Protecting Your Right to Yell 'Theater' in a Crowded Firehouse

Scripts website of Jeannette Jaquish, Firehouse Director: theaterfunscripts.com
History of the Firehouse & Past Shows
Map to the Firehouse Theater
Photos of Dr. Frankenstreudel
Photos of Wizard of Oz
Photos of A Christmas Carol 2009 in rehearsal


The Romp in the Woods
Summer Video Camp
is over!

Get on the email list to hear about the next one.
It was August 11 & 12.
We produced an on-location version of "Don't Look in the Lake"
which was originally performed onstage at a 24-hour playhouse.
See the show play on TV August 21: Video Schedule

See the Journal Gazette Photos!


Firehouse Theater Presents!
Videos of our stage and camp productions
playing on Access Fort Wayne, Verizon or Comcast!
Click here to See What's Playing!

The Firehouse Theater is closed.
What went wrong.



















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Past Firehouse Theater Productions

2006
End of June (2 shows): Open House: Spoiled Baloney Man, Flight of the Vultures, Calvin & Hobbes and more
July 7 - 23 (9 shows) Dr. Frankenstreudel's Lemon Fresh Laboratory of Horrors
July 28 - Aug 6 (6 shows) Sci-Fi Blast-Off Theater
Aug 11 - 27 (9 shows) Monty Python's Flying Circus
Sept 1 - 17 (9 shows) The Frog Prince and the Princess Brat; and Hansel & Gretel
Village Idiots - Conne Artists Festival (3 shows)
Oct 7 - 22 (9 shows) Auditioning a Ghost, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Oct 27- Nov 12 (5 shows) Recipe for a Nightmare
Dec 9-31 (10 shows) A Christmas Carol, by Dickens

2007
Feb 17 - Mar 11 (8 shows) Alice in Wonderland
Mar 17 (1 show) St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun Laugh-In
Mar 24 - April 7 (5 shows) Fairy Tales on the Mars Frontier, & If Shakespeare Wrote the Theory of Relativity
Date Unknown (4 events) Asylum for the Comically Disturbed - Funhouse Tours
April 20-May 6 (6) Senseless Acts of Comedy - The Strange Saga of Lucky the Leprechaun, Vandals, Land Shark
June 1-17 (6) Hansel & Gretel and The Youth Improv
June 2007 Theater Camp (3 weeks) created "Wizard of Oz" show
July 6-21 (6) Stars & Stripes Forever Musical Revue
July 8 -Aug 5 (7 shows) Wizard of Oz
Aug 31 - Sept 23 (7 shows) Alice in Wonderland
Sept. 21, 9:30 pm - "Improvatron 20/20" (4 shows including other dates)
Sept 22 - Senseless Acts of Comedy Open Mic Contest
Sept 28, 29 - (2 shows) "A Girly-Girl’s Life" and "Harry Potter and the Obnoxious Voice"
Oct 6 - 30 (7 shows) Auditioning a Ghost, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Oct 20 24-hour Haunted Playhouse (1 show)
Nov 3 - Project Improv Panic Night (including another show = 2 shows)
Nov 10 - Beginners Acting and Improv Classes begun Saturdays
Nov 18 - 30 (4 shows) "Quirky Plays Festival"
Nov 23 - Dec 8 (4 shows) "Amazing Magic" with regional magicians
Dec 14 - 30 (5 shows) "A Christmas Carol"

