 "Photo: Courtesy of Jacie Hood")
The Limelight Theatre is the home to a group of creative individuals willing to discuss the liberal side of issues in a city known for its conservative citizens.
The group that resides in the Limelight is part of the non-profit organization called the Experimental Artists Theatre. The group’s goals are to expand the boundaries created by traditional theater and provide an outlet to discuss real-world issues. The theater’s Artistic Director Paul Fillingham said there is a genuine need for this outlet specifically in a city like Lubbock.
“The thing about Lubbock is there’s just a fear in Lubbock,” he said. “There’s just an eminent fear to talk about anything in Lubbock.”
Fillingham, a doctoral student at Tech, said body image, abortion, sexuality, gay and lesbian issues are some of the topics presented at the Limelight. He said he attributes the lack of discussion of these to be the cause of problems in Lubbock such as high rates of sexually transmitted diseases. The need for an outlet of these issues is echoed by the theater’s webmaster and photographer Jacie Hood.
Hood, a public administration graduate student, said she believes the acknowledgement of these issues to younger audiences is important. She said younger audiences need to learn about these issues and how to deal with them.
“I think the biggest thing is it provides an avenue to younger audiences,” Hood said. “That is pretty much untapped.”
Fillingham describes audience at Limelight to be primarily anyone 35 years old and younger. The theater’s director said the audience doesn’t necessarily come to the theater to be shocked but rather for a safe place to discuss topics that otherwise would be considered taboo.
While standing outside the theater before a performance, Ambra Cole described reasons she enjoys attending the theater’s productions.
Cole, a senior human development and family studies major, said there is a unique freedom where discussions on restricted topics are acceptable.
“I like that you could go there,” she said, “that you can be that free.”
Fillingham credits the openness of Limelight to the theater’s resident playwright, Margie Pignataro. He said he believes he’s never seen a playwright write with such abandonment as Pignataro does.
“She doesn’t look and say we need to use people,” he said. “I think traditional theater underestimates their audience and Margie doesn’t.”
Fillingham said the theater has had actors play angels, demons, mermaids, rooster, books, HIV and other nontraditional parts. Pignataro, a doctoral student, said she writes very little stage directions and doesn’t tell anybody what they’re supposed to do; she just writes lines. The playwright believes this opens up creativity.
“Some playwrights treat script like its set in stone,” she said. “It’s very horrifying to me. I can’t be possessive of the work.”
The theater’s associate artistic director, China Young, said plays written by Pignataro are always rewarding to performers because the playwright doesn’t write any extraneous character. Each character is important. Young, a Tech graduate, said with her work, the actors don’t have to strain themselves to find the character. She allows the characters to morph for each performer.
Pignataro’s abandonment and deviation from traditional theater is part of the experiment theater movement. Young said most of the theater group has all spent time in areas outside of Lubbock where they had the privilege to experience this movement away from traditional theater.
“This is what we’re doing throughout the world,” she said, “and Lubbock deserves a taste.”
Being in Lubbock, the group gets to experience being the only one of its kind, but Fillingham said the Experiment Arts Theatre’s goal is to move to Austin within a year. The theater group believes with the move they would be able to see their contemporaries and advance.
“We’re definitely different and unique in Lubbock,” Fillingham said, “but when we take it Austin how are we there?”
Although the theater group plans to move to Austin, one of their goals while in Lubbock is get people to come see theater that normally wouldn’t. The director said he knew a theater can’t realistically compete with the productions and special effects of a movie, but he hopes people would attend one show at the Limelight and see what the theater is all about.
“I wish people would come and give us one shot,” Fillingham said, “to see if it’s something they’re in to.”
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