{"id":20555,"date":"2024-02-21T00:54:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T07:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=20555"},"modified":"2024-02-19T14:55:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T21:55:40","slug":"liberty-theatre-company-provides-radical-access-to-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/21\/liberty-theatre-company-provides-radical-access-to-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty Theatre Company provides \u2018Radical Access to Theater\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY MIKE MCKENNA<\/em><\/p>\n

There once was a time when it seemed that the historic Liberty Theater in Hailey was destined to be destroyed.
\nThe theater sat empty on Main Street for years. The building was said to be in such a state of disrepair that hopeless rumors about its future were floating around town. Some feared the theater was going to get torn down or get turned into condos.
\nThankfully, Logan Fredrickson\u2014the owner of the local Windermere real estate offices\u2014stepped in to purchase the property and fix it back up to its glory days of hosting plays and films, talks and musical performances.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s the good guy who stepped up to save the theater,\u201d Naomi McDougall Jones said. \u201cWhen we all walked back in there, we sobbed. It\u2019s incredible to have a theater like this in Hailey.\u201d
\nNaomi is the executive and artistic director for The Liberty Theatre Company (TLTC). She is celebrating her first full year on the job and the Liberty opening back up for the first time in years this weekend is the icing on the cake.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty amazing. The community has been so supportive,\u201d said Naomi, who moved to the Wood River Valley from New York City to take over TLTC. It\u2019s the latest chapter in her impressive career as an author, filmmaker and actress.
\nNaomi had two goals when she arrived. One was somewhat simple, while the other one was downright radical. First, she wanted to start blending our rich pool of local talent with nationally-recognized theater artists. This has not only elevated the quality of their productions, but has been fun and inspiring for local actors and production crewmembers.
\nThe second goal is what Naomi calls \u201cradical access to theater.\u201d She wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to come see a performance, could. It\u2019s why they created the \u201cPay What You Feel\u201d program for last year\u2019s shows. It was such a hit that it was hard to get tickets most nights.
\nGetting the community to come and enjoy theater is one thing, getting people to get involved is another. That\u2019s why TLTC created the 24-Hour Theater Festival last summer. It was, as Naomi explained, \u201cwildly successful.\u201d The show sold out and featured participants from eight to 93 years old.
\nTLTC is wrapping up its 2023\/24 season with the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Disgraced, running from February 16 through March 2 at the Liberty Theatre.
\nOn February 19, TLTC will team up with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival to put on an abridged A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream, recommended for students sixth through 12th grades. On March 4, they will partner with Idaho Theater for Youth to put on The Legend of Finn McCoy, recommended for students from kindergarten through sixth grade. TLTC will be announcing its 2024\/25 season in April.
\nWith the Liberty Theatre back open, Naomi\u2019s top-notch team at TLTC performing in front of big crowds most nights, and more locals getting involved all the time, there\u2019s no doubt that theater is alive and doing very well in the Wood River Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY MIKE MCKENNA There once was a time when it seemed that the historic Liberty Theater in Hailey was destined to be destroyed. The theater sat empty on Main Street for years. The building was said to be in such a state of disrepair that hopeless rumors about its future were floating around town. Some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,38],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chamber-corner","8":"category-sponsored"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20557,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20555\/revisions\/20557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}