2008
Jan 4-20 (8 shows) "The Frog Prince and the Princess Brat"
Jan 19 - Puppets & Stuff Games Night
Jan 26 - Go Bonkers Comedy & Magic Conte$t
Feb 2-22 (8 shows)- Dr. Frankenstreudel's Lemon Fresh Laboratory of Horrors
Feb 29 - Improvysteria & Magic and Escapes of Joey D.
Mar 1-15 (6 shows) Edgar Allan Poe and Other Dark Authors (in progress)
March 23 Easter Egg Hunt with Bobo the Bunny (Collin Barnes) and Leprechaun Helpers (Natalie & Veronica Bone & Zephyr Jaquish)
March 28 - April 25 (10 shows) Wizard of Oz
March 29 - Improvysteria & The Magic of Joey D
April 19 - Improvysteria & the Magic of Joey D
May 3-18 Spoiled Baloney Man + Magic & Improv (6 shows)
May 24-June 8 (6 shows) Al Capone & Me
June 28-July 6 (4 shows) Sorry, Wrong Number & You Don't Bring Me Flowers
July 12, 15, 18, 20 The Strange Saga of Lucky the Leprechaun & You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore - Three Rivers Festival
July 12, 13, 16, 19 The Wizard of Oz - Three Rivers Festival
July 31 - 24-Hour Comedy Playhouse: The New Puppy, The Friends You Make at Camp, An Interesting Development when the Hadron Super Collider is Turned on For the First Time, Identity Theft, Poison Soup, Party Like a Pirate.
August 15, 16, 22, 23 - Monty Python
Aug 30, 31 - A Night of Magic and Amazement with Joey D
Alice in Wonderland - Sept 12, 13, 19, 20, 27, 28
Wizard of Oz - Oct 3, 4, 5
Recipe for a Nightmare - Oct 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25 at the Grand Wayne Center, Nov 1
Tribute to Houdini - Oct 31
Nov. (2 shows) - Magic with a Twist of Comedy: Terry Owens, Bill Hegbli, hosted by Dick Stoner
Twilight Zone's "It's a Good Life", and "The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson - Nov 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 30, Dec 5.
Hansel & Gretel and the Falling Christmas Elves - Nov 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 3.
24 hour Christmas Playhouse - Dec.
X-mas X-treme X-scapes with Joey D - Dec.
"Snafu in Santa's Workshop" & "Mall Santa" plus camp videos: "Firehouse ABC's", "Santa's Flying Forces", "Replacing Rudolph" - Dec 26, 27, 28 & 30.

2009
Jan 9 - Magical New Year w/Terry Owens
Jan 23 - Feb 14 (8 shows) - Dr. Frankenstreudel's Lemon Fresh Laboratory of Horrors
Feb 27-Mar 21 (8 shows) The Frog Prince and the Princess Brat
March 27, 28, April 3 & 4 (4 shows) Faith County, directed by Paul Allen Bensen*.
Mar 29 - The Amazing Billini - Fireman Magician
April 5 - Mark Twain in Samuel Clemens' Parlor with re-enactor Kurt Sutton
April 17, 18, May 1&2 - Wizard of Oz
April 28 Hoosier Comedy Tour
April 30 Magician Terry Owens - The Wizard of Odd
May 8-23 (8 shows) An Eclectic Collection of One Acts, directed by Paul Allen Bensen*.
May 21-June 4 (5 shows) Harry Potter and the Obnoxious Voice, and Don't Look in the Lake
June 5 & 6 - The Wizard of Oz
June 20 - Fractured Fairy Tales (camp show) featuring video "Once Upon a Plague", and live performances of Little Miss Muffet, Mary had a Vampire Bat, Dino-Sort-Ofs, and Kiss the Brown Bunny
June 19, 20, 26, 27 - V***** Monologues directed by Paul Allen Bensen*
July 11 - (2 shows) The Wizard of Odd - Magician Terry Owens
July 12 - (2 shows) The Amazing Billini - Fireman Magician Bill Leon
July (4 shows during Three Rivers Festival) "A Day in the Life of...." a Charlie Brown knock-off, directed by Paul Allen Bensen*.

July 12, 2009 - Jeannette Jaquish ends her lease, and Enginehouse #10 at 1245 E. State is taken over by Paul Allen Bensen*.

Paul Allen Bensen is locked out by the landlords for unpaid rent Sept. 28, 2009.
(He leaves Jeannette Jaquish with over $600 in unpaid utility bills on her account, plus never having paid for the 12 show slots he used while she ran the place, and having run up a huge cell phone bill on her account for which he has paid about half on. He had borrowed money from others to start his theater and when locked out, he didn't want to admit he had not been paying the bills. He told some that Jeannette Jaquish colluded with the landlords to take the place back. When his actors and crew asked for the landlord's phone number to get their property out: props, costumes, tools, stage lights, amplifiers, musical instruments - easily over $5,000 of stuff, he wouldn't give them the number and told them his attorney would get it back. No attorney ever contacted the landlords. Eventually the landlords figured out that really nothing of any value in the building belonged to Paul and released the things back to the owners.)

