Speaking of their theater, I imagine they wouldn’t say "no" to a new one, but we’ve grown accustomed to the large stark room above the pool hall. (It’s above a pool hall at the back alley, but beneath Morgantown Florist at the Spruce Street entrance.) The location is perfectly adequate, with air-conditioning and stepped-up seating. The experimental space--call it theater in the making--seems more exciting to us than other, more polished locations. Here, the suicidal teen in The Deer and the Antelope Play seemed more lost. The women whose men were off to war in Waiting for the Parade seemed more desperate, and all sexy characters seemed more honest under low lights against dark walls and black curtains all around.

Acting and directing are always superb, and the company is growing. We’ve seen seven of their productions, almost all of them with totally different casts, so we are aware of how much talent has remained in this university town after graduation. They work in conjunction with WVU Division of Theatre on some productions, but the ones we’ve seen have been mostly more mature casts.

Teen suicide, the death of a woman coal miner, prejudice, and war--these are topics I’ve seen M. T. Pockets handle with ease and with such talent that audiences were mesmerized, not grumbling about the heaviness of the content--audiences at the company’s theater are mostly mature. This doesn’t mean they don’t perform comedy just as well, but a significant percentage of their selections are serious sociological or intellectual drama--a welcome alternative when most theaters won’t take a chance on anything but comedy.

Their location on Spruce or at the Mountainlair makes it possible for us to plan full evenings out downtown amid a myriad interesting, unique restaurants, cafes, and pubs, and for visitors staying at the Hotel Morgan (a Clarion) or at the new Radisson on the Riverfront, walking to the theater is easy. For those driving to Morgantown, parking isn’t difficult on side streets.

We are excited as we walk down Spruce St. to the awning of Morgantown Florist--that’s our landmark. Miss it, and we miss the door to the steps down. It’s not a "beatnik" cellar, either, so we don’t expect style. The room with commercial tile floors, fluorescent ceiling fixtures, and black velvet curtains strung all around is a temporary home with all the basic requirements: air conditioning, adequate stage lighting, and elevated platform seating on stackable chairs. Voila! Theatre! Now it’s up to the cast to create the illusion. To see what kind of spell they plan to cast, we consult their website: M. T. Pockets.

A great number of plays conform to the company’s stated mission: to create parts for women. However, the performance schedule deviates from this objective occasionally to offer Twentieth Century intellectual favorites, like Waiting for Godot, and visiting events, such as An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein. We’ve seen three plays there: The Deer and the Antelope Play, a Texas family drama about teenage depression, by Mark Dunn; The Death of a Miner (a woman coal miner) by Paula Cizmar; and most recent, Waiting for the Parade, a character study of five women without their men during WWII. All have been well-acted and directed with sets and costumes that seem authentic.

We chose the downtown theater Saturday night in preference to the West Virginia Public Theater production of Ain’t Misbehavin’. My favorite character in Waiting for the Parade (set in Calgary, Canada during the 1940’s) was the German woman who kept reminding those who scorned her: "I’fe liffed in Calgary since I vas eight." She sang in German--even smoked like a German--and was appropriately gruff. Another character, the "do-good" organizer of the volunteers, was justifiably too intense, and her stiff jaw was convincing. Another was pert, curt, and sexy as she painted lines (seams) on her legs. It was a bravado performance that received a standing ovation--chairs and feet clattered on the wooden platforms as we all clamored to get up.

We share the excitement of this company. Indeed, no guest at their performances could avoid interest in the group, as well as the plays. They are succeeding in creating a community proving ground for talent the area is overflowing with. The need was there, and M. T. Pockets fills it.