Mission Statement

The Mob is dedicated to making theater a popular form of entertainment in the community by producing new topical works and classical works in inventive ways.

History

The Mob was started in the summer of 1997 upon Ryan Whinnem's return to Baltimore from a few year's in Los Angeles and Boston.  Once back in Charm City, he looked up three old theater buddies from his days in the Johns Hopkins student group, the Barnstormers: Bill Henry, Ruth Scrandis Henry, and Noel Schively.  In the fall of 1998, Mobtown mounted its first production: Hamlet at St. John's Church on 27th and St. Paul in Baltimore City.  That following spring, Mobtown participated in the Baltimore Playwright's Festival by producing Mimi Teahan's Urban Breakdowns, and winning the Third Place Production award.

The next year, they followed up with a production of A Comedy of Errors and again participated in the BPF with Penny Lorio's Four Scenes: A Hungarian Trilogy - which again won the Third Place Production Award.  For the next several years they continued to produce a classical work and a new play in the Baltimore Playwrights Festival at various venues around town.

In the spring of 2002, Mobtown began its annual Puck in the Park production, mounting A Midsummer Night's Dream in Patterson Park.  Then, in the fall of 2003, Mobtown took over the old Axis Theatre space in the Meadow Mill complex, rechristening it the Mobtown Theater at Meadow Mill.  They opened the new season with a new translation of Moliere's The Misanthrope. 

This past year, the Mob opened their seventh season with the OBIE winning musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The show was an immediate hit, and played to eight consecutive sell outs before it closed in November.  Named CityPaper's Best of Stage in 2004, and the Baltimore Theater Awards Best Experimental Production for 1994, Hedwig made a reprise in January 2005 and again played to sold out crowds.