The summer show at freeFall Theatre, Bash of the Titans, closes with Sunday’s matinee after a total of 34 performances.
That’s a long run for any professional theater company – the average is 12 to 18 performances – but Eric Davis, freeFall’s longtime artistic director, was experimenting to see if more dates would lead to more word-of-mouth, which would lead to more ticket sales. “We had much longer runs all year,” he points out, although none quite as long as Bash of the Titans.
Attendance for the show, which Davis co-wrote with Michael Raabe and Matthew McGee, has been steady since its premiere June 12.
Even so, for the 2026-27 season, which begins in September, all plays will have shorter-than-usual runs.
That’s because Davis is constantly experimenting, from his programming choices to the way the shows are staged.
Take Bash of the Titans – a comic parody of a little-remembered 1981 drama film about Greek mythology, in which gods and goddesses sing pop songs from the 1980s as they quarrel, connive, hurl lightning bolts and ride winged horses.
“I’ve wanted to do this show since I was a high school kid,” Davis says.
Still, art and business don’t always comingle in harmony. Ticket sales account for a small percentage of a nonprofit theater company’s operating budget. The big money comes from supporters and sponsorships.
That’s always been the case, although the stakes grew higher in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We’ve seen a big increase in giving recently, which is great,” Davis explains, “but attendance … it’s rough, people’s lives changed drastically during the pandemic. Their day-to-day really has a new routine to it, a lot of people.
“One gal who is a huge supporter, and has been for a long time, came to Bash of the Titans and said it was the first show she’s been to since the pandemic. So we’re still just coaxing some folks out. And some never will come out again.”
Davis insists freeFall is operating in the black. “We’re selling a lot of seats compared to what a lot of theaters are experiencing, all over the country.
“We’re growing at a steady rate. We’re growing kind of back to where we were pre-pandemic.”
A major factor in that growth is Davis’ laser focus on his work. He’s also an director, an actor and a costume designer. The mantra is: Keep creating, keep pushing. Keep innovating and don’t get complacent.
In 2025, he and Raabe collaborated on The House of Future Memory, which blended improvisation, AI, Shakespeare and audience participation. It was a rousing success.
“Audiences are interested in experiences that can compete with that passive, scrolling media that they’re getting all the time,” Davis believes. “And the thing that’s much different than that is when the audience gets to participate, in an active way, in the story. That puts them as the central character, in a way.”
Planned for the new season (but not on the official schedule – it’s a surprise) is The Nancy Drew Files, based on the adventures of literature’s favorite teenage detective.
“It’s like an alternate reality game. So people will find things around town, maybe on purpose or maybe by accident, that will let them into the possibility of participating in the world of this mystery that’s taking place around the city. And that will potentially lead them, if they participate in it, to events at the theater.”
He’s intrigued by the possibilities of utilizing some of freeFall’s business partners in what he calls “the game.”
“People should keep their eyes open in the coming months. They might start to see some things around the city related to Nancy Drew.
“If they pay attention to that, they’ll stumble on the rabbit hole, and can potentially have a lot of fun.”
FreeFall’s 2026-27 season includes What a Glorious Feeling! (Sept. 18-Oct. 4); The Da Vinci Code (Nov 6-Dec. 6); A Christmas Carol: In Concert (Dec. 11-24); Lark Eden (Feb. 19-March 14); Great Expectations (April 2-18); A Commercial Jingle For Regina Comet (June 11-27).
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