Nov. 10 - Jeannette Jaquish takes the Firehouse back.
Dec. 12, 13, 18, 20, 23, 30, Jan 1 & 2 (8 shows) A Christmas Carol
Jan 9 & 10: Snafu in Santa's Workshop
Jan 16 & 17: 24-Hour Twist Ending Playhouse: New scripts created: When Santa's Away, Haunted by Plant Biology, What's $2.50 - Just give me the ticket!, New Planet, A Warm January Afternoon, Under Wraps.
Jan 23, 24, 30 & 31: The Spoiled Baloney Man and Magic by Mary - Benefit for Red Cross Haitian Earthquake Fund
Jeannette asks for volunteers and commitments by Jan 30, then Feb. 6, and gets little and closes the Firehouse Theater.
All rent and utility bills are paid. Jeannette even paid Paul Allen Bensen's utility and cell phone bills. Unfortunately, the firemen landlords as of this date (2-18-2010) have not received their back rent from him.
Feb 17, 2010 - Jeannette is officially out of the building. The landlords actually compliment her on how clean she left the building.

TOTAL so far: 78 shows or events, and 305 performances in 40 months, not counting Paul Allen's shows or band shows.

Jeannette starts putting Firehouse shows on DVDs.
April 11 - Jeannette submits a short story "Collecting All the Species" to NPR's three minute fiction contest.
April 15 - Did taxes. Lost $7,000+ this year, and last year and $10,000 the year before. We won't even talk about the first year.
---The building is still not rented.
April 17 - "The Firehouse Theater Presents" begins 9am to Noon, every Saturday, except 5th Saturdays, on Access Fort Wayne, Comcast ch 57 and Verizon FIOS ch 27. New productions play every week. We have LOTS.

* Paul Allen Bensen never paid for the 12 show slots he used at the Firehouse while Jeannette Jaquish was running the place. He always had an excuse and a promise that next week he would have money and would pay. In other words, Jeannette paid his rent and utilities for his rehearsals and shows and he kept the ticket and snackbar money. Jeannette let him use her extra cell phone, 750-8308 and he consistently ran over minutes with bills of $90 to $222 and never caught up, still owes her hundreds. Left her with $600 in utility bills when he took over the building and got evicted for not paying rent. Paul also owes royalties to script publishers for most of the scripts he performed. Jeannette knows because they called her trying to locate him and his bills still come. He also owes money to people, mostly women, who invested in his theater when he took over the Firehouse in July 2009. He is still borrowing money from people. He still tells Jeannette he will pay her back for the debts he agrees he owes, but owes many, many other people, and last gave her money middle of December 2009.
Paul Allen's website: http://www.myspace.com/paulallen1966 His phone (260) 486-7526. He is in production of "Alice. An Adventure in Wonderland" now (April 2010). If you don't believe what I say, ask him.

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Our Beginnings:
May 2006
ENGINEHOUSE #10 TRANSITIONS TO A COMMUNITY THEATER
This building's many attributes make it a great theatre. Because two firetrucks were parked in it, it has a large central room, 37' by 35', with a ceiling 14' high. The acoustics are wonderful and no microphones are needed.
Immediately backstage is a row of built-in closets, used by the firemen as lockers. These are perfect for storing props and costumes. Right next to that walk-on area are two bedroom-size rooms that have become the mens and ladies dressing rooms. And in between the actors and audience areas are two clean, large and very nice restrooms.

The building has a small kitchenette in the hose tower, a tall tower where the firemen hung the hoses to drip dry. Standing next to the window, one can gaze upwards the height of the tower, lit at night by soft colored lights. This is now the Hose Tower Cafe and Snackbar.

We have built platforms for the stage and have five rows of tiered audience seating.

There is a large attic for storing costumes, props and furniture and a large rehearsal space the same size as the stage. And a basement for painting, cutting and construction. It is wonderful.
--Written by Jeannette Jaquish, June 2006, at the launching of this website
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Email: firehousetheaterfw@yahoo.com