Theatre two years later in 2007, effectively, finding a permanent home for the troupe.

Here is what we officially know about The Secret Theatre:

The Secret Theatre is an Off-Off-Broadway Theatre in Long Island City that can seat slightly under fifty audience members. The theatre has a ‘repertory’ style policy of mounting an average of over 9 mainstage productions in a year.

We also know that while the theatre’s productions are much smaller in size and scale, their shows are always very well received. They also do not lack ambition, consistently taking on re-productions of much larger Broadway shows.

This past weekend, after so many years, we finally had the chance to experience our first ever show and attended “Princess Particular,” an interactive family musical geared for children.

Literally tucked away on 23rd Street, to the left of the LIC Arts Center and under the shadow of the elevated 7 train, you have to walk through a huge steel sliding gate and past an actual loading dock just to get to the door.

Just getting to the door, you almost feel like you have earned your way into the area. It is as if you successfully completed a journey that led you through the remnants of old industrial Long Island City, and into today’s L.I.C.

Once you get inside you’re struck with how tiny the reception area is. In the way they accommodate the place, you feel as if you are in your own unfinished living room, a bunch of spare parts laying around, but still undoubtedly home.

The reception area infused us with a bunch of feelings of intrigue and wonder. So many questions swirled around in our thoughts:

How would the stage look? How would or could these folks pull of a show that everyone would rave about, in such a constricted and narrow space?

After an hour of some truly inspiring performances, we left the place understanding why the place was so magical, and why you must experience it for yourself, to truly understand.

The Secret Theatre is located at 44-02 23rd Street, in Long Island City, Queens. Click on the link below to find out what’s playing and when:

https://secrettheatre.com/whats-on/

Photo and words by Adolfo Steve Vazquez