Spotlight on: New Venture Theatre

Cultural outreach at community centers has a big impact

When New Venture Theatre was just beginning, director Greg Williams was lucky to find spaces like the Dr. Leo S. Butler Community Center in Old South Baton Rouge to open their doors for its performances. “When we first started, it was anywhere we could get some space to do some art,” he says.

The center was the same type of setting where Williams discovered theater as a child. Growing up in Eden Park, Williams often went to the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Center after school. One day, he saw a performance staged by the children’s theater organization Playmakers, and he was hooked.

“I called them the light shows, because I didn’t know they were even called plays,” Williams recalls. “There was a library at the community center, and I would go every week [afterward] and ask them when the next light show was coming.”

One of the Playmakers staff at the time, André du Broc—a local actor now working in Kansas City—encouraged Williams to audition for the upcoming Babes in Toyland. Williams got the part of an elf, and through du Broc’s mentorship, continued working in theater, starting in 1997 what would eventually become New Venture Theatre.

Once the community theater gained its footing, Williams and his team wanted to bring their productions to areas of the city in need, specifically Old South Baton Rouge. Several of the troupe’s young actors are from the neighborhood.

Editor’s note: This story appeared in 225‘s November issue as part of a series of stories focusing on arts-based initiatives in Old South Baton Rouge. Read more here.

Earlier this year, the Arts Council distributed several small grants to groups working in the area, and it awarded New Venture funding to host workshops at the Leo Butler Center. The organization has held workshops tied to two Manship Theatre productions: one associated with Aida that taught young participants about African dance, and one connected to The Trip to Bountiful, which documented stories from Old South Baton Rouge residents about their history in the neighborhood. Those stories were used to construct a quilt-like tapestry displayed in the center. Participants were also given free tickets to see the productions at the Manship Theatre.

“I grew up in the same situations. There is a hunger for opportunity, and when you give really good opportunities to those kids, they are so appreciative—I was,” Williams says. “The talent is ridiculous, because they all sing in church, they all paint, they all write, and they don’t always know what to do with these talents. Just to give them an outlet to develop and showcase what they can do is amazing. You just see their faces light up, like, ‘I can do what?’”

While New Venture has hopped from facility to facility in past seasons, the Manship Theatre announced this summer that it would become the downtown venue’s first in-house theater company. That stability will help Williams and his team continue community engagement in Old South Baton Rouge and elsewhere, helping underserved youth discover the theater and unlock their acting potential.
“They were our first audience, so I always want to support that community,” Williams says. “So we’re going to be there.”

ONLINE:
newventuretheatre.com