Acclaimed Theater Artistic Director to Speak at Athens State University

For Further Information

Guy McClure

256-233-8296

Guy.McClure@athens.edu

 

For immediate release
February 15, 2013
www.athens.edu



Acclaimed Theater Artistic Director to Speak at Athens State University
                   
     ATHENS, Ala. - ATHENS, Ala. - Richard Rose, the acclaimed Artistic Director of the Barter Theatre, will be a featured speaker for the Livingston Concert-Lecture Series at Athens State University on February 28 at 7:30 pm in the Sandridge Student Center Ballroom.  The Barter Theatre of Abingdon, Virginia is one of the oldest and most unique regional theaters in the United States and helped launched the careers of many great stars, including Gregory Peck, Patricia Neal, Ernest Borgnine, and Kevin Spacey.  Rose will speak on the importance of regional theater and its role in community development and the creative economy, using the Barter Theatre as an example.  The event is free and open to the public. 


     Founded in 1933 in the middle of the Great Depression in a small and lovely town of Abington located just a few miles from the Tennessee border, the Barter Theater took its name from the price of admission—40 cents or the equivalent in goods. This “barter arrangement” allowed the local community of farmers and laborers their first experience of professional theatre.  As the third ever Artistic Director the Barter Theatre, Rose has directed, choreographed, and written over 135 shows to the delight of the Theatre’s patrons and regional audience.  During his tenure, Rose has also renovated and expanded the historic Barter Theatre, founded the Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, premiered new plays, promoted folk arts in the area for audiences from all over America to a green and lovely little town of Abington, VA.  After two decades under his dynamic leadership, he has expanded the number of visitors to his Barter Theatre for its year-round slate of plays seen by over 160,000 patrons per year.  Please join us in welcoming this inspirational artist and patron of Theatre to Athens State University and Northern Alabama community.

-30-

Richard Rose