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Venture Theatre has been staging
engaging, challenging contemporary theatre for
adults and families and providing a wide range of
education and performance opportunities for area
youth since 1992.
A brief production history of the
theatre follows:
2008
Jacob Marley's
Christmas Carol
Velveteen Rabbit
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Reefer Madness
Stone Soup
West Side Story
Always, Patsy Cline
Bebop With Aesop
Ruthless
Boy Gets Girl
P.O.V. Teen 2008
13th Annual One-Act Play Festival
Funky Bunch Reunion
2007
Santaland Diaries
Holly & the Ivy League
Assignment: Earth
The Rocky Horror Show
Fame
Fiction
Last of the Boys
Lonely Planet
Little Women
Still Life with Iris
P.O.V. Teen 2007
12th Annual One-Act Play Festival
Funky Bunch Reunion
2006
Rocket Man
Honk!
Painting It Red
Julius Caesar
Joined at the Head
Urinetown
Nickel & Dimed
P.O.V. Teen 2006
11th Annual One-Act Play Festival
Funky Bunch Reunion
2005
Stones in His Pockets
Footloose
I Love you, You're Perfect, Now Change
Much Ado About Nothing
Eleemosynary
Treasure Island
6 Women with Brain Death
The Broadway Cabaret
About Saturday
The Trial of the Big Bad Wolf
House & Garden
The Junior Cabaret: Animation Outtakes
P.O.V. Teen 2005
10th Annual One Act Play Festival
Funky Bunch Reunion
2004
The Magic of Christmas Time
Odd Couple (Male & Female versions)
The Stand Up Showcase
The Mystery of Irma Vep
Theseus and the Minotaur
Seussical, the Musical
Venture Unplugged: Like a Muv
Apocalypso!
Tape
Romeo & Juliet
Batboy
Project Peace
The Broadway Cabaret
Dear Abby
P.O.V. Teen 2004
Stop Kiss
9th Annual Venture One-Act Play Festival
Funky Bunch Reunion
2003
The Return of the Glass Slipper
The Christmas Extravaganza
Christmas Around The World
Woyzeck
When I Grow Up
The Tempest
Angry Housewives
The Strike Show
I Need a Vacation
Radium Girls
P.O.V. Teen 2003
Dig It!
Venture Improv Team Challenge
8th Annual Venture One-Act Play Festival
2002
Funky Bunch Reunion
Reckless
The Nerd
The Castaways
Always . . . Patsy Cline
#11 (Blue & White)
MacBeth
Venture Stripped
Schoolhouse Rock
Sweet Nothing
Art
P.O.V. Teen
The Big Funk
Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll
7th Annual Venture One Act Play Festival
2001
Surfin' Santa
A Gingerbread Christmas
Tales of the Lost Formicans
Episode 26
Venture Unplugged: A Hazy Shade of Venture
Grease
Taming of the Shrew
Y2K
The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek
Venture Wired: What Time Is It?
" X "
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You
'dentity Crisis
Our Country's Good
6th Annual One Act Play Festival
2000
Ruby Cat & Mister Dog
The Heidi Chronicles
Ten Little Indians
Venture Unplugged: Irrelevance and Irreverence
Picasso at the Lapin Agile
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Venture Wired: Don't Blink
An Endangered Species: Waking Up
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar
Wilde
5th Annual One-Act Play Festival
1999
Parallel Lives
Venture Unplugged: Love
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)
In the Middle of Grand Central Station
Venture Wired
1998
4th Annual One-Act Play Festival
Venture Unplugged: Sole Searching
Heaven Can Wait
Crash Commercialism
1997
3rd Annual One-Act Play Festival
Rush Limbaugh in Night School
Venture Unplugged: Except, Accept, Access
Class Dismissed
Assassins
Red Scare on Sunset
1996
2nd Annual One-Act Play Festival
The Baltimore Waltz
Venture: Unplugged, Unhinged, and Underpaid
Strangers on Earth
Time After Time
God's Country
Reverse Psychology
1995
1st Annual One-Act Play Festival
Miss Julia
True West
The Curious Savage
Mastergate
1994
Boy's Life
Italian American Reconciliation
The Truth about Cinderella
Lonely Planet
1993
Hamlet
Godspell
1992
The Wiz
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Venture Highlights:
July 1992 -- The Wiz, Venture's first
production
July 1993 -- Second Summer Season with Godspell
and Hamlet
March 1994 -- Lonely Planet is produced,
first Venture play during the traditional theatre
season. It is also a fund-raiser for a charitable
organization focusing on AIDS victims.
July 1994 -- Third Summer Season featuring The
Truth About Cinderella and Italian American
Reconciliation
September 1994 -- Venture begins to
produces plays year round.
February 1995 -- Venture establishes
the Venture Improv Troupe at the Lamplighter Lounge.
This troupe would go on to become Montana's longest
running show, running continuously for over 10
years.
July 1995 -- Fourth Summer Season
The Curious Savage and True West (Curious Savage is
the first non-musical produced for our high school
actors)
September 1995 -- Venture announces
its first season of plays
November 1995 -- Venture produces
the first annual one-act play festival. Venture
becomes the only theatre in the region to explore
the form of the one-act play as part of its
aesthetic.
May 1996 -- Venture produces God's
Country, a play about militias and white
supremacists n the Rocky Mountain West. This
play is produced while the Freemen are standing off
against the Federal government in Jordan, MT.
