[ This Just In! ]

For Immediate Release
Date: April 18, 2007
Contact: Lee Eddy, Marketing Director, (512) 474-7886

Meadows Foundation Funds New SVT Home

(Austin, TX)--Today, Salvage Vanguard Theater received a check for $70,000 from the Meadows Foundation in support of its new home at 2803 Manor Road.

"This is huge," says SVT's artistic director Jason Neulander. "With the support of The Meadows Foundation, we'll be able to open our new facility in June as planned."

On April 25, 2006, Salvage Vanguard Theater signed an eight-year lease with the option to renew on a warehouse space located at 2803 Manor Road. When it opens in June, the 9,600 square-foot building will feature a gallery, rehearsal space (which will double as a 50-seat performance space), a 2,400 square foot, 100-seat black box theater, a scene shop, a costume shop, and 11 visual artist studios. The architects on the project are Criag Nasso and Andrew Clements, AIA. 

The purpose of the space will be (1) to serve the needs of artists by offering an affordable home for incubating, creating, polishing, and presenting new, original visual and performing artworks; and (2) to serve the needs of audiences by presenting a diverse selection of outstanding performing and visual arts that are affordable to everyone. It will be the only facility in Austin that allows both visual and performing artists to incubate ideas, create and develop new artwork, and present that artwork to the general public. More than 30,000 artists and spectators will make use of the space each year.

Salvage Vanguard Theater plans to have performances in its new homesix nights per week. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights will be reserved for full-scale theater productions. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights will feature off-night performances that can be played on the sets of the weekend productions. For example, Monday night might be programmed as “improv comedy night”, Tuesday night might be programmed as “alt-music night”, and Wednesday night might be “b-movie night”. In addition, SVT will use its rehearsal space as a classroom and off-night performance venue. The lobby will double as a gallery space.
Other major funders for the new venue include The Webber Family Foundation, The Austin Community Foundation, The Lola Wright Foundation, The Still Water Foundation, and individual donors.

Salvage Vanguard Theater will hold an opening celebration of the new space on June 1 at the facility, coincident with the opening night of its next production MUD by Maria Irene Fornes, directed by Neulander.

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