Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette is continuing to promote the arts by collaborating with a local school. Its partnership with Sunnyside Intermediate School dates back to the 1950s. Currently, it encompasses projects such as workshops, staff training, and a performance.
Managing Director Steve Koehler says there is interest in expanding the partnership even further.
"This current relationship with Kevin Maxwell, who's the principal over there, and Lori Portner, who's our director of education, has really taken off in the past few months. We started late spring with kind of testing a drama club and we're going to be going full force in the fall once they go back to school."
He says Civic Theatre is open to more partnerships with schools and other organizations in the community.
The organization also is looking to build on the success of a recent program. The Ten Minute Play Festival challenges writers to tell an interesting story in just ten minutes of stage time.
Koehler says it was a hit with audiences in its first go-around last weekend.
"We sold about 75% - 80% of our seats, which is a good number for any event, especially a brand new event where we had very little advertising. And people seemed very excited about it, it wasn't just the attendance, but there was an excitement in the crowd and I've talked to several people since then who just think it's a great idea."
He says the theater has plans to move forward with another rendition of the festival next year.
The announcement was made at the Theatre’s annual meeting June 25, which also recognized the contributions of the hundreds of volunteers.
