Nestled in the heart of historic Monmouth Street in Newport, Kentucky, between a boutique and a costume gallery, Falcon Theatre stands as a testament to the city’s evolving cultural landscape. This modest venue, marked by its distinctive blue awning, has quietly become a cornerstone of the local arts scene, playing an integral role in the transformation of Newport into a vibrant, arts-friendly suburb of Cincinnati. Falcon Theatre is more than just a place for performances; it has become a beloved community hub for those who appreciate the power of intimate theater.
Founded in 1989 by theater veterans Ted Weil and David Radtke, Falcon Theatre’s origins trace back far beyond its current Newport home. The company initially operated out of the historic Westwood Town Hall in Cincinnati, beginning with a limited scope — no regular season and minimal resources. Despite these humble beginnings, the founders’ shared vision to explore new, bold theatrical works quickly set them apart from other regional theater companies.
“We just had money to do another one and didn’t have a regular season at first,” said Weil, Falcon’s producing artistic director and co-founder. “We started doing a couple of things, like so many other companies. It began as a project and grew from there. We wanted to explore work that was a little different, the kinds of things other theaters weren’t doing.”
The theater’s name evokes feelings of soaring through art or being unburdened by boundaries, but the story behind its name is more casual. Radtke had proposed the name Falcon Theatre without much explanation, and the small group had liked it.
“We were all like, it’s kind of a neat name. I mean, I kind of like it. I don’t know why, but it’s cool,” Weil said with a chuckle. “It wasn’t until probably six months later that Dave told me he stole it from a movie. It was actually from the movie Beaches. It was the theater company or the film company that employed Bette Midler.”
With Midler in mind, Falcon’s early productions, including Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy, set the tone for what would become a legacy of bold, thought-provoking theater. As the company’s reputation grew, so did its ambition. Falcon Theatre eventually moved to its current location on Monmouth Street in downtown Newport, expanding its seasons from a handful of shows to a broader range of productions, including musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar and Once on This Island.
With continued success in its mainstage series, Falcon Theatre began broadening its impact through community engagement initiatives. Programs like Falcons Take Flight, a staged reading series for new plays, and HIVoices®, a collaboration with local health organizations, reflect the theater’s commitment to creating meaningful, socially relevant art. Even 35 years after its founding, Falcon Theatre continues to hold fast to its mission of producing intimate, bold and innovative theater.
“We still try to do a lot of local premieres and work that people haven’t seen or maybe tackle things a little differently,” said Weil. “But I would say the execution of that has changed and certainly the way we position it has changed over time as the market has evolved. But every show in this year’s season is a premiere for Greater Cincinnati. There’s nothing that’s been done anywhere here.”
Falcon Theatre’s 2024-2025 season kicked off in September with POTUS, a hilarious, fast-paced comedy by Selena Fillinger that centers on the women keeping the president alive. The play premiered in 2022 on Broadway in a star-studded production with Rachel Dratch and Julianne Hough. November saw the production of Mindgame, a gripping psychological thriller set in a mental hospital, which had been a hit in London.
The rest of the season features three more regional premieres. In February, Hangmen by Martin McDonagh — fresh off a Tony-nominated Broadway run — explores a British executioner’s deep moral struggles. Following that, Mr. Parker by Michael McKeever takes a heartfelt look at a man navigating his journey of self-discovery, exploring themes of age, sexuality and the search for forgiveness. The season culminates in May with The Shark is Broken, a comedy by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, which hilariously recounts the behind-the-scenes chaos of filming the iconic movie Jaws.
“POTUS, the minute we read it, we knew we wanted to do it, and we knew we wanted to do it in the fall of an election year,” said Weil. He also expressed excitement about Hangmen and The Shark is Broken, two productions he had long hoped to stage. “Those shows were ones we were just really gung-ho about. To be lucky enough to get three of those in one season is pretty cool for us.”
As evidenced by the diverse synopses of its upcoming shows, Falcon Theatre’s season strikes a balance between comedy and drama, vivid reality and absurdist humor, from the confines of a presidential suite to the sun-baked set of an ‘80s mechanical shark boat. This eclectic mix of new works is a hallmark of Falcon’s programming philosophy, designed to engage a wide variety of tastes and interests.
“Almost everybody will find something they like in our season. That’s something we try hard to achieve — to make sure we offer a broad range of shows,” he said. “And the fact that we’ve been doing this for this long and we are still continuing to do it and that people like what we’re doing, yeah, that’s great.”
To learn more about Falcon Theatre and its 2024-25 season, visit falcontheater.net.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s Jan. 8 print edition.
Related Stories
Making ‘Room’ for the Women of ‘Hamlet’ at Cincy Shakes
This article appears in Dec 11-24, 2024.