[ This Just In! ]
For Immediate Release
Date: July 14, 2004
Salvage Vanguard Labor Presents The Salvage Vanguard Labor Party 2004
AUSTIN, TX--For the third year in a row, Salvage Vanguard Theater is raising funds to promote a living wage for local artists through its annual event The Salvage Vanguard Labor Party on Saturday, August 28.
Featuring previews of its upcoming shows, a cash bar, and a silent auction, the Salvage Vanguard Labor Party raises money to pay the artists who work on Salvage Vanguard Theater's shows and also for the artists who are part of SVT's Resident Company.
"The Resident Company is Salvage Vanguard Theater's way of encouraging promising local artists to stay in Austin rather than move to another city," says SVT's artistic director Jason Neulander. "Right now it's not possible to make a living as a theater artist in our community. And Austin's cultural landscape is suffering as a result."
Salvage Vanguard Theater's Resident Company Members are paid a stipend of $5,000 to live and work in Austin. The program is working. In the second year of the program, Resident Playwright Dan Dietz was nominated for the prestigious Steinberg Award for his play tempOdyssey, which was premiered by SVT in 2004. Resident Actor Jenny Larson won a special award from the Austin Critics Table for her acting work in the past year. Resident Composer Graham Reynolds won the Frederick Loewe Music Theatre Award for the opera MotherBone, premiered by SVT, and was tapped to score "A Scanner Darkly", the new Richard Linklater film starring Keanu Reeves.
Currently, it is not possible for a local theater artist to make a living doing theater in Austin. Artists are moving not only to cities like New York and Los Angeles, but also to Minneapolis and Louisville in the hopes of making a living in theater.
"How can we Austinites accept that some of our best theater artists are moving to Minneapolis because that's where they can make ends meet?" continues Neulander. "That's a national embarrassment for the second most creative city in America. Salvage Vanguard Theater is trying in its own way to change things."
Last year, attendees at the Salvage Vanguard Labor Party donated more than $40,000 towards artist wages.
The Salvage Vanguard Labor Party will be held Saturday, August 28, from 7:30 to 10:30 PM at ALLGO (701 Tillery St.). There is no cover charge, but rather "donate as you wish". Reservations are not necessary. For details visit http://www.salvagevanguard.org or call 474-SVT-6.
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