Profile

Note: The information on this Profile reflects the circumstances of the ensemble at the time of the interviews. These circumstances will most likely change over time.

Location: Whitesburg, Kentucky (pop. 1,600)

Ensemble members: 7

Founded: 1975

Major activities: Creation of new work; touring plays and workshops; performing community cultural residencies; mentoring new theaters; creating video and audio productions; publishing books; helping create community developed plays.

Facility: Part of Appalshop, which owns two buildings in Whitesburg that include office space, warehouse, 150-seat theater, gallery, and film and video editing suites.

Annual budget: $400,000

Community Partnerships: Social and civic clubs, public schools, social-service agencies, arts presenters, historical societies, the medical community, folk artists, churches, colleges, and individuals.

Web Site: http://www.appalshop.org/rst

Company Statement

Roadside Theater was founded in 1975 in Whitesburg, Kentucky, as a part of Appalshop. Appalshop, founded in 1969, is a multidisciplinary, rural arts and education center, which, for the past 30 years, has been producing and distributing (nationally and internationally) film, video, audio recordings, radio and theater that celebrates the culture and voices the concerns of the 20 million people living in the 13 state Appalachian region.

Roadside Theater is a professional ensemble theater located in the heart of the Appalachian Mountain coalfields of rural eastern Kentucky. Since 1975, the company has been writing, performing in its home theater and touring nationally (and occasionally internationally) original plays drawn from the history and rich culture of its mountain home.

Roadside Theater is creating a body of drama based on the history and lives of Appalachian people and collaborating with others nationally who are dramatizing their local life.

Over the past 25 years, Roadside has:

• developed a unique, experimental dramatic form drawn from the musical and storytelling traditions of its mountain home.
• created a body of Appalachian dramatic literature, where none existed before.
• conducted cultural exchanges with other ensemble theaters that resulted in the co-creation of musical plays that explore issues of culture, race, class and place.
• evolved and documented a cultural residency methodology that helps communities present their stories publicly, diversify their theater audiences, and, in some cases, establish new local theaters creating original plays.
• taught its methodology at colleges and universities, including Cornell University, the College of William and Mary, and Arizona State University.
• documented its work in publications and audio/video tapes which are available for purchase.
• has toured to 43 states and Europe.
• has been in residence at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Theater for the New City, and Dance Theatre Workshop in New York City.
• has performed at Lincoln Center.
• has represented the United States at international theater festivals in London, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia.
• in the two-year period 1998-1999, conducted 360 performances and workshops in 70 communities in 17 states.

It is the character of Roadside’s relationship with its audiences that defines its work. Roadside’s audiences are a broad cross-section of the American public, including a significant number of habitual theatergoers as well as many attending professional theater for the first time.

Based on six years of tracking (1991-1997) by the AMS Planning and Research Corporation in Connecticut, 70% of Roadside Theater's national audience live in rural communities and 33% are people of color.

43% of Roadside's national audience earn between $25,000 and $50,000 annually; 30% earn less than $24,000 a year.

In 1999, the median income for people 18 years and older in the U.S. was $21,250. 15% of the population earned $50,000 a year or more.

According to several sets of data, the typical not-for-profit professional theater draws 80% of its audience from the top 15% of the U.S. population, measured by income. In contrast, Roadside Theater draws 73% of its audience from 85% of the population, measured by income.

Research findings show a close correlation between an individual's earnings and educational level.

–Roadside Theater

Profile created January 2001

PERFORMING COMMUNITIES
Carpetbag | Cornerstone | Dell'Arte | Jump-Start
LAPD | Pregones | Roadside | WagonBurner
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