Category: Uncategorized

By Matt Powers

Here at LiFT we don’t always have a plan. We have few foundation shows that recur every year, like our Mac Blac series for the Little Falls Cheese Festival, and our Shakespeare in the Park style shows in the summer. The rest of the year we do sporadic projects, or are asked to perform at various venues. It is unpredictable, good fun. Though we do not have a formal “season” yet, we still create shows and theatrical experiences around a collective vision.

Loosely speaking, we create quality, grass-roots theater. We are transients, and have no official theater to call home. We utilize our community resources to create unique experiences and use unconventional spaces. More specifically, our focus is two-fold, and we produce original work and non-copyrighted plays. Actually, the bulk of what we do is original work. Our community has many talents. We like to draw them out.

So we have Immersive Murder Mystery, theatrical teas, dress in costume for events, be characters for fundraisers, and all other manner of niche opportunities. We have been places we thought we’d never be, met people we thought we’d never meet, and have found new avenues and need for theater.

Though, we could always do better, and David Dower has a wonderful essay titled “How a Season Comes Together,” that is worth a read. Also, here is an article about five new Artistic Directors grappling with a similar, interesting challenge. For all you theater practitioners out there, knowing the big picture, and how a large vision shapes a season, can be incredibly useful for creating unique, powerful, and thematic years.