About Available Light
Our Mission
Available Light is a fellowship of artists dedicated to building a more conscious and compassionate world by creating joyful and profound theatre and serving our community.
We engage our community by staging provocative works that examine our culture, expose its shortcomings, and reveal the beauty of humankind.
We enrich the American theatre by seeking potent processes and vital forms that enable artists and audiences alike to live the life of the imagination.
About Available Light
Available Light is Ohio’s hippest and hottest presenter of new and original theatrical productions. AVLT is renowned by audiences and critics alike for bold creations by local artists and regional premieres of important new work by playwrights from around the globe.
We create theatre that other troupes do not and could not produce because we believe it is our duty as artists to engage our community, to examine our culture, and as we often put it, “to add to the sum total of joy and brotherhood (and sisterhood!) in the room.”
Our tickets regularly go for the wickedly reasonable price of “Pay What You Want” because now, more than ever, we all really need great art. And because now, more than ever, we cannot allow economic circumstances to shut anyone out of the theater.
We are committed to developing local talent and contributing to the local arts scene, and making Columbus a better place to live and work. We also collaborate with creative small businesses and provide opportunities for volunteers who don’t have formal theatre training. It’s all part of our mission to enable artists and audiences alike “to live the life of the imagination.”
In 2002, on some very firm advice from the SITI company’s world-renowned director Anne Bogart, Matt Slaybaugh gathered a number of his favorite artists to form the BlueForms Theatre Group. They quickly established a reputation for passionate and potent work. In late 2004, the company was named one of the “hippest, hottest, companies in the country” by American Theatre magazine. In 2006, BlueForms
After several prolific years of BlueForms productions, in early 2006, Slaybaugh founded Available Light Theatre with several BlueForms members. AVLT soon expanded its reputation for original work at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and at home in Columbus. More popular and political world premieres followed in the earliest years of the 21st century.
Click here for our full production history.
An AVLT Timeline
2006
- Matt Slaybaugh performs The Absurdity of Writing Poetry in Kaldi's Coffeeshop, as part of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
- Available Light Theatre founded.
- I Will Make You Orphans, created by Sean Christopher Lewis and Directed by Matt Slaybaugh, tours.
- Hip-Hop Theatre Project at Arts Impact Middle School
2007
- A Lonely Crowd travels to Cincinnati
- Theatreforte.com gathers bloggers from around the world for critical discourse
- Free Play Readings begin
2008
- Dead City by Sheila Callaghan is AVLT's first "Pay What You Want" production, supported by the Ohio Arts Council and the Greater Columbus Arts Council
- AVLT incorporates as a 501c3 and Artie Isaac recruits AVLT's first Board of Directors
2009
- Killadelphia, created by Sean Christopher Lewis tours to rave reviews in NYC
- Killadelphia wins National New Play Network Smith Prize, Barrymore Award (Philadelphia) for collaboration.
- Feed Your Soul our first gala fundraiser, organized by Melissa Weber
- Midwest premiere of Young Jean Lee's Church (AVLT was the first company to license a Young Jean Lee premiere.)
- Best Live Theater - “Columbus Alive” readers' poll
2010
- AVLT-created Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, by Daniel Elihu Kramer, sells-out again and again, extends for extra performances
- GCAC $10,000 Artistic Excellence Award for OAC-funded Attempts on Her Life
2011
- collaboration with CACTO and four other groups, the PNC-funded On-Stage Readings begin
- Central Ohio Critics Association citation for Merrily We Roll Along
- Nominated: GCAC Artistic Excellence Award for Skyscrapers of the Midwest
2012
- AVLT increases to 2 full-time staff, 1 part-time
- Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice tours
2013
- The Next Stage Initiative (with OSU and Dramatists Guild) presents six new plays in-development
- Glue featured in American Theatre magazine
2014
- Next Stage Initiative (with OSU and Dramatists Guild) returns
- Nominated: GCAC Artistic Excellence Award for John Cage 101
- Year-long collaboration with Denison University begins
- AVLT presents its first 24 Hour Theatre event.
2015
- Long-time company member Eleni Papaleonardos becomes Artistic Director.
- Expansion to new performance venues: Short North Stage, the Vanderelli Room, 400 West Rich, Denison University, Cleveland Public Theatre
- One Night with Available Light presents three one-night-only productions of contemporary classics in the Green Room at Short North Stage.
2016
- The Columbus Voices Workshop visits 16 venues in 15 neighborhoods all over Columbus, incorporating the stories and ideas of almost 400 Central Ohio residents
- Don Quixote (a pilgrimage,) by Jennifer Schlueter tours to the Cleveland Public Theatre.
2017
- AVLT begins a long-term residency at Denison University.
- Columbus Voices Workshop nominated for GCAC’s "Art Makes Columbus” award.
- The Next Stage Initiative moves to the Columbus Museum of Art.
2018
- First F.O.O.B.A.R. events raise money to combat the effects of human trafficking with Freedom a la Carte.
- How We Got On" tours to Ohio Wesleyan, Denison, the Wellington School, and the Lincoln Theater Ballroom
- Brunch Your Soul – a new, Sunday morning event – raises funds for the 2018-19 season, education programs, community outreach, and to support AVLT's "Pay What You Want" program (celebrating its TENTH year.)
- AVLT hosts the Cleveland Public Theatre production Red Ash Mosaic in Studio Two at the Riffe Center.
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
- AVLT makes its Wexner Center for the Arts debut, performing John Cage 101 (originally created in 2013) in The Performance Space.