MADLAB 30: ENDLESS APPRECIATION (AND AN IMPORTANT INVITATION)
Somewhere between the odds of being struck by lightning and the fantasy of America actually agreeing on anything lies the improbable fact that MadLab is still alive—and usually kicking.
Who would have predicted that a cadre of enfant terribles—equipped only with the fervent if questionable belief that Columbus needed a theatre dedicated to new and untested work—would still be producing or hosting 150 shows a year, this deep into the 21st century?
Who would have foreseen that this initially ad hoc ensemble could operate its own venue for over a quarter century?
Who would have thought you’d still have a Lab to come to tonight—Mad or otherwise?
But here we are.
And whether you’re ready or not, we’re not going anywhere.
(You can’t kill us—believe us, we’ve tried.)
For our longevity and vitality, we are grateful beyond any words to The Ann Sherry Foundation, The Columbus Foundation, The Ohio Arts Council, and The Greater Columbus Arts Council. Their support is critical to MadLab’s dual mission: producing innovative theatre unlike anything else in (or out of) town and hosting one of the most eclectic performing arts schedules in Central Ohio. The GCAC’s insanely generous capital improvements grant, in particular, has been a boon unlike anything we ever envisioned. So many facility improvements completed—and so many more (and more obvious) to come.
Most important, we are grateful to you: our raison d’être. (Funny how that sounds sophisticated in French, while “reason to be” sounds like something a bad poet would mutter before crying into a PBR.) But it’s true. Without you, we’re just an empty stage with some questionable lighting choices.
If you’d like d’être even more of our raison, please consider donating to this campaign. Our goal over the next year: pay off our mortgage, freeing more revenue to improve and expand our work and continue to support Columbus’ pool of working artists. Borderline quixotic? Sure. But no more so than thinking we could buy, renovate, and maintain a venue in the first place. (Honestly: less so.) And to paraphrase pioneering playwright Charles Ludlam: if you’re not a living mockery of your ideals, you’ve set your ideals way too low.
As for what’s next?
To paraphrase another dramatic genius: we’re not quite sure where we’re going from here, but we promise it won’t be boring.
Or safe.
Or expected.
Because 30 years isn't the end. It’s just Act 1.
Somewhere between the odds of being struck by lightning and the fantasy of America actually agreeing on anything lies the improbable fact that MadLab is still alive—and usually kicking.
Who would have predicted that a cadre of enfant terribles—equipped only with the fervent if questionable belief that Columbus needed a theatre dedicated to new and untested work—would still be producing or hosting 150 shows a year, this deep into the 21st century?
Who would have foreseen that this initially ad hoc ensemble could operate its own venue for over a quarter century?
Who would have thought you’d still have a Lab to come to tonight—Mad or otherwise?
But here we are.
And whether you’re ready or not, we’re not going anywhere.
(You can’t kill us—believe us, we’ve tried.)
For our longevity and vitality, we are grateful beyond any words to The Ann Sherry Foundation, The Columbus Foundation, The Ohio Arts Council, and The Greater Columbus Arts Council. Their support is critical to MadLab’s dual mission: producing innovative theatre unlike anything else in (or out of) town and hosting one of the most eclectic performing arts schedules in Central Ohio. The GCAC’s insanely generous capital improvements grant, in particular, has been a boon unlike anything we ever envisioned. So many facility improvements completed—and so many more (and more obvious) to come.
Most important, we are grateful to you: our raison d’être. (Funny how that sounds sophisticated in French, while “reason to be” sounds like something a bad poet would mutter before crying into a PBR.) But it’s true. Without you, we’re just an empty stage with some questionable lighting choices.
If you’d like d’être even more of our raison, please consider donating to this campaign. Our goal over the next year: pay off our mortgage, freeing more revenue to improve and expand our work and continue to support Columbus’ pool of working artists. Borderline quixotic? Sure. But no more so than thinking we could buy, renovate, and maintain a venue in the first place. (Honestly: less so.) And to paraphrase pioneering playwright Charles Ludlam: if you’re not a living mockery of your ideals, you’ve set your ideals way too low.
As for what’s next?
To paraphrase another dramatic genius: we’re not quite sure where we’re going from here, but we promise it won’t be boring.
Or safe.
Or expected.
Because 30 years isn't the end. It’s just Act 1.
