What Artists are Saying About Luna
“I think we are all very aware that our country is facing a very dark time in our journey. The arts as well as so many other things are being degraded and are under attack. I keep trying to find hope and I realize that the hope we can find is not in our government institutions. It’s in each other. It’s in our community. And when this time passes, (because it will pass, this, too, shall pass, no matter how long it takes, it will pass) we will need to rebuild. And where will we build from? There are places like Luna that are havens of free speech and compassion and storytelling and love. And it is from these havens that we will begin to rebuild. We will not be building something idyllic. We will not be rebuilding something unattainable. But it will be something messy and flawed because humans are messy and flawed. But as long as we build it from a place of compassion and love for one another and empathy, what we build will be beautiful.”
- Blake Stadnik
“A lot of companies produce theater. Few of them nurture and develop art and artists through every phase, waxing to waning, the way Luna does…my first brush with Luna Stage began 15 years ago, as they were debuting this space… brand new, beautiful, and full of potential. My dad and I were sitting in the audience, and my mom, Suzzanne Douglas, was sitting up on stage, alongside the inimitable Ami Brabson and Jamahl Marsh, in John Henry Redwood’s The Old Settler, directed by the brilliant Susan Kerner. I was in tenth grade. And I can still remember the warmth, the rush, the pull I felt that first time I watched a story unfold on this stage… and for every story since… From Edison and Tesla’s electric battle of wits, and MLK’s final frantic dream, to every Shakespearean triumph, or Trojan tragedy…
Over the past fifteen years…I have stood on this stage, and helped to give voice to developmental works in the barest beginnings of their crescent, watching new and established playwrights pull their stories out of the dark and make them shine. I’ve watched plays like Indian Head shift, rising into their fullest phases, and I’ve seen fundraisers featuring King Lear…that have managed to illuminate something powerful, and evocative, and true. And even today, programs like the Suzzanne Douglas Memorial Fund ensure that, even after members of our community have left our orbit, they’ll still be there to support the creation of new works, like The Ground On Which We Stand — bringing us full circle once again.
That’s what Luna Stage does…This is a space where scripts become stories that you carry in your heart. Where a crew member or cast mate becomes a lifelong friend. Where the narratives on stage begin to shape the narratives we weave into the wider world. Stories of hope. And forgiveness. And promise.
I was changed the first time I walked through those doors fifteen years ago. I’ve been changed by every play, every reading, every song and dance, and fundraiser, and smile, and “just pop in and say hi…” Each time we step into this space, we are, each of us, entering a new phase. And in every phase, Luna has been here to meet us where we are, and to shape us as artists, individuals, and a community. Changing with us. Illuminating our stories. Creating a space that allows us to bring the very best of ourselves to light, and ensuring that we never have to do so alone. So here’s to fifteen years of transformative magic. Of all those little moments, that Luna Stage has let us quite literally shoot for the moon, and for many more to come.”
- Jordan Cobb