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 406.591.9535 
              2317 Montana Ave., Billings, MT                  venturetheatre@imt.net

 

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.
  


Our Country's Good - 2001

 

 

 

 


 


Mastergate - 1995

 

 

 

 

 


Lonely Planet - 1994

 
 
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Designed by Jason Harris