By snoadmin
Nestled on the corner of 7th Street and Long Beach Boulevard, The Garage Theatre is breaking the mold. Once a stage without a home, it is now a quaint, cozy theatre in Downtown Long Beach.
The theatre was founded 10 years ago by a group of Cal State Long Beach graduates. Authentic and charming, this theatre is located not too far from the CSULB campus. At one time, however, The Garage Theatre had no permanent residency.
“We went through a variety of spaces … bounced around Long Beach and Orange County,” said Jamie Sweet, one of the theatre’s founders and current technical director. “It was tough trying to get the word of mouth around when you don’t have a [permanent] home,” he added.
In February 2004, the theatre finally found a permanent space to call home in Downtown Long Beach. The Found Theatre had resided there 25 years prior, before the city approved the theatre’s relocation to Long Beach’s CityPlace, about a block away from their current location. Having been a theatre already, it was an easy swap for The Garage Theatre to move in and start production.
Though the space had been a theatre before, it wasn’t necessarily designed to be one and lacked the preferred infrastructure. This made for one of the biggest obstacles in running a community theatre, according to Sweet.
Sweet didn’t always know that theatre was in his cards.
“When I was in high school, I thought I was going to be an English major,” he said.
It was in college when Sweet realized he had a passion for theatre. While attending CSULB, Sweet and pal Alex LaVerde wrote “Egg Man,” which premiered in a garage in Costa Mesa. Sweet not only contributed to creating The Garage Theatre, but he also directs, acts and writes.
In Sweet’s first show, he took on the role of writing, directing and acting.
Through the program at Orange Coast College and CSULB, Jamie met fellow founders, Nick Armstrong, Jeff Kriese, Alex LaVerde, Eric Hamme and David Ledger.
Although some still participate with The Garage Theatre, others have moved to Los Angeles and further to continue their work and passion in the performing arts field. Founder Armstrong even had a cameo in one of the recent Super Bowl Doritos commercials.
The creators of The Garage Theatre have a passion for the arts and strive to bring the community together through theatre.
“Unlike painting and sculpting, theatre is a group effort to bring a play together. Working together for moments that, once passed, are gone forever,” explained Sweet.
The Garage Theatre produces plays for both adults and children. It collaborates with groups and theatres within the community to continue the growth of the arts in education.
Sweet is constantly brainstorming new ideas. He is currently working on an idea for a production about the popular fantasy game, Dungeons and Dragons. He hopes this play will be performed in a series of ongoing stories, which will progress each night until the finale.
Through the help of its fans and community, the theatre has proved to be successful receiving award nominations and entertaining a generation of Theatregoers with its unique and enjoyable productions.
The Garage Theatre is located at 251 East 7th St. They are currently presenting “An Adult Evening with Shel Silverstein” until March 27.
