Our Performing Arts
The theater …
from drama, comedy,
and the classics to
Broadway musicals
with multiple theater organizations. A
15-minute drive gets us to a local theater
where our hosts will greet us with a
smile, actors will autograph our playbills,
and season tickets won’t wipe out our
discretionary funds. Some venues invite
patrons to bring dinner to enjoy.
When it comes to community theater,
here’s how we roll in South County.
Limelight Actors Theater
In 2010, local actor Kevin Heath was invited by a local restaura-
teur to put on a play in his banquet room. That led to an invita-
tion to bring theater to the Gilroy Interim Center for the Arts in
2011. Kevin persuaded Alan Obata, his partner and husband, and
a local real estate broker, to join the project, and the Limelight
Actors Theater (LAT) was born.
The “Limelight” name was inspired by what Kevin describes
as “theater with a twist.” Kevin aims to premier events in Gilroy.
To this end, he selects and directs a variety of comedies, dramas,
staged readings, cabaret performances and musical reviews.
“Patrons love the variety of shows and our intimate, cabaret
style theater expereince, like the show is being performed just for
them, ” Heath said.
Now in its fifth season, LAT treated audiences to a summer
performance of a 1960s French comedy farce, Boeing, Boeing,
about a Parisian lothario who courts three fiancées, all airline host-
esses from different countries. The plot thickens when unexpected
schedule changes (surprise surprise!) bring all three women to his
apartment at the same time, and his deception is uncovered.
In September, LAT shifts its focus to Other Desert Cities,
described by Heath as “a brilliant script and our first full-on drama
with new local actors.” When a young woman comes home to her
parents’ Palm Springs enclave for the holidays, news of her upcom-
ing memoir threatens to expose cracks in the family history. The
original play was written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Jon Robin
Baitz.
In November and early December, LAT’s holiday musical pays
tribute to an American music legend with Always…Patsy Cline.
10
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
The 39 Steps
PROVIDED
Who needs YouTube or
the Boob Tube when we’ve
got an amazing theater
arts community ready to entertain us with
side-splitting comedy, modern drama,
Shakespearean classics and Broadway
musicals?
There’s nothing quite like a night of
theater in South County. We are blessed
BY ROBIN
SHEPHERD
The play is based on an encounter between the famous singer
and one of her fans. Enjoy down-home country humor, emotion
and more than 20 Patsy Cline hits like Crazy, I Fall to Pieces, Sweet
Dreams and more. The show’s title was inspired by Cline’s letters
to Luise Seger, which she signed “Love ALWAYS… Patsy Cline.”
It’s also LAT’s first show with a live band.
Gilroy’s Milias Restaurant offers a special catered menu with
meals delivered to LAT. Guests can also browse the Center’s
Artisan’s Corner to see art and jewelry crafted by local artists.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
gmhtoday.com