{"id":22425,"date":"2025-05-28T01:29:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T07:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=22425"},"modified":"2025-05-26T14:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T20:15:17","slug":"liberty-theater-offers-music-movies-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/28\/liberty-theater-offers-music-movies-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty Theater Offers Music, Movies And More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art And Culture<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL<\/em><\/p>\n

T<\/span>here\u2019s no question about it. The Liberty Theater in Hailey has become the cultural heart of the Wood River Valley. Their experimental, no-holds-barred approach to bringing intriguing, fun, and often profound experiences is unmatched. Movies, live music and plays\u2014most being local Idaho talent\u2014fills a huge gap in our social scene and cultural milieu. We all remember the silence after so many places closed due to \u201cthe event\u201d [COVID-19] but it\u2019s the undeniable vibe of the theater itself with such colorful curation and prime collaborator programming to produce these events.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, specifically, we\u2019re speaking of Pete Vallimarescu, who has become a true Valley gem. We\u2019ve written about Vallimarescu\u2019s history here: https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/18\/liberty-theater-as-go-to-venue\/, focusing currently on his programming and open-book method for offering excitement. The Liberty Theater is approachable\u2014high brow, low brow, you name it\u2014and ALWAYS fresh. It\u2019s not normal to have access to the wide range of experiences Vallimarescu, as managing programmer and occasional performer, brings to the Valley.<\/p>\n

How and Why?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always hard. It\u2019s a combination of so many different pieces. Bands that reach out to me and ask me if they can play shows here and me reaching out to bands I\u2019d like to see, can they come to the Liberty? Right now, I\u2019m lucky enough to grow up in a world where I know a lot of people in the arts\u2014performers, artists, musicians, or whatever that might look like.\u201d It\u2019s in Vallimarescu\u2019s voice, the passion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually just chatting about this with one of the guys who was here recently, Nat Lefkoff. I\u2019ve known him for maybe eight years, and he was saying that\u2019s a big part of his life, right, connections and networking as a musician. To meet and connect with people who have the same vision and same goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community. This we know and live.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd sometimes, as an artist, Lefkoff actually chooses not to take the standard touring route. He doesn\u2019t do bigger tours with agents in music venues but tours he plans himself in houses, backyards and friends\u2019 connections because they appreciate him as a musician, and want to provide this experience for people. A big part of what it is for me is to make those types of connections to bring unique moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Medium is the Message<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThose super-comfortable seats here are a blessing! Nat really had a great time, and really enjoyed playing here. He made a comment up on stage that there aren\u2019t a lot of theaters like this left in the country. Said it was one of his favorite places he\u2019s ever played. That was a really cool moment. There\u2019s so many things about this place that just lend itself to hosting beautiful experiences.\u201d You can hear the smile in Vallimarescu\u2019s voice. The Liberty is absolutely unique and his mind fits into its curve like light through stained glass iconography.<\/p>\n

And How!<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cSo Baye and Asa are two guys that I actually grew up playing sports with and singing a capella. They\u2019re now big names in the New York City dance world and run their own dance company. They choreograph for tons of big names all over the country, including Alvin Ailey in New York. So they did their show, a live piece about masculinity. And then showed a 20-minute video about race with a Q&A with me on the stage, really fun. There were some really, really good questions from the audience. And one older gentleman asked how he could talk about this with his grandson. That question alone, to me, was worth bringing them into town. But, I mean there\u2019s so many angles we invite, all sides of the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheer variety, profound moments and you never know what to expect except that it will be exciting, thought provoking and, most of all, fun. We currently have fewer public places to talk, ruminate and slide out of our everyday lives to splash into the novelty and the expression of others\u2019. These events are ripe moments to open new pathways in our minds. Inspiration! Hurdy Gurdy Girls, Honky Tonk Zoo, so many great bands and a heavy metal night upcoming \u2013 Hellow headbangers!<\/p>\n

The Great Outdoors<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cMovies are such a great time. I figured we live in this valley for a reason, right? Almost everyone is here for the outdoors. I started with one called Real Rock last year, a climbing documentary series that I\u2019d been to in the Bay Area and really enjoyed. So, why not? I showed one of those, and people said, \u2018Hey, why don\u2019t you show this one?\u2019 Okay, let me look into that. Turns out there\u2019s just kind of unlimited options at this point so, I\u2019m building out an annual schedule. People can know, okay, this month, the super mountain bike film is coming, the fly fishing film, or the rock climbing film, whatever it might be.\u201d<\/p>\n

But It\u2019s more than music and movies. At the beginning of June they hand off the space to The Liberty Theatre Company (a completely separate entity of playwrights and producers not connected to The Liberty Theater space itself) for the first six weeks of summer. Expect extraordinary plays from beloved names like Naomi McDougall Jones or David Janeski.<\/p>\n

The Liberty Theater caters to such a beautiful variety of interests and elusive cultural architecture, it has become one of the hottest spots in the U.S. And here we have it in Blaine County, Idaho.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is true community and that\u2019s all I\u2019m really looking for. The train is moving and people are hopping onboard. It\u2019s picking up momentum and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any stopping!\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re lucky and blessed to have this venue, Vallimarescu and team.<\/p>\n

Keep in tune by signing up to their newsletter at https:\/\/www.libertytheaterhailey.com\/about. Follow on Instagram at https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thelibertytheater\/# Want to put on a show? Vallimarescu is more than willing to make it happen: booking@libertytheaterhailey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art And Culture BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL There\u2019s no question about it. The Liberty Theater in Hailey has become the cultural heart of the Wood River Valley. Their experimental, no-holds-barred approach to bringing intriguing, fun, and often profound experiences is unmatched. Movies, live music and plays\u2014most being local Idaho talent\u2014fills a huge gap in our social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22426,"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":[62,72,4,88,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-community","9":"category-entertainment","10":"category-local","11":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22425","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=22425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22427,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22425\/revisions\/22427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}