Watts Village Theater Company Announces Collaborations With Local Theatres

On Monday, artists and staff from Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC) gathered at East LA Rep's performance space to conduct an orientation with Theatre Companies and Performers participating in this year's third annual Meet Me @Metro production.

In attendance were representatives from theatre companies – Company of Angels (CoA), East LA Rep, Moving Arts, Rogue Artists Ensemble and The Vault – performing companies, Opera del Espacio and Sirk one & NoVa, and musician and solo artist Angelo Francois. At the orientation, Artists, Producers, Directors and Stage Managers from each organization received information on the production titled, Meet Me @Metro: Uncovering Los Angeles' Hidden Treasures, and began discussing opportunities for creative collaboration among the groups as the performances develop. During one of the breakout sessions with the artists, WVTC's Artistic Director Guillermo Avilés-Rodríguez noted, "you are the cream of the crop of LA Theatre, and we look forward to working with you to build this annual production into an institution for Los Angeles."

Meet Me @Metro: Uncovering Los Angeles' Hidden Treasures is scheduled to open on Saturday, August 25, 2012 and run through Sunday, September 2, 2012 on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning and culminating in Union Station and running through East LA on Metro's Gold Line. For the production, each theatre company will produce a 10 minute, original performance at a strategic Metro station, community park or stage along the Gold Line, and a team of musicians, solo artists, performing companies and tour guides will move audiences from one station to another and as they travel towards the next performance. This hands-on, artistic expedition will search out culturally significant sites around Metro and create "artistic excavations" that will allow audience members to discover and learn about LA's rich and diverse history in an active and participatory manner. Audience members will be led by a "Musical Archaeologist" guiding them through the discovery of different performing treasures. All the performing solo artists and companies along the route will play the role of "Site Stewards" by safeguarding the truth of each site's history. This year's route was selected specifically because it will make it possible to highlight the many artistic contributions made to LA's cultural identity by Native-American, Asian-American and Latino/Hispanic/Chicana/o communities.

Meet Me @Metro: Uncovering Los Angeles' Hidden Treasures continues WVTC's tradition of providing original, professional theatrical performances for residents who would not otherwise be able to experience them. Moreover, the performances facilitate the theater experience for theatre goers and non-theatre goers alike in surprising and unexpected ways. Meet Me @Metro: Uncovering Los Angeles' Hidden Treasures speaks to the creative ways in which LA theatre companies are reaching out to new audience members and communities. Meet Me @Metro: Uncovering Los Angeles' Hidden Treasures is made possible with the support of the James Irvine Foundation and the California Community Foundation.

Participating Theatre Companies:

Company of Angels (CoA) is Los Angeles' oldest non-profit repertory theater company, founded in 1959 by actors Richard Chamberlain, Leonard Nimoy, Vic Morrow and legendary entertainment attorney Bertram Fields. Today Company of Angels is dedicated to depicting stories relevant to a diverse Los Angeles audience. CoA develops emerging artists and re-envisions theater to entertain new audiences by producing new work that reflects and responds to the richness, diversity, and complexity that is the City of Angels. The Company aims to share and give voice to the many stories that exist in our communities. The company's home is inside the historic Alexandria Hotel in the Historic Core District of Downtown Los Angeles. For more information visit www.companyofangels.org.

EAST LA REP

EAST LA REP serves as a creative center, rooted in East Los Angeles and in partnership with Legacy L.A., as lead arts provider. It supports the work and process of artists, but also instigates engagement between artists and community, to create work that includes the diverse communities and the specific needs of people throughout East Los Angeles. At its core, EAST LA REP wants to raise the artistic profile of East Los Angeles.

Called "The tiny Silver Lake theatre with an enviable reputation," Moving Arts is dedicated to the production of original works. Founded by Lee Wochner and Julie Briggs in 1992, Moving Arts has produced many world, national, west coast and Los Angeles premieres. Moving Arts began as a 22-seat venue in the Silver Lake area and quickly grew to become a resident artist company that includes actors, directors, producers, designers and playwrights. For the past 19 years, Moving Arts has continuously produced adventurous new plays and an annual one-act festival in a variety of venues across Los Angeles, showing a remarkable versatility and commitment to the craft of theatre. Past venues range from traditional theatres such as [Inside] the Ford in Hollywood and the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown to site-specific works in nontraditional spaces, such as "ARACHNOTOPIA: A Choose Your Own Play" at the Natural History Museum, "ASAP Fables" on the grounds of the Hollywood United Methodist Church during the Hollywood Fringe Festival, and performances of the very popular "The Car Plays™" in various venues across Southern California, including the parking lot across from Disney Hall during the RADAR L.A. Festival, the plaza of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts during the Off Center Festival and the grounds of the La Jolla Playhouse as part of their Without Walls Series.

Rogue Artists Ensemble is a collective of multi-disciplinary artists who create Hyper-theater, an innovative hybrid of theater traditions, puppetry, mask work, dance, music, and modern technology. Through a collaborative development process, with an emphasis on design and storytelling, the Rogues create original, thought-provoking performances. We cultivate unique audience experiences that appeal to multiple generations of theatergoers in order to expand the boundaries of contemporary American theater.

The Vault is a rebellious, genre-bending theatrical and musical performance-art ensemble. Continually inspired by local LA and global real-life happenings, this multi-cultural and interdisciplinary ensemble creates an unpredictably fast-paced experience where no issue is taboo, except for our mothers.

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