Rubber City Shakespeare Company has to be the biggest art secret in the area. Well, apparently not to the couple of hundred people who have seen each of their productions; but to lots of people, they may still be the theatrical unknowns around town.

Hopefully all that will change. During an interview with founder and producing artistic director Dane Leasure, Rubber City revealed it’s taking a couple of new bold steps. At this point, the staff is Leasure himself, plus a resident costumer, Michelle McNeal, and a managing director, Chris Simmons. Soon to be added will be a person devoted to development and marketing – and that should help get the word out about the group.

Dane Leasure, founder and producing artistic director of Rubber City Shakespeare Company. Photo by Lindsey Walters

Leasure also says that they have formed a board and are seeking non-profit status, a move that will hopefully give them access to grants and other sources of funding. To date, Rubber City has received some fiscal support and general business advice from a national arts support group called Fractured Atlas, Leasure says. Rubber City has also relied on individual donations and a few ticketed sales.

But all that doesn’t mean Rubber City Shakespeare Company hasn’t been busy. When first organized in 2013 by Leasure, the company managed to put on a few plays in a large lecture hall at The University of Akron. Leasure says that the first play, “Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” brought in about 144 people over three performances. The next offering, “Twelfth Night,” generated about 190 people over four performances (the company tried a matinee). The group also did a staged reading of “Julius Caesar,” at which 60 members of the audience got to listen. All these events were for free (something Rubber City still tries to make available to theatergoers, even when it holds ticketed events).

Scene from Rubber City Shakespeare Company’s production of “The Taming of the Shrew.” Photo by Brian Maxwell

In 2014, Rubber City hosted two back-to-back repertory stagings – first John Ford’s “’Tis Pity She’s a Whore” and Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” and second “Romeo and Juliet” with “Much Ado about Nothing.” These events were performed in the company’s new business and performance space at Summit Artspace, a Knight Arts grantee. Rubber City Shakespeare Company, “Tis Pity She’s a Whore.” Photo by Brian Maxwell

In the conversation with Leasure, he noted that the aim of Rubber City is to bring Shakespeare to Akron stages. But, joking that Shakespeare only wrote 37 plays, he added that the mission of the group is also to bring classical theater, which in part explains its inclusion of Ford’s drama and Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.” The next play coming up for the group will be Shakespeare’s “All’s Well that Ends Well” on March 19-29.

Leasure was quick to point out that Rubber City isn’t stepping on the toes of other companies presenting either the Bard or other classical pieces. Rubber City is and will be known as the group that brings that sort of theater to the area year-round. That theatrical niche will give them plenty of room to operate artistically. Leasure commented that the group will avoid schedule conflicts with other groups over plays, something that he noted that he has already done in a couple of cases.

Another interesting aspect of Rubber City Shakespeare Company is a focus on theater education. Leasure works at Weathervane Playhouse, a Knight Arts grantee, teaching classes for young people on acting and other aspects of theater. For example, he is fight captain for a production of “Hamlet” there, which focuses a lot on the sword fights in the play.

He has had discussions with the other theater organization about cooperative education, with an eye toward the development of a classical teen program, where budding actors can put on productions of their own.

Rubber City Shakespeare Company is a busy, emerging theater company that counts on a strong (if brief) history, as well as an entrepreneurial spirit, to guide its future productions and business plans.