Theatre Conspiracy produces shows in the Foulds Theatre at the Alliance for the Arts. The company was founded in 1988 by Bill Taylor, who has been at the helm ever since.
“Back then, the landscape of theater in Fort Myers was quite different,” Taylor recalled. “There was only a few companies that did mainly Neil Simon and musicals like ‘Oklahoma.’ As young actors, we wanted to do challenging theater, so that was our mission in the beginning was to try to explore new work and things that were exciting for us actors.”
Today, there are 16 theater companies in Fort Myers alone, with another half dozen operating in Collier County. Still, Theatre Conspiracy has carved out a niche that isn’t filled by any other theater.
“As the years passed, there’s been other things that have been added to our mission,” Taylor remarked. “One of them is to produce work that is geared toward minority artists and minority audiences. We’ve achieved that pretty well, especially doing August Wilson. We’re on our seventh of the 10 shows of his Century Cycle.”
In addition to shows that afford opportunities for actors of color and discourse on the Black experience in America, under Taylor’s tutelage, Theatre Conspiracy has pioneered efforts to produce plays written by female playwrights and that provide strong female characters. Going forward, it will be embracing programming derived from fringe festivals.
“Recently, we’ve added Fringe Fort Myers to what we’ve been doing,” Taylor noted. “That’s opened the door to touring artists that do fringe festivals that we’re going to start incorporating into our regular season. So this year, we’ll do three shows that we’ll produce and we’ll also bring in three touring fringe shows…. So our season from now on will be shows that we produce, but also with touring shows from fringe artists.”
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Since founding Theatre Conspiracy in 1988, Bill Taylor has produced upwards of 250 shows, directed over 50 productions and performed in more than 50 others including three one-man shows, “Sex, Drugs & Rock and Roll,” Barrymore” and “Tru.” His favorite shows include “A Tuna Christmas,” “The Kathy and Mo Show,” and whatever play he is working on currently.
Among the August Wilson plays produced by Theatre Conspiracy are “Radio Golf,” “The Piano Lesson,” “King Hedley II,” “Joe Wilson’s Come and Gone,” “Seven Guitars” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
Under its 2015 initiative to find and nurture minority actors and cast them in one or two plays each year, Theatre Conspiracy has also produced Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lydia Diamond’s “The Bluest Eye,” Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf),” George Wilson’s “The Colored Museum,” Mat Smart’s “The Agitators: The Story of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass” and Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop.”
To draw attention to female themes, playwrights and actors, Theatre Conspiracy devoted its 2015-2016 season to plays written by female playwrights, producing “The Amish Project,” by Jessica Dickey,” Kayak,” by Jordan Hall, “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play,” by Anne Washburn, “The Nether,” by Jennifer Haley, and Lillian Hellman’s “Toys in the Attic.”
In partnership with Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, Theatre Conspiracy presented the first ever Fringe Fort Myers festival in 2023. The four-day festival brought together nine performing acts that featured 27 artists from around the world, drew more than 1,000 attendees, and sold out of buttons and T-shirts.
The second annual Fringe Fort Myers festival proved even more popular over its four-day run that started on May 31, 2024.