FROM THE ASHES

by Joe Hanrahan / April 1, 2025

In 2023, Midnight produced eight shows. It was a glorious year. Good shows and audiences. Decent reviews. Smooth sailing. Then, in 2024, things took a turn. Midnight produced another eight shows. But it was like a bad version of Sisyphus trying to get up some hill. A big, ugly battle with an arts organization. Roller Coaster shows with personnel who were sometimes tough to track down. Diminished audiences. A rancid review. Tough, tough year. It left me bereft, exhausted, spiritless. I truly wasn't sure how I was going to continue.

But as 2025 got rolling, a couple of things lifted me from the morass. First was being cast in The Black Rep's COCONUT CAKE. Hard work, a long commitment, but I was bathed in the camaraderie and artistic drive of a great cast and director working for a great company. Day by day, my spirits and motivation lifted. This was a terrific run, with appreciative audiences and critics.

And then, out of nowhere, notification that I was receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Theatre Critics Circle. Totally unexpected, not entirely positive about it or what it means (as you'll see from the speech below.) But welcome recognition from the theatre world, which I thought wanted to be rid of me. So, hopefully, this renewed feeling persists as Midnight moves into a smartly scaled down 2025.

(This first speech was my introduction from Mark Bretz, Theatre Critic for Ladue News. Second is my acceptance speech, which was severely cut by Playoff Music.)

Lifetime Achievement Award for Joe Hanrahan

When Joe Hanrahan was a student at the St. Louis Archdiocese’ A-track McBride High School in St. Louis in the late 1960s, he already was becoming known for his wit and sharp writing skills, contributing sports columns regularly to the high school’s paper, The Colonnader.

During his senior year, Joe worked up the courage to audition for a part in one of McBride’s school plays. The director of the show, one of the school’s English teachers, took Joe aside after his audition. He thanked Joe for his participation, but then said, “We’re going with younger students this year.”

Stung but not defeated, Joe continued his quest for theater excellence during his college years at Sacred Heart College in Wichita and Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. While paying the bills as one of the St. Louis area’s bountiful “Mad Men” (and women) while working at Checkmark Advertising, Joe sharpened his writing skills with creative advertising designed to move the marketing needle for his clients.

Joe performed with the legendary Theatre Project Company, City Players, HotCity and other troupes, including the Orthwein Theatre Company in the 1990s, where he was Associate Artistic Director and worked with an unknown but promising young actor named Jon Hamm. Then, in 1997, Joe co-founded The Midnight Company with David Wassilak.

The question of “What is The Midnight Company?” was often followed closely by “Where is The Midnight Company?” While working with myriad other performers, designers and back-stage individuals since the troupe’s founding, Joe has mounted productions in what he calls the “transitory art of theater” in venues as varied as the Missouri History Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum, HH Studios, the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill, Café Balaban, Dressel’s Pub, the James Farm for his play, “The Ballad of Jesse James,” Technisonic Studios, Christ Church Cathedral and countless more.

Mostly, Joe was and continues to be a one-man band with The Midnight Company, often performing solo shows written by him or other notable playwrights such as Eric Bogosian and Conor McPherson. He also frequently collaborates with many of St. Louis’ most talented performers, designers, and other creative souls with many of the area’s professional theater companies.

A couple of years ago Joe conceived an idea to blend theater with the art of cabaret when he wrote and performed in “Just One Look,” a tribute to Linda Ronstadt with Kelly Howe as the revered singer. “Just One Look” recently began its third season of performances, primarily at The Blue Strawberry.

Joe and his Midnight Company have been integral parts of the St. Louis Fringe Festival, the St. Louis Theater Crawl, and other fringe festivals around the country.

Writer. Director. Actor. Fantasy Baseball Participant Extraordinaire. Joe has worked indefatigably for decades honing and perfecting his craft, challenging and entertaining audiences along the way. Please join me in honoring Joe with this St. Louis Theater Circle Lifetime Achievement Award.

Thank you to the Theatre Critics for thinking of me for this…I think.

This is an especially gracious award on their part, because the thing I’m best known for in St. Louis theatre is savagely attacking critics behind their backs. No, actually, the thing I’m best known for in St. Louis theatre is for being that little prick who does all those one-man shows. But this shows a generosity of spirit that I think we should all recognize.

So you get this award, and you have to think…”Am I done? Is it over? Is this an invitation to get out?” Your friends say “No No,” but you get one of these, see what you think. Fortunately I have some experience with this. I received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the St. Louis Fringe Festival a couple years ago. For a much smaller body of work. They must count Fringe shows like dog years. And I had the same thoughts. “Should I quit? Is this a suggestion to go away?” But I fooled them. Since I got that Fringe Award, I’ve done a couple more Fringe shows.

And if there’s a suggestion in this award, I’ll say “Soon. I promise. Soon. But not quite yet.”

And you get this, and you think you need to make this Adrien Brody and Aren’t we lucky to be doing this and my career and then my comeback and Ukraine and art can save the world and…maybe at the after party.

You get this and you do wonder why. All of you up for awards know what you did…acting, directing. But what did I do to get this? Lifetime Achievement. I think achievements are pretty subjective.

So…Lifetime.

