New Theatre Celebrates Birthday With Gala At Fruitlands
Tuesday May 30, 2006
Contact: Troy Siebels, (781) 640-5625

HARVARD – Village Theatre Project will celebrate its first birthday with a musical gala event at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard on Thursday, June 8. The one-year-old theatre company is the Nashoba Valley’s only professional theatre, and is based around an ensemble of highly accomplished artists living mainly in Boston and New York, and making a home for performances in Groton and Harvard. The theatre group was launched with a Grand Opening cabaret-style event last June at The Barn at Gibbet Hill in Groton, and has performed “one-night-only” awareness building events over the past year at Oak Hill Country Club in Fitchburg, at the Groton-Dunstable Performing Arts Center, and at Lawrence Academy. The company’s first fully staged production, the world premiere comic farce Better Off Dead, played to standing ovations at the Groton-Dunstable Performing Arts Center in April.

Better Off Dead was a fitting choice for the theatre’s first production, according to Co-Artistic Director Christopher Chew, because “it was developed in part by our Company of Artists last summer at the Ashby Retreat – a two-week collaborative playwriting residency in Ashby. Several other theatres have expressed interest in the play, and we think it has a big future ahead.” The production was performed in the group’s 150-seat ‘black box’ theatre, constructed on the stage of the Groton-Dunstable Performing Arts Center. “The auditorium is much bigger than we need or want,” explains Co-Artistic Director Troy Siebels, “so we created our own venue within it – a much more intimate space, where the audience feels much more a part of the play.

”The Birthday Gala will feature musical performances by members of the professional ensemble, described Chew, “aimed at celebrating a successful year and looking ahead to an even better one. Plus we’ll share a few laughs in the process.” Siebels shared the enthusiasm, adding “word of mouth is very strong for us – most of our audiences come because they’ve heard from someone else who’s seen a performance. People are seeing that they can go to professional theatre without driving all the way into Boston and paying twice the ticket price, plus parking and hassle.”

The Gala will begin with food and beverages at 6:00pm on Thursday, June 6; with the performance beginning at 7:00pm; tickets are $40 per person. To reserve seats or for more information, email info@villagetheatreproject.org or call 978-456-7898.