[ This Just In! ]
For Immediate Release
Date: May 15, 2006
Contact:
SALVAGE VANGUARD THEATER PRESENTS THE SALVAGE VANGUARD LABOR
PARTY 2006
AUSTIN, TX- For the fifth 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, September 30.
Featuring previews of its upcoming show Thrush, 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 as well as for the artists who are part of SVT's Resident Company. The event will be held in the company's new warehouse located at 2803 Manor.
Holding the event in SVT's new space seems appropriate to Artistic Director Jason Neulander.
"Our new home is going to make a big difference for the lives of the artists we work with. Not only will we be able to ultimately bring in more resident artists, but they'll have a permanent facility to create their work," he says. "I couldn't be more excited!"
The Resident Company is Salvage Vanguard Theater's way of encouraging promising local artists to stay in Austin rather than move to another city. Presently, SVT's Resident Company Members are paid a stipend of $5,000 to live and work in Austin. Last year, attendees at the Salvage Vanguard Labor Party donated more than $30,000 towards artist wages.
"In the last five years, depending on the moment, I've been a harried freelancer, a salaried work drone, or an unemployed-near-destitute-artist. The one constant check I've had coming in throughout all these ups and downs was from SVT," says Resident Playwright Dan Dietz. "It was like a monthly reminder saying: You Have A Home Here. The Work You Do Is Important. Keep Doing It."
Resident Actor Jenny Larson is directing SVT's fall production of Thrush and will become the company's Associate Artistic Director in 2007. She has been a part of SVT's Resident Company since 2003.
"There is such a great community of creative and innovative artists in Austin," she says. "Being a parent, part of the struggle as an artist is affording childcare and with this residency I can afford to have a babysitter for my child. It sounds so pragmatic, but it's an invaluable gift."
Resident Composer Graham Reynolds received critical acclaim for his work on the soundtrack for Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly and was voted Best Composer in the Austin Chronicle's 2005 Reader's Poll. Resident Actor Lee Eddy was voted Best Actress in the same poll and was awarded a Best Actress award by the Austin Critic's Table. Both will tour with SVT's The Intergalactic Nemesis this fall.
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.
" Being a part of Salvage Vanguard's Resident Company means I get paid for being an artist," says Dietz. "It's an idea that's absolutely counterintuitive, absolutely revolutionary, and absolutely essential to growing and maintaining Austin's reputation as a creative community."
The Salvage Vanguard Labor Party will be held Saturday, September 30. Doors open at 7:26 PM, presentation begins at 8:06 PM at the new Salvage Vanguard Theater space (2803 Manor Rd.). 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.
###