Barter Theatre

Abingdon, Virginia

Barter Theatre, a professional non-profit resident theater company, celebrates its 75 th anniversary season in 2008 with a year-round season that includes 18 fully staged productions. Barter was created in 1933 by an unemployed actor, Robert Porterfield, who returned to his native Washington County and began bartering admission to plays in exchange for produce and, sometimes, livestock. Designated as the State Theatre of Virginia, Barter Theatre is one of the longest-running professional equity theaters in the country. Several Broadway and Hollywood stars–including Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, Patricia Neal, Hume Cronyn, and Ned Beatty, among others–honed their craft at Barter Theatre. Today, Barter is the top tourist attraction in southwest Virginia and a cornerstone for tourism in the TriCities region. In 2006, Barter's two stages drew more than 160,000 patrons; as Barter's audiences have grown, so have tourism revenues in the region. Barter partners with local institutions of higher learning as well as regional civic and human service organizations in making the community a better place to live. Among its accomplishments, Barter counts many “firsts”: Barter is a founding member of LORT (The League of Resident Theatres) and one of the few remaining resident company theaters in the country. With a grant from the Interior Department that later became the National Endowment for the Arts, Barter was the first to tour Europe . In 1979, Barter received the first-ever Governor's Award for Excellence in Arts. The theater was the first in the nation to be awarded the Antoinette Perry “Tony” Award, in 1949, for its role as one of the forerunners of the regional theater movement.

In spring 2009, Othello will be directed by Barter's Producing Artistic Director Richard Rose, who has gained a reputation with Barter audiences for his compelling productions of King Lear (2007), Macbeth (2002), The Tempest (2003), and many other classics. Barter has taken to producing Shakespeare's works in its intimate 167-seat theater. The company relishes the intimacy of this space in exploring Shakespeare's work and has found that it connects the audience with Shakespeare's characters, language, and stories. The choice of Othello is in no small part a reaction to the political campaigns of this 2008 election season; the issues of soldier, Moor, political relationships between man and woman (men and women), jealousies, manipulation, the politics of power, royal blood, and civilian versus military in the decisions of power, are among a host of themes that make Othello relevant to today's world. Othello will be a student matinee production in 2009, making it accessible to students during the regular school day. With the support of Shakespeare in American Communities, Barter will reach schools all over the region, including ten specific schools in southwest and central Virginia and eastern Kentucky .

Visit them at: www.bartertheatre.com