The Overtime is sin dudo the most accessible of the city’s theaters; founder John Poole(who also serves as a principal actor, writer, director, and receptionist) told us, “We’re putting on shows for the 90 percent of San Antonio who don’t already go to the theater. That’s why we do … campy, non-academic stuff — as well as some kid-friendly, family-friendly stuff. I want to get people in here, get them interested in theater as a live experience, especially if it’s not something they’ve really been interested in before.” [See “Poole’s Deep End, April 29.] It’s this pioneering and democratic spirit that we dig about the Overtime — well that, and gloriously cheesy sci-fi experiments (like the recent musical The Brain That Wouldn’t Die), the cornball fun of their Saturday Midnight Movies, their joyous, pro-feminist burlesque extravaganzas [see “Hoochy-Cutesy,” December 24, 2008], and nifty Shakespeare revivals like their apocalyptic King Lear.

So we meet two brand-new bits of Overtimey news with great anticipation: 1) They’re going nonprofit (“[the Company] decided that a non-profit status was the best way for our group to manage the growth and to share responsibility and authority,” Poole says) and 2) They’re moving from their West Avenue digs to the former Armonart Studio in the Blue Star Arts Complex. The first big theatrical event in the new space will be a January production of Scott McDowell’s The Hard Bargain, directed by the fab Andy Thornton (The Goat Or Who Is Sylvia, True West, director of the Classic Theater’s Uncle Vanya). Movin’ on up? Hopefully without losing the funk. 
theovertimetheater.net. — Sarah Fisch