Oh Crepe's Tiniest Stage Becoming Big Success
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The newest performance stage in North Adams is also one of its most unusual — not to mention small.
At four feet wide, the Tiniest Stage, which is situated in Oh Crepe at 57 Main St. might not be huge in physical space, but it's proving to be in community impact. Every other Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. it opens up to musical performance with the intention of livening up the shop and the downtown.
"We've seen new friendships develop between people who attend," said Benjamin Lamb, who owns the shop located inside Berkshire Emporium & Antiques with his wife, Emily Schiavoni, "and we have everyone from families with little kids to college students to older community members attending. It's become something of a mixing pot of people.
The idea began last year when current manager Mary Redstone was speaking to the former manager, Alex, and he suggested the idea of bringing music to the small space as a way of combating the tendency in the Berkshires to stay home in the winter. It was left to Redstone to make the dream happen when she took over as manager. The first Tiniest Stage event took place in December, featuring Francesca Shanks and Adam Tobin. It was a huge, unexpected success.
"It went well enough that Ben and I were talking about when we could do the next one," Redstone said.
The space can seat only 16 people, which means not only is there a lower expectation as to what constitutes a success, but also the allure of an exclusive space. Oh Crepe has been able to make that combination work for it, partnering with Common Folk Collective and getting some help from Sounds and Tones Records to create a perfect pool of local music resources.
"What makes it unique is also it's one problem, that it's such a small space," Redstone said. "It's hard to find musicians who can sit in there. I happen to know a number of individual people who are willing to bring themselves and a guitar into this space."
And now it's grown beyond Redstone's own circle, and the space is getting approached by musicians Redstone has never met before. She believes it's largely due to the Tiniest Stage offering such a different atmosphere from what musicians often encounter.
"It's a unique performing experience," said Redstone. "Not a lot of people get to play a Sunday brunch in a crepe shop, and I think that's part of the reason people are interested in playing here."
Redstone says the stage is booked into April, with a Valentines Day show with The Brothers Shieb and Dan O'Connell, and further shows happening every other Sunday after that.
Now the challenge is to figure out where Oh Crepe can go to make the Tiniest Stage events even more special. They'll experiment with the idea of specialty items at the Valentines Day show, with special crepes and desserts.
"We're trying to see how far we can take this as a once every other week event," said Redstone. "We don't want to go too overboard so it gets overwhelming. But we have the music down, so what more as a host and crepe shop can we do to make this that much cooler?"
The desire is that the Tiniest Stage continues to have an impact well beyond the walls of the crepe shop itself, hearkening back to the reason he and Schiavoni decided to open the shop in the first place.
"It's been a great new little injection not only to the shop, but to Main Street on Sundays," Lamb said. "It goes back to the roots of why we started this in the first place, it's a personal and social investment in the culture we want to see on Main Street.
Lamb's hope is that the existence of the Tiniest Stage will inspire new musicians to bring their talents to the public.
"Perhaps high school students interested in performing will want to take to the stage?" said Lamb. "Or maybe someone who has practiced their craft in the comfort of their own home for years will come out and share their talents for the first time. There's so much potential in such a small stage."
"It's no longer serving to help us, but serving local musicians and giving them a chill place to perform where they can just relax about it and it won't be too stressful for them," Redstone said. "They get a free crepe out of it at the end of their show. It's turned into this fun, community sort of thing. It's turned into its own adorable little monster. It's got a life of its own now."
Tags: crepes , musical performance,
