"Available Light’s 2015-2016 season officially started this weekend with a bang... a case study in how good, how electric, theatre can be when everything lines up. It’s one of the finest things I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a masterful work of empathy, wonder, and complicated joy."

"The magic that leaves the most lasting impression is the theatrical spell the troupe casts... The production highlights how well Available Light works together to convey a coherent vision."

Featuring: Rudy Frias, Michelle G. Schroeder, Travis Horseman, Elena M. Perantoni, David J. Glover, Jordan Fehr

Stage Manager: Adam Humphrey
Lighting Designer: Carrie Cox
Costume Designer: Acacia Duncan

Schedule:
Thursday, Sept 17 @ 8pm
Friday, Sept 18 @ 8pm
Saturday, Sept 19 @ 8pm

Friday, Sept 25 @ 8pm
Saturday, Sept 26 @ 8pm
Sunday, Sept 27 @ 2pm

Thursday, Oct 1 @ 8pm
Friday, Oct 2 @ 8pm
Saturday, Oct 3 @ 8pm

Featuring:
Acacia Duncan, Drew Eberly, Eleni Papaleonardos, Ian Short, and surprise guests.

Independents’ Day Festival 2015
September 20, 2015 @ 12pm

Performed @ Strongwater.

“It’s hard to imagine a better fit between subject and style than Available Light Theatre’s sweet and insightful John Cage 101.”

“A fun, live atmosphere that one only experiences through theater. I commend AVLT for taking a risk and creating something different. They took a chance and for that I recommend all to see the show.”

The Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy
Directed by Whitney Thomas Eads
Saturday, October 10 @ 7:30pm
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Adrienne Kennedy's 1992 one-act about a fictional African-American writer whose life both is, and is not, like her author's. The play is an intriguing, unusual, and chilling look at the destructiveness of racism in the United States.

Still Life by Emily Mann
Directed by Jennifer Schlueter
Sunday, December 6 @ 7:30pm
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Still Life is a distillation of interviews Emily Mann conducted during the summer of 1978 with people who were dramatically affected by the Vietnam War, each in different but interrelated ways. It is the story of a wife, a lover, and a Vietnam War veteran who returns home and struggles to come to terms with the atrocities he witnessed and committed. Mann describes the play as "a plea for examination and self-examination, an attempt at understanding our own violence and a hope that through understanding we can come out on the other side."

Two Vaněk Plays by Václav Havel
Directed by Matt Hermes
Saturday, March 26 @ 7:30pm
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A sampling of The Vaněk Plays, by dissident Czech writer and statesman Václav Havel, these short works focus on Havel’s theatrical alter ego, Ferdinand. Banned in Czechoslovakia when first written in the 70s, the plays tell the universal tale about the ways we are all susceptible to moral compromise, they way our actions can contribute to the very same problems we protest, in any society, any government.

Once again, Available Light approaches a strange and difficult novel to adapt it into a strange and challenging stage-play. This time around the book is "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce, which celebrates its Centennial in 2016.

This radical adaptation is titled "Dedalus" after the main character of Joyce’s novel. In our version, Stephen Dedalus will be played by multiple actors of various types as the play twists through the dreams and memories of a blossoming artistic soul.

Featuring:
Adam Crawford, Dakota Thorn, Camille Bullock, Daniel Shtivelberg, Matt Hermes, Shanelle Marie, Whitney Thomas Eads, Jay Rittberger, and Josie Merkle as "Dedalus, et al"

Director/Adaptor: Matt Slaybaugh
Stage Manager: Lonelle Yoder
Lighting Designer: Brendan Michna
Sound Designer: Dave Wallingford
Costume Designer: Acacia Duncan, Jaylene Jennings

The Next Stage Initiative will turn the Studio 2 Theatre into a hothouse for new works in January! Be part of the growth & nurturing of some great plays as they come into their own.

If you’ve been following AVLT for a while, you know that we’ve a vested interest in daring, new plays. We’ve presented dozens of free readings over the years, and the Next Stage Initiative is the logical step into the future.

The Next Stage Initiative returns (for its fourth year) in January 2016 with 6 hot playwrights and their young plays in progress.

Thursday, January 7 @ 8pm – a play reading
Meanwhile
by Jackie Hedeman
directed by Matt Slaybaugh
Talkback with the playwright.

Friday, January 8 @ 8pm – a lightly staged reading
Still Quiet
by Emily Dendinger
directed by Whitney Thomas Eads
Talkback with the playwright.

Saturday, January 9 @ 8pm – a workshop staging
Wanda, Daisy, and the Great Rapture
by Alexis Schaetzle
directed by Jennifer Schlueter
Talkback with the playwright.

