Highways Performance Space Highways Performance Space is Southern California’s boldest center for new performance. In its twenty-first year, Highways continues to be an important alternative cultural center in Los Angeles that encourages fierce new artists from diverse communities to develop and present innovative works. Recently described by the Los Angeles Times "a hub of experimental theater, dance, solo drama and other multimedia performance," Highways promotes the development of contemporary socially involved artists and art forms. Our mission is implemented through four programs (the performance space, workshop/lab program and two galleries). Annually, we co-present approximately 250 performances by solo dramatic artists, small theater groups, dance companies and spoken word artists; we curate and exhibit approximately 12 contemporary visual art exhibits per year with work that explores the boundaries between performing and visual art forms; we commission and premiere new work by outstanding performing artists; organize special events, curate festivals, offer residency and educational programs that engage community members in the arts while providing access to professionally-directed instruction. Highways Performance Lab The Lab fosters a belief in the importance of studying with working artists who embody the experimental vanguards of their fields. Those teaching artists are encouraged to simultaneously deepen their practice as they expand it, reveal it, and share it with others. Through workshops, showings and discussions, the Lab cultivates new work, new leadership and dialogue between communities that overlap and converge at Highways. Highways Gallery Funder History: A History: During the first few years Highways was under the guidance of its founders. However, in 1992 Linda Frye Burnham relinquished her duties as Co-Director leaving Tim as the driving force behind the organization. Throughout the tumultuous 90's, Miller guided Highways through many organizational and structural hurdles and changes. All the while maintaining its commitment to the emerging socially conscious and forward-thinking arts community. In the early part of 2000, Miller announced his decision to step down as Artistic Director of Highways to focus on his social activism through his performance work. Danielle Brazell stepped up to take over as Artistic Director until December of 2003 when Leo Garcia came on board. Garcia continues to serve as Highways' Artistic Director.
Leo Garcia, an NEA award-winning playwright, actor, filmmaker, producer, teacher, and activist has served as Highways' Artistic Director since 2003. One of the most versatile theater artists in Southern California, Leo Garcia is a nationally respected playwright, actor, filmmaker, teacher, director and producer. His plays have won awards from The National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, New York Foundation for the Arts, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, The National Hispanic Media Coalition, and MCA/Universal. Garcia's works have been presented by numerous nationally-established companies and presenters, including New York's Theater for the New City, The New York Shakespeare Public Festival, The Jewish Repertory Theatre, INTAR, The Los Angeles Theater Center, The South Coast Repertory Theatre, The Tiffany Theatre, and Santa Fe Stages, among many others. He worked for many years with his mentor, internationally acclaimed playwright and director, Maria Irene Fornes, as writer and actor and has been directed by her in her plays in New York, Los Angeles and Siena, Italy at the Dionysia World Festival. Fornes also directed Garcia's play, "Dogs," at West Coast Ensemble Theater in LA. Garcia has also been a fixture on the Los Angeles alternative performing arts scene for many years, one of a handful of artists who represent a fully developed, professional approach to multidisciplinary work. His show of solo works, "My Alien Abduction," was an LA Weekly Performance Pick of the Week. Between 1995 and 2002, he served as an artist, teacher, director and producer for numerous productions and classes at Highways ; Resident Playwright with the Mark Taper Forum's Latino Theatre Initiative; and Project Artistic Director and Playwright of the community-based San Diego Playwrights Project. As an actor, Garcia appeared in over 30 off-Broadway and regional theatre productions and guest starred in such episodic series as "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Tour of Duty," and "Jake and the Fatman." He was also a regular on the daytime drama Santa Barbara. As a filmmaker, Garcia's film, "A Rainy Day," was distributed by Universal Television and was shown in festivals nationally and internationally. Garcia has been recognized by Out Magazine as one of the OUT 100 of 2005, a list of the year's most interesting, influential, and newsworthy LGBT people. He is the recipient of the Master of Fine Arts degree from the Asolo Conservatory.
Patrick Kennelly’s direction, design, performance, and curation in the realms of theater, film, installation, and performance and visual art has been presented in Los Angeles at a variety of venues, including Highways Performance Space and Gallery, the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Track 16, CrazySpace, UCLA's Freud Playhouse, Sophia Louisa Projects, Human Resources, and New Wight Gallery at the Broad Arts Center. His theatrical work has included original plays, large-scale performance installation, and image-based physical theater. Kennelly received his BFA in Film/Video at CalArts and an MFA in Theater Direction at UCLA. He was a recipient of the 2008 Princess Grace Award for Theater, and has received awards and fellowships from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, and the Center for Cultural Innovation. Kennelly is Co-Artistic Director of U-N-M-A-R-K-E-D, a project dedicated to live and remote Outer-disciplinary spectacle, horror, glamour, and social justice & committed to ultra-violence through "art" To email: admin@highwaysperformance.org
Jamie Benson, as a Los Angeles performer and producer, aims to challenge performance traditions and create accessibly original work through dance, instruction and choreography. Produced for venues such as On the Boards, Highways Performance Space, Studio A, Electric Lodge and for events like the Art's Edge Festival, Benson’s goal is to observe and explore humanity by pairing dance forms with unusual, and often humorous, everyday landscapes. Benson has also been featured on the television series Dance 360, LATC’s Ovation award winning Shag with a Twist, Taking Back Sunday's Make Damn Sure music video, Rei Aoo's Dance Planet, and McDonald's Mario Art Commercial. Benson is now a member of the Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble, which premiered the post-modern choreographer’s latest work Surrender Dorothy at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex in June and will do so again at the Pasadena Armory in October of 2009. Artists: Wish List:
Please contact Artistic Director Leo Garcia if you have any of these items available to donate to Highways. Support:
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photo by JC Earle
