Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Scott. He and his team share their story with us below:
LIB Theatre was started by a group friends who all attended Rollins college together. Josh Scott and Fisher Alexander Co-Founders. Jordan Barnett, Artistic Director. Parker King (Marketing manager and Social Media Lead). The plan came along once we all started graduating. Which, for me was in 2019. During the pandemic, a few more of us graduated up until this past May when Fisher Alexander our other co-founder, was the last of us to finish their Bachelors. During the lockdown of 2020, we all felt that we were becoming deprived of theatre in one way or another. Some of us were missing performing, while others were missing more of the creative and directing side. So, in that, Fisher and I had both talked about starting an Improv comedy troupe compiled of Rollins College graduates. But this concept grew into a more fleshed-out idea for full theater company. Thus began the inner-workings of Lightning in a Bottle Theatre Company. Since the theatre was such a fresh idea and we were trying to get a brand-new company started in the middle of a lockdown, we were presented with some unique challenges. Zoom theatre had just started to become a thing in leu of being in an actual performance space. So, we tried to announce a season of zoom theatre. We started with the show Gidion’s Knot by Johnna Adams, starring Parker King and Allie Furlong. This is an incredibly powerful show of family, loss, and blame. Although the show and cast were absolutely incredible, we were a brand-new theatre with no following. With zoom theatre being a flop, in our circumstances, we decided to pull the rest of the season and wait until we could perform live on stage. Our patience paid off when Wade Hair of Breakthrough Theatre Company in Winter Park partnered with us and allowed the use of his space for our production of True West, Starring myself (Josh Scott) and Fisher Alexander. Other cast members included Shay Bradford and Jennifer Brophy. The show was a success. We had great houses and supportive audiences. This show was our make or break, and we were able to do exactly what we needed to do to keep our dream and our company alive.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There were many challenges in our path to get where we are today.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As stated before, we all met at Rollins College in the Theatre department. Most of us were performers, but others dabbled a little into other parts of theatre. Parker King, our marketing manager and social media lead was an avid dancer and choreographer. Jordan Barnett, our Artistic Director, found a passion for directing. During his time at Rollins, he directed Luna Gale by Rebecca Gilman. Fisher Alexander, Our Co-founder, also has a newfound passion for directing. Also, during his time at Rollins Fisher Directed Proof by David Auburn. Both Fisher and I (Josh Scott) were named the 2019 Critics choice for Lead and Supporting actor in a Drama. At the moment, since we are so new, our biggest and most successful project by far has been True West. This was a project that we had to build from the ground up. And since this is all of our first times starting a company and producing a play, we had a lot to learn. From budgeting to acquiring rights, building sets, marketing, and just about everything else in-between, we had our work cut out for us. But with our teamwork and determination we were able to get it up and going with great success!
I feel like what puts us apart from others is our connection to not only one another but our connection to theatre. Theatre is our passion. We live, eat, and breathe theatre. We do not look at this company as a business to make money; we look at it as a way to expose our community to more arts. So, I personally believe that since we are here for entertainment purposes and not out to make money, we can do more, we can push boundaries, and make people think.
What are your plans for the future?
At the moment, we are planning at least one more show for the winter season. We have yet to decide on a play, but we know we are excited and ready to produce more. We are, however, in talks with Wade Hair at Breakthrough Theatre Company in starting a monthly improv show at his theatre space. We will bring out new formats that we have been hard at work creating as well as a few more well-known short-form improv acts to keep our audiences wanting more!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://libtheatre.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightning.in.a.bottle.theatre/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lightninginabottletheatrecompany