Thursday, January 14 @ 8pm – a play reading
Gabriel: A Polemic
by C. Denby Swanson
directed by Karie Miller

Friday, January 15 @ 8pm – a workshop staging
The Short Comedy of Pope John Paul I, or Luciani!
by Danny Turek
directed by Daniel Shtivelberg
Talkback with the playwright.

Saturday, January 16 @ 8pm – a lightly staged reading
Wait for Me
by Mark Snyder
directed by Matt Slaybaugh
Talkback with the playwright.

ABOUT JANE AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
A romantic deconstruction of the world’s most popular love story, this is the classic novel you know and love – amplified and augmented by the world of bloggers, amateur commentators, and scholarly pundits.

Featuring Acacia Duncan, Kim Garrison Hopcraft, Michelle Schroeder, Drew Eberly, and Ian Short.

SCHEDULE
Fri. Jan. 22 8pm @ Denison University
Sat. Jan. 23 8pm @ Denison University
Sun. Jan. 24 3pm @ Denison University

“I can’t think of another new work staged in Columbus in my 24-plus years as a Dispatch critic that has displayed so much promise or polish… This play seems destined to be seen and celebrated across the country.”

“In short, Pride and Prejudice is one of the best shows I have seen all year—in any city. It is wildly entertaining… Grab a date and just go.”

"Sometimes the most minimal theatre is the most spell-binding. And when it’s done right, as it is in Available Light Theatre’s mesmerizing production, it leaves more conventional theatre in the dust."

"This is a hilarious, grab-you-by-the-throat version of the human brain trying to eat itself, distilled to something so potent you can’t see the flame but its heat will blister you. A call to arms and a shot across the bow to art and theatre in Columbus in 2016."

February 5 - 7 // 18 - 20, 2016
The Vanderelli Room
218 McDowell St.
East Franklinton, Columbus, OH

Pay What You Want tickets available at the door.
Running Time: Sixty minutes, no intermission.
Talkbacks: After Thursday and Friday performances.

Featuring: Audrey Rush, Matt Hermiz, Chris Tucci, Jennifer Youngblood, Beth Kattleman, Jeanine Thompson, Max Glenn, Jeremy Sony, Phil Hickman, Stefan Farrenkopf, Rick Hole, Emily Turner, David Glover, Krista Stauffer, Chad Hewitt, Andy Batt, Shanelle Hinkle Moore, Rudy Frias, Linda Dorff, Josie Merkle, Sue Wismar, Mike Holmes, Dee Shepherd, Will Macke, Greg Hoffman, Megan Morelock, Dakota Thorn, Eleni Papaleonardos, Dan Burleson, Ross Shirley, Angela Palazzolo, Anita Davis, and Beth Josephson Simon.

24 Hour Theatre, AKA 24 Hr Thtr is the drag racing of the theatre world. It's short, furiously intense, and something might explode.

Thirty artists, spanning the breadth of the Columbus theatre community, will create six brand-new short plays in just 24 hours. Starting at 7:30pm on Friday night, names are drawn, teams created, plays written over night, and rehearsals completed in 8 hours, all in time for opening night at 7:30pm on Saturday.

CLICK HERE to view the show page
at Cleveland Public Theatre

"The pure joy of moving with other people created moments that seared into my brain... I walked out into the night with a lightness in my chest, aware of each of my own steps."

"Available Light Theatre is nothing if not ambitious. Few theater companies would take on the project of attempting to describe — in little more than an hour — what it’s like to live in a human body... The experiment pays off."

Ensemble: Eli Brickey, Camille Bullock, Acacia Duncan, Drew Eberly, Whitney Thomas Eads, Jordan Fehr, Verne Hendrick, Elena M. Perantoni
Stage Manager: Jaylene Jennings
Lighting Designer: Carrie Cox
Sound Designer: Matt Slaybaugh, Dave Wallingford
Costume Designer: David J. Glover
Collaborators: Megan Lovely, Michelle G. Schroeder, Ian Short
Writer: Mark Snyder
Choreographer: Joshua Manculich

“A+ … A stirring ode to creativity.”

“Columbus’s own theatrical force of nature.”

This is how we started – Matt and Dave in a basement rehearsal space, making a show to perform in the back of a Cincinnati coffee shop. The Absurdity of Writing Poetry is not just Available Light’s first creation, it is also our thesis statement and manifesto.

Just in time for its Ten Year Anniversary, Available Light’s first production – featuring a rare performance by AVLT’s founder, Matt Slaybaugh – returns to Columbus.

This sixty minute solo performance – about making art, not making art, and the challenges of both – over-flows with philosophy, physicality, a small taste of hip-hop, and, of course, poetry.