Geva Theatre Center is a regional, not-for-profit, professional theatre company based in Rochester, New York. It is housed in an 1868 building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, located in Rochester at 75 Woodbury Boulevard near High Falls.
- Venue
- Geva Theatre Center
- Address
- 75 Woodbury Boulevard
- Town
- Rochester, US
Geva Theatre Center is a regional, not-for-profit, professional theatre company based in Rochester, New York. It is housed in an 1868 building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, located in Rochester at 75 Woodbury Boulevard near High Falls. The Center has full seasons of programming, in addition to discussions based on plays and staged readings, and community outreach. In 1972, William Markham Selden and Cynthia Mason Selden, a British actress, residents of nearby Avon, co-founded GeVa, an abbreviation for "Genesee Valley Arts Foundation" and its associated theatre company. The company's first shows were short dramas produced at lunchtime in 1973 at the Rochester Business Institute (RBI). Programming expanded to full-length plays and it became a regional theatre company ranked with similar companies, including those of Buffalo and Syracuse. In 1997, the name of the company was changed to Geva Theatre Center, dropping the CamelCase formatting. In 2011, Geva Theatre Center hosted the 2011 American Association of Community Theatre Festival. By 2017, it was recognized as the best-attended theatre in New York State outside of New York City. Actors appearing at GeVa in the early years included Samuel L. Jackson (in A Raisin in the Sun), Scott Bakula, and Georgia Engel. Others who have graced the Geva stage include Kathy Bates, Josh Brolin, Robert Downey Jr., Carla Gugino, Bill Pullman, Anna Deavere Smith, Robert Vaughn, and Anthony Zerbe. Among Geva's contributors are Academy Award winners and nominees, Tony Award winners and nominees, Drama Desk Award winners and nominees, Emmy Award winners and nominees, and a Pulitzer Prize nominee. Rochester native Philip Seymour Hoffman often cited Geva Theatre in interviews. He would speak of his mother taking him to plays at Geva and how that sparked his interest in acting. As of 2018, Geva had presented more than 400 stage productions, as well as other events. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, adapted by Mark C