I’ve been doing theatre in St. Louis for over fifty fu… I’m going to start that sentence over. I’ve been doing theatre in St. Louis for over fifty fu…fifty years. Those years break down pretty nicely - over 25 working with everybody, and then 25 years, still working with other folks but with my own company.

I did my first theatre in college, out of town. Came back in the summer to work at the Webster Groves Theatre Guild for the Russell Sharpe Drama Fair, a one act festival thing, it was the only thing like it in town. They don’t do it anymore but at one time it offered early work from Tennessee Williams and William Inge. Then did a play for The Players, a group who’d been around forever, I think since when plays were only down around fires in caves. They eventually blended into The West End Players, I believe.

I got back to town, had a corporate job where I was bored to tears. Joined the staff of the Theatre right here, then called the Loretto-Hilton Repertory Theatre. Got on stage at the…legendary, mythical…Theatre Project Company.

The Black Rep started up, I directed one of their early shows. So that was the first 6 or 7 years of that first 25. Worked with many different companies over the years, I’d like to call out one of those.

A play called PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS by John Patrick Shanley, a production from the New Theatre, which as run by the late, great Agnes Wilcox. I directed, and the play had a cast of five In the cast were Mary Schnitzler and David Wassilak. The two of them barely knew each other when rehearsals started, but as time went on, things developed, they became a couple, and they’re still together over 25 years later.

Also in the cast were Kari Ely and Peter Mayer. They were professional colleagues, but as time went on things developed, they became a couple. And they’re still together over 25 years later. And both nominated for Theatre Circle Awards tonight. Congratulations!

The fifth member of the cast, with no one left to hook up with, was poor Alan Knoll. But he had just started dating a spritely young actress named Laurie McConnell, they became a couple and they’re still together over 25 years later. And Alan is nominated for a batch of Awards tonight. Congratulations!

That was the last show I did before The Midnight Company was formed. Dave Wassilak and I were having a drink one night, and after listening to Dave for about an hour thanking me over and over for casting him in a show with Mary Schnitzler, we started talking about what we were doing next. We said let’s do a play. Then, guess we need to start a company.

Midnight sounded cool and we were off. Now there were very few healthy theatre companies around, so we got some attention. We were inclined to do work new to St. Louis, and that’s what we mostly still do. We worked in whatever space we could find - coffee houses and bars, like McGurks and Dressels and the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill, golf courses and resorts, television production studios, abandoned brewery warehouses, art festivals, the Contemporary Art Museum, MIssouri History Museum, Christ Church Cathedral, and the Jesse James Farm in Kearney, MO. We couldn’t walk into a room without saying, “Think we could do a show here?’

Judy Newmark, a former Theatre Circle Critic, said one of the nicest things anybody ever said about the company. She wrote, “The Midnight Company have gone out of their way to demonstrate that theatre is an art, not a building.” And now, there’s been over 25 fu…25 years of Midnight.

I think that time, that lifetime, has given me some perspective to make a comment about today’s theatre in St. Louis. I mentioned there weren’t many companies around when we started Midnight. When the…legendary, mythical Theatre Project Company was underway, there was almost nobody else in town. So I’ve seen some ebbs and flows in the theatre world, and I have to tell you…I am stunned, I am amazed by what’s happening today.

Look at just tonight. All of these awards for all these shows. When I started there weren’t enough critics to make a circle. All the shows that happen every weekend. Our poor critics.

The vast number of theatre artists working in town. I mean, look around, there’s a lot of people who aren’t here. The new plays being written and produced. Constantly. All the new theatre companies, a new one virtually every other week.

This is amazing, isn’t it? Stunning!

Now I’m not saying this current scenario is necessarily a good thing. But it is amazing. Finally, and you can applaud here…I want to acknowledge a few people.

Thanks to my family. Thanks to the critics for this. It is appreciated.

Congratulations to the other Lifetime recipient tonight. I first worked with Ron Himes over fifty fu…years ago in a show for the…legendary, mythical Theatre Project Company. In subsequent years, I’ve acted in several Black Rep shows, directed a couple and served on the staff of the Company. There’s no one I’d rather work with or for. The award for Ron tonight reminds me of another bitter cliche I like to toss around about St. Louis theatre. You can be the best actor or director in St. Louis. It’s like being the best Black Diamond downhill snow skier in St. Louis. There are no mountains here. But, over the years, and the many shows, Ron Himes has built some mountains here, and his work has been seen from afar, because he has truly built some mountains. And it’s a privilege to share this moment tonight with a true giant of the stage.

As to Midnight, thanks for Dave Wassilak who co-founded the group with me. He and Sarah Whitney were artistic colleagues for several years each. Thanks to them.

Thanks to Linda Menard, who, I swear, has stage managed about half of Midnight’s shows.

And thanks to Sarah Holt, who, when she isn’t directing for us, is right upfront at the Box Office almost every show, the first human being our audience encounters when they come to see Midnight, offering a great first impression and a positive start to the evening.

And, concerning all the shows I’ve done over the years, I want to thank every one I ever worked with. That’s a lot of shows, a lot of people. Many are dead. Many, in the audience tonight, are still living. I want to thank you all. We did some good things together. We did a few very good things, But everything we did was very, very interesting.

Thank you.