The Eagle

Act three

Romulus fire captain hopes to open new community theater

John Thiede is beginning the third act of his professional career with the opening of the first community theater in the City of Romulus.

“It’s really about the art, about bringing art to the community,” Thiede said.

Thiede is currently a captain with the Romulus Fire Department where his career in public safety started in 1986. His professional acting career was in tandem with his firefighting career. His stage appearances began as a diversion during his off time from the department and burgeoned to include professional stage and TV appearances. His credits include a stint on the beloved soap opera All My Children, work at The Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea and Second City improv comedy theater in Detroit, among numerous other roles in both community and professional theater along with hosting a popular sports radio show,,

Now, Thiede said, as he plans for his retirement from the fire department next year, he is fulfilling another dream along with the free time he anticipates when he leaves his job.

“Romulus has supported me and my family for my entire life,” he said of his long career with the department, “It’s time to give back to the community.” He said he hopes to do that with the new Hook and Ladder Theater Company, which he plans to open in a former city fire station at Wayne and Goddard roads in the current Romulus municipal complex.

The building served as a fire station from 1952 until 1980, Thiede said, and the city was looking for a tenant to lease the space. The building spoke to Thiede, he said, and once he considered the former station as a theater, he began to realize the many other services the former station might be used for in the community.

In addition to the 24 by 14-foot stage in the planned theater, Thiede sees the possibility of hosting family game nights, acting classes for students 12 to 18 and even a small studio where local podcasters can record their broadcasts. He said he has already talked to community center leaders in the city about involving seniors, something he also has planned for his 93-year-old mother, Ruth. “She can hand out programs, and just hang around,” Thiede said. “This would be something to help keep seniors active and let them see a free show,” he added.

But above all the other plans, it’s the art, Thiede repeated. “This will bring something we don’t have now to the community.”

While Thiede was a performer from the age of 5 or 6, entertaining his mother’s friends and others with his toy record player, much of the drama in his life came while he served the city. In his first year as a firefighter, he responded to the scene of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 and helped rescue the only survivor, a 4-year-old girl. That incident stayed with him for a long time, Thiede said. He was also among a group of firefighters deployed to the site of 9-11, where he worked for 15 days.

Theater, he said, helped him cope with the stress of his job and provided a creative outlet, something he said he believes everyone needs. He said his fledgling amateur stage work eventually led to his finding an agent and experiencing a professional acting career, and to his plans to bring live theater to the city. He hopes to open the Hook and Ladder theater within a few months. Tickets for performances, he said, would be about $15 or $20 and he is hoping only to “break even” for some time. A 501 c 3 plan is being considered, he said.

He said he is confident of a warm welcome for the new theater in the city. He already has several professional directors lined up to bring live stage productions to the Hook and Ladder and each of them, like Thiede, has a large following. He is hoping to have his first show in late fall or early summer, which he hopes will be Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park.

He has plans for a live version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in October and perhaps a variation of It’s a Wonderful Life at Christmas.