VIVA Theater is Boulder’s only community theater dedicated to encouraging healthy, vibrant aging through creative expression. We provide opportunities for older adults to participate in the arts as performers and learners.
For more than 20 years, we’ve delighted audiences in the Boulder Valley community with our consistent, high quality theatrical performances.
We are also committed to intergenerational programming. Actors and staff have spanned the generations, from the ages of nine to ninety-eight!
Who are we? Some of us are “retired” and some of us are still working in the mainstream. Our past and current professions reflect the richness of the Boulder Community: we are scientists, teachers, parents, and librarians. We are insurance executives, real estate agents, and diplomats. We are artists, musicians, radio announcers, and dancers. Some of us come to VIVA after a major life change.
We make room for all who want to play with us.
THE PLAY’S THE THING
We provide creative opportunities for artists who have been professionals throughout their lifetimes, and we also give complete novices the chance to perform and work behind the scenes.
VIVA Theater is committed to a variety of theatrical experiences. We produce full plays, collections of one acts, live-action radio plays, staged readings, storytelling events, musical numbers – whatever our members want to try.
Older actors are often stereotyped as feeble, cantankerous, or prone to dementia. Not for us! Our casting is age-blind. Where else can a 93-year old play a sexy female? (and rock the house, too, we must mention.) We are gender-blind and color-blind, too. Our imaginations are not limited by who we are at this point in time. For all of us at VIVA – as for Shakespeare – the play is the thing.
FOCUS ON COMMUNITY
VIVA Theater is a volunteer organization.
Though stipends are sometimes paid for specific tasks, all of the actors and the Board of Directors volunteer their time and energy. This adds up to over 3500 hours contributed annually.
We collaborate with other community groups such as senior centers, senior residences, and the JCC to bring theater to audiences which may be unable to travel. Over the years we have worked closely with a long list of local partners.