September 1996 -- Venture
produces a "musical comedy cabaret" called
Unplugged, Unhinged and
Underpaid. Venture
would pick up where Calamity Janes left off with a
the new generation of social satire and cutting edge
comedy. The script was written by Todd Yeager,
founder of the Calamity Jane Players.
December 1996 -- 2nd Annual One-Act
Play Festival. Venture commits to the only
festival of its kind in the region that produces
only original works from primarily Montana writers.
September 1997 -- Venture Theatre is designated a
not-for-profit organization under IRS code 501-c-3.
All savings and supplies generated by previous
productions is donated to the not-for-profit
corporation.
July 1998 -- Venture produces its final show on the
campus of MSU-Billings, Heaven Can Wait. Steve
Langlas of Langlas and Associates is introduced to
Venture programming at this production. He
would become instrumental to the construction of the
final home of Venture Theatre.
May 1999 -- Venture begins to produce exclusively at
the Billings Hotel and Convention Center.
November 1999 -- Venture moves into
the Montana Moon Cookie Company and produces
Parallel Lives and the 5th Annual Venture-One Act
Play Festival.
March 2000 -- Venture opens its
doors at 1410 Central. Gross Indecency:
The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde is the first
production.
April 2000 -- Venture Youth Board is
created to advise on issues concerning high school
programming. Venture Youth Board is composed
of two students from each Billings public high
school and one student from all other area high
schools. This group chooses to produce A
Midsummer Night's Dream with only high school
students.
May 2000 -- Venture opens its doors
to youth rock bands as a venue to play their music.
No rental is charged and bands are allowed access
anytime they can be acommodated. Proceeds from
concerts are donated to Venture programming.
May 2000 -- Venture Youth
Board produces first play during the school year at
Venture. The play is
Endangered Species.
July 2000 -- Venture pilots a 1/2
day summer theatre camp with only 10 students.
August 2000 -- Second production of
Picasso at the Lapine Agile, staged at the Club
Carlin. Venture Theatre meets Mike Schaer.
September 2000 -- Venture Youth
Board decides to produce shows throughout the year
for high school students.
December 2000 -- Venture
Theatre produces the World Premiere of
Ruby Cat and Mister Dog
by Jim Peterson.
February 2001 -- Venture introduces
the Independent Artist Series, an opportunity for
members of the artistic community to produce their
own work. Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All
for You is produces by Pam Strait and Sondra Baker,
followed by The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek produced
by Vint Lavinder.
March 2001 -- Venture Theatre
performs Ruby Cat and Mister Dog in Lynchburg,
Virginia.
April 2001 -- Venture produces first
children's show, Schoolhouse Rocks. For the
first time, children under high school age are
allowed to perform at Venture.
May 2001 -- Venture commissions a
play to be written for the high school actors.
The play, entitled X, is the first full-length
original play written for youth at Venture.
Each spring since has seen the production of a newly
commission play for youth.
July 2001 -- Venture opens its doors
to summer theatre school in downtown Billings.
Approximately 45 3rd-12th graders attend.
September 2001 -- Venture begins
offering after school classes for kids 3rd grade
through 12th grade.
September 2001 -- Venture partners
with the Downtown Billings Association to produce
Grease at the Alberta Bair Theatre. Over 3000
people see the show in its three performances.
October 2001 -- Venture creates the
Funky Bunch, a youth improv comedy troupe for high
school actors.
February 2002 -- Venture produces
P.O.V. Teen, the first show written entirely by high
school actors. Venture continues to encourage
students to express themselves though writing and
performing.
May 2002 -- Venture works with high
school students at Crossroads Alternative High
School on theatre project.
July 2002 -- Approximately 80
students attend Venture Summer Theatre School.
May 2003 -- Venture works for a
second year with high school students at Crossroads
Alternative High School on theatre project.
July 2003 -- Over 120 students
attend Venture Summer Theatre School. Faculty
are brought in from all over the country.
October 2003 -- Venture opens its
doors on the new facility at 2317 Montana Avenue
July 2004 -- Over 180 students
attend Venture Summer Theatre School.
August 2004 -- Dina Atwood is named
Venture's first managing director.
September 2004 -- Venture
collaborates with the Billings Education Foundation
to produce Seussical the Musical. A portion of
the proceeds are donated to School District #2 for
renovations and improvements on Billings' high
school theatres.
January 2005 -- Venture celebrates
the 10th anniversary of the Venture One-Act Play
Festival
March 2005 -- Venture celebrates the
10th anniversary of the Venture Improv.
July 2005 -- Sarah Butts hired as
Youth Outreach Educator to take over the Venture
Into Schools program, sponsored by the Junior League
of Billings to serve Billings area elementary
schools.
July 2005 -- Over 240 students
attend Venture Summer Theatre School.
May 2006 -- Venture Into Schools doubles the number
of elementary schools served annually.
May 2007 -- Venture Into School realizes the Junior
League's vision, completing its first season as a
self-sustaining program. May 2007
-- Co-founder Mace Archer retires from Venture
Theatre to pursue an acting career on the road.
Dina Atwood is named Executive Director.
Co-founder Lysa Fox hired as the new Artistic
Director. Sarah Butts is promoted to Youth
Education Director. July 2007 --
Patrick Wilson is hired as the new Youth Outreach
Educator for the Venture Into Schools Program.
January 2008 -- Co-founder Lysa Fox retires from
Venture Theatre to pursue graduate studies toward
her MFA at Cal State, Long Beach.
June 2008 -- Robert Brian Wood is hired as Producing
Artistic Director.
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