Carolina Actors Studio Theatre
 |
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| Formation | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Type | Theatre Company |
| Purpose | a culturally diverse theatre experience |
| Headquarters | 2424 North Davidson, Charlotte NC 28205 |
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Region served
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Charlotte, North Carolina |
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Official language
|
English |
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Artistic Director
|
Michael R. Simmons |
Carolina Actors Studio Theatre (CAST) was an independent non-profit theatre company located at 2424 North Davidson Street in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was founded in 1992 by Charlotte acting instructor Ed Gilweit as an actor's teaching school. In 2000 Gilweit's company partnered with a video and stage production company run by Michael Simmons called Victory Pictures, Inc., and then with the fledgling theatre group Another Roadside Performance Company run by Robert Lee Simmons, Michael Simmons's son. Through this series of mergers, Gilweit and the Simmonses became the founders of the Carolina Actors Studio Theatre. After Gilweit's death in 2002, Michael Simmons became the Managing Artistic Director.
CAST was noted for large-scale installations and elaborate sets with the goal of complete immersion of the audience in the reality of each play. CAST always sought to obliterate the emotional distance between the actor and spectator, a technique they called "experiential theatre". When attending a CAST performance, the experience of the spectator began from the moment they entered—or even approached—the theater.
In 2006, with the help of a board of directors recruited from Charlotte’s arts community, CAST received a 501(c)(3) designation. Since 2008, CAST has also received financial support from the Arts & Science Council.
In the summer of 2010 CAST received a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Arts & Science Council. This allowed the company to move out of the cramped quarters they had occupied for eight years on Clement Avenue into a space at 2424 North Davidson in the NoDa neighborhood of Charlotte where it had all begun. The new location at NoDa contained three theater spaces including a Thrust stage, and a Theatre in the round. For the first time in CAST history there was a spacious bar and lobby area, dressing rooms, storage rooms, a conference room, and a fully equipped scenery-building shop. The new theatre was officially launched in August 2011 with a production of August: Osage County, the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tracy Letts. It was the regional premier of that play and was a great critical success.
The company in its several incarnations within Charlotte had a rather nomadic existence for the first five years of its existence. The first production (subUrbia) in 1998 had been at The Neighborhood Theatre at 501 East 36th Street. The company then moved successively to Ed Gilweit's CAST theatre at 3143 Cullman Avenue, the Matthews Community Center at 100 McDowell Street in nearby Matthews, the Hart-Witzen Gallery at 611 West 5th Street, and finally achieved a measure of geographical stability in January 2003 with a move to the CAST Theatre at 1118 Clement Ave where it would remain until June of 2011 when it moved to its final location, CAST Theatre at NoDa at 2424 North Davidson Street.
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