CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – As of April 10, 2010, twelve producing theatres in central Virginia have come together to form the Central Virginia Theatre Alliance. The CVTA will function as an umbrella organization to facilitate communication, cooperation, and collaboration between theatres in the five-county area (Albemarle, Nelson, Greene, Louisa, and Orange). It will provide a network of support for central Virginia’s theatres and will meet monthly to further its goals of discussion, resource sharing, and teambuilding amongst its member organizations.

The founding organizations of the CVTA are as follows: Performers Exchange Project, Hamner Theater, Play On!, the University of Virginia Department of Theatre and Dance, Live Arts, Offstage Theatre, Piedmont Valley Community College Theatre, Four County Players, the Heritage Theatre Festival, the Wayne Theatre Alliance, Whole Theatre and Bent Theatre. Currently, the CVTA is comprised of these twelve founding organizations, though its membership may expand in the future to include other arts organizations in the central Virginia area.

On April 10, representatives from all founding organizations began a discussion of the overall goals of the Central Virginia Theatre Alliance. Communication and calendar sharing; coordinated marketing efforts; a centralized box office; collaboration on joint productions; and the formation of a group identity, mission statement, and website were all on the agenda. In the coming months the CVTA will move forward in developing these and many other ideas in order to foster a base of communal support for all its member organizations.

To find out more about the Central Virginia Theatre Alliance, please contact Boomie Pedersen, Co-Artistic Director of The Hamner Theater, at boomie (at) thehamnertheater.com or Matt Joslyn (Executive Director of Live Arts in Charlottesville, Virginia) at matt (at) livearts.org.