Live Arts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Live Arts is a professional level community theatre in Charlottesville, Virginia. It produces and creates theatre that is modern, rigorous and risky.
And Live Arts is committed to being a product of its community as well as a process for creating community.
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[edit] History
Live Arts started in 1989 with a group that included Thane and Will Kerner, Fran Smith, Mark and Karen Schuyler, Michael Parent, Bill Thomas, Larry Goldstein, Gate Pratt and Cate Andrews. Most of these people are still intimately involved in live performance in the heart of downtown Charlottesville, Virginia.
Performances began in Gabe Silverman's Old Michie Building. Live Arts first production in that 135 seat theatre space was of Sartre's "No Exit" in September, 1990. Acid house dance parties provided an early approach to artistically motivated, experience-based events as fundraising tool. This form found fuller expression in the legendary annual "9 Lives" benefit, a combination of cabaret and promenade theatre forms with outrageous visual design excess and broad community support.
A popular series of coffeehouses under the direction of Fran Sackett, the founding Artistic Director, provided a stage for local musicians, actors and writers and were a popular regular feature of the first years. Dave Matthews, one of the veterans of the early coffeehouses and galas, has successfully pursued other projects. In 1992, the first in a series of distinctive musical theatre productions was "The Fantasticks" under the direction of John Owen.
The current Artistic Director John Gibson began work at Live Arts as a volunteer in January of 1992 and became the first fulltime employee in April of 1993. As the organization grew in scale and ambition, a growing professionalism led to the addition of fulltime staffing for Education, Development, Production and Operations. Live Arts currently supports 8 full time 4 part time staff.
In 2003, Live Arts moved into 3 floors of the Center for Contemporary Arts building on Water Street, designed by local firm Bushman/Dreyfus Architects. The Theatre(s) are a 200 seat, 3 story configurable space with permanent balcony, and a 70 seat black box. Shows often run in both spaces at the same time.
[edit] The Artists
The artists participate in production, outreach, education and new works as tools for creating both art and community.
[edit] Numbers and Facts
- An annual audience of 20,000.
- Core volunteer base of over 500.
- Productions to date (as of August 2006): 210
- First Production: No Exit September 1990.
- Most Recent Musical: A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim December 2007.
- Most Recent Downstage Production: Lysistrata by Aristophanes February 2007.
- Most Recent Upstage Production: The Goat or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee January 2008.
- Live Arts staged the Virginia premieres of work by Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, Charles L. Mee, Richard Greenberg, August Wilson, and Edward Albee (among many others.)
[edit] LATTE
The Live Arts Teen Theater Ensemble (LATTE) was begun in 1997 under the direction of Lydia Horan and guidance of Kay Leigh Ferguson and provides arts education for all ages and unique performance opportunities for young people, a commitment that continues under the current director, Ronda Hewitt.
[edit] Geography
Live Arts is located at 123 East Water Street, in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. www.livearts.org
