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from the Austin Chronicle and the Texas Triangle.
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VOL.22 NO.41: ARTS: GET REAL!
With the Arts on Real,
Blake Yelavich delivers a miracle
to Austin theatre
GET REAL!
BY BARRY PINEO
 |
Yelavich is almost single-handedly
responsible for the most exciting, most incredible, most downright
stupendous theatre miracle that's hit Austin in many a year.
-
Barry Pineo
|
Blake Yelavich
has been around Austin theatre for more than a few years. He's probably
best known as the "creative director" of Naughty Austin,
a local company that made its reputation doing musical parodies of
the local theatre scene a la Forbidden Broadway and, more recently,
has expanded into doing more traditional comedies and dramas, many
of them penned and directed by Yelavich. Successful? Sure. But nothing
special, right? Wrong! Yelavich may be an unassuming graphic designer
by day and an aspiring theatrical entertainer by night, but he's much
more. He is, in fact, a theatre miracle-worker and is almost single-handedly
responsible for the most exciting, most incredible, most downright
stupendous theatre miracle that's hit Austin in many a year.
That may sound like overstatement, but consider: The economy is at
a standstill; arts funding, locally and nationally, is being cut across
the board; arts groups are disbanding all over the map; and attendance
is down at theatres everywhere. Yet Yelavich has managed, in a few
short weeks, to take an abandoned warehouse just off Martin Luther
King Jr. Boulevard in East Austin and turn it into a finished, 100-seat,
convertible thrust/proscenium theatre with a 22-foot-by-24-foot stage
and a DMX lighting system; a rehearsal room the same size as the stage;
a small dance studio; a small scene shop with accompanying loading
dock; a 20-foot bar serving beer and wine; two dressing rooms; an
ample backstage area; a welcoming exterior and lobby; a suite of three
offices; and much, much more. In short, Yelavich has managed to do
what many other theatre-arts groups in the city have been attempting
to do, some for years upon years: create from scratch the premier
alternative theatre facility in Austin.
For that's just what it is -- or will be when it opens June 12 with
its premiere production, Tricks, a "sexual thriller" written
and directed by Yelavich. How did he do it? He contributed the renovation
funds himself (he isn't independently wealthy -- he just got lucky
and won much of it) and formed a nonprofit corporation, Arts Entertainment
Group Inc., that will manage the building and provide a welcoming
home for the arts. It's already proving to be a popular venue; in
less than three hours time, Yelavich booked 42 of 52 weeks. And it's
a great deal for renters, not just fair, but generous; if an organization
rents the theatre for three weeks or more, the rehearsal room comes
with it. "Last year, Naughty Austin paid $30,000 in rent to various
theatres in the city," says Yelavich. "We could have renovated
this space for not much more than that. That's one of the reasons
I wanted to do this -- to provide an economical space for Austin theatre
organizations. More than anything else, this theatre is my gift to
the arts community and the city of Austin."
If you're a cynic, you're probably scoffing right about now. It all
sounds too good to be true -- but it isn't. It's called Arts on Real
(pronounced ray-ALL), and it is an Austin theatre miracle. If you
don't believe me, then go see it. Seeing is, after all, believing.
Naughty
Austin Celebrates New Space
By Sandra Beckmeier
AUSTIN—When Blake Yelavich arrived in Austin
he hoped to eventually form a producing company, staging neither Fringe
Theater nor large musical productions, but a kindred mix of “adult” off-Broadway
comedies.
Today, bawdy off-Broadway style shows have found a
home all their own. Arts for Real is the new performance complex of Naughty
Austin Productions, the local company of unstoppable creatives who have
proudly unveiled their new 6,500 square foot venue a new production, soundstage,
office space, and many plans for the future. Writer/producer Blake Yelavich
is thrilled the successes have brought the company to this milestone.
Naughty
Austin Productions began as a cabaret show that Yelavich wrote to
fill late night slots at the State Theater. The company parodied
shows running at the State, thus forming the name Naughty Austin, due
to the finicky brand of theatrical commentary.
It
hasn’t been an easy road to find NAP home
without being asked to make a lot of compromises. Once a deal for Arts
for Real was secured, he created Arts Entertainment Group, a 501c
non-profit,
which formally opened June 12 for production management. Theater Professionals
Unlimited, an Austin arts consulting group, will maintain an office
in
the building. Acting classes by some of Austin’s most respected
teachers will begin later in the month.
Yelavich
credits his partner, four-time award winning actor Kirk Addison, and
loyal company members with unyielding support for his ambition. “After
looking at our yearly budget from last year, I decided that enough
was
enough,” Yelavich said. “We spent so much in rent payments,
which was eating up profits, so I personally bit the bullet. I cashed
in part of my 401k and gathered up my savings and got into a space of
our own. In the long run, rent for our company will be lower, rent for
other companies will be cheaper and Austin will have another arts space.
It is a win-win-win situation for everyone.”
He
and his partner Kirk have poured “blood,
sweat and tears” into decorating the interior of the building and
positioning the theater in Austin. Yelavich said. “The almost-complete
theater is a showplace, literally. We didn’t want a space that
was nothing more than a warehouse painted black with a couple of lights
hung. Arts
On
Real is
a beautiful
building
with a new parking lot, formal lobby, professional offices and a flexible
theater space. I believe it is a space that will develop into a true
arts
development in the coming years.”
“In the beginning we wore all the hats, spending
hard earned money from our day jobs to rent space, buy set and prop materials
and pay the actors,” Addison added. “Both Blake and I worked
for years in this town as community actors, which were almost always
non-paying
jobs. So we decided from the start that compensation to actors was to
be a staple of our shows, as actors are the core to making a show work.
Although it was a financial strain for both of us, we decided that we
could have full artistic and production value control over our own shows.”
NAP
continued to have success after success with its unique brand of shows,
that,
although not always gay-themed, usually bore
a gay “sensibility.” Then came the production of Making Porn.
“Blake decided
that it was time to hire some actual porn stars, at which time we negotiated
and contracted Chris
Steele and Ryan Idol to star,” Addison said. “This show
not only became our most successful financial endeavor to date, it
also became
the largest audience attended show ever produced at Hyde Park Theatre.
That set in motion the idea that we should venture out and get a theatre
of our own, whereby we called the shots and set the calendar.”
The variety of shows Yelavich performed in early on
in his theatrical career impacted the types of shows he would later produce
in his thirties. Before moving to Austin he performed as an actor in over
60 staged productions, but the former body builder turned writer was more
interested in developing a writing career.
Yelavich
credits a strong circle of friends for emotional support. “We’re
growing as a company and I am growing as a writer, but I also hear
what our fans and audiences tell me, and want us to deliver."
Read
what the Robert Faires of the AUSTIN CHRONICLE said about in a feature
article about the space!
Arts
On Real was featured as a cover story in the American Statesman XLENT.
Read it here!
"Austin's
Premier Alternative Theater Venue"
