Hey friends,
We are officially announcing that our time in Dayton is coming to an end.
Over the last 8 years, we have produced 14 shows, including 2 collaborations with University of Dayton Theatre, Dance, and Performance Technology Program We performed at the Rosewood Arts Center, The Mathile Theater, and the PNC Arts Annex. We rebranded from The Playground to The Nerve. We were a part of the Impact program, and Community Spotlight program through Dayton Live, and we collaborated on a very successful variety show fundraiser with our friends, TheatreLab Dayton. We’ve built an incredible Resident Artist team that felt more like a family than an ensemble, and we grew immensely as artists and people throughout this life-changing experience.
The Nerve (The Playground) was built by two theatre kids and self proclaimed dreamers who just wanted to tell universally relatable stories in our own unique way.
Friend Art was our 14th and final production. It’s a play about artists, and the perfect way for us to end our journey. Because at the end of the day, we just wanted to create art with our friends.
This company was never meant to last forever. It was just one great adventure on our artistic journey. And now the time has come for us to go on another adventure.
Dayton will always be home, but we have reached the point where we need to explore our artistry elsewhere.
As Molly says in Friend Art, “What’s next can be exciting!”
We are so incredibly proud of the company we have built, the life-long friendships we’ve cultivated, and the meaningful art we created here. If our stories touched even one person along this journey, then we did our job.
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us over the years, and a special thank you to our friends & sponsors, Knack Video + Photo, CreativeFuse, Indigo Life Media, Dragonfly Editorial, Dayton Collaboratory, Jetpack, Amy Askins & Chris Schairbaum, and Mike & Trudy Scheiding.
We are forever grateful to all of you for helping us realize one of our dreams.
Goodbye Dayton. We will miss you.
Sincerely, Jenna Valyn and Christopher Hahn
Artistic Directors at The Nerve Theatre