Applause for Oakland Center for its 20 years of success

The Oakland Center for the Arts sprang onto the Mahoning Valley arts scene 20 years ago as a thoughtful but sometimes rebellious source of cutting-edge experimental theater and other creative arts. Although the center has matured with age, we're pleased that it has never completely grown up.
Today, the center continues to provide artistically fresh, daring and sometimes controversial productions -- a playbill that many other community theater troupes throughout the Valley bypass or dabble in only periodically.
Then and now
Flashback to the Oakland's inaugural season. The first drama presented at the theater at its original home on Mahoning Avenue on the West Side was "The Normal Heart," a true story about AIDS in the '80s. At that time, the escalating AIDS epidemic had hovered well below the radar in the Mahoning Valley mindset.
Flash forward to the 2006-'07 season. Three of the Oakland's six shows this year are current, written in this millennium, Oakland board member Christopher Fidram said. "We want to continue to offer the public what is new and reflects new theater," he said.
That philosophy benefits the overall arts experience in the Valley, and gives potential patrons a distinctive entertainment option.
The Oakland, however, has never been short on community consciousness. The theater has used its talent and resources to benefit worthwhile causes, including local AIDS organizations and other charities. This season, the new drama "Guys," a production focusing on missing firefighters from the 9/11 attacks, will be performed to benefit fire departments in the Valley.
Commitment to downtown
The theater was also one of the first groups to take a risk to establish a permanent home in downtown Youngstown in an attempt to strengthen the city's arts and entertainment district and to spur a more vibrant nightlife there. In the eight years since it moved into the Morley Center on West Boardman Street with Ballet Western Reserve, the Oakland has become one of the prime engines that has jump-started downtown hubbub after dark.
Members of the community who have chosen to become part of the Oakland family have benefited as well. Hundreds of aspiring actors and theater technicians have learned valuable skills in a professional environment there.
Although a good deal of its fare is directed toward open-minded adult audiences, one of the Oakland's biggest hits has been its outreach to children in the community.
The Oakland Center's professional tour group, Magic Carpet Theater, performs for elementary and middle schools in 10 to 15 counties in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania, reaching about 40,000 children a year.
Giving back
As the theater prepares to enter its third decade of community artistic outreach, it is fitting to look back at the myriad accomplishments of the troupe and its exemplary founder Alexandra Vansuch.
It is even more fitting to look ahead to ensure the forward-thinking arts center remains vibrant. One way to do so is through volunteering there. Another is to become a regular patron. Still another is to become a Friend of the Oakland. All that takes is a $20 donation, and in return, you will receive a free ticket to any show during the season. (Call (330) 746-0404 for more details.)
In the lingo of theater, we hope the Oakland breaks a leg during its upcoming anniversary season. Moreover, we hope the Mahoning Valley enables the theater to break records in attendance and support.