Today we’d like to introduce you to Cole Rosner.
Cole, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was heavily involved in the performing arts when I was growing up in Florida and was very lucky to see some amazing Broadway shows in the 90s that really solidified my passion for theater, dance, and music.
After college, I moved to London for a few years where I worked at two prominent theaters on the venue management side of things. I gained so much from working with European theater artists during that time, meeting so many visionaries in the field and learning how to not only run a venue, but to really nurture the artists and audiences that collaborated with the space.
In 2008 I moved to Brooklyn, New York and started my own theater company with Bryce Norbitz and Danny Sharron. New York is a great theater town but we noticed that there was a gap. We were seeing either high budget Broadway shows or no budget blackbox showcases. We wanted to create an environment somewhere in the middle and thus UglyRhino Productions was born. With an eye to social and immersive theater, always including a festival vibe to our programming with bands, parties, readings and interactive events, we built a strong community of talented and passionate people who found an artistic home amidst the often-disparate theater community of New York.
In 2014, I moved to Los Angeles to delve deeper into my other passion – the healing arts. At this point, LA collaborators and I expanded UglyRhino’s hit short play series, TinyRhino to the west coast and saw a whole new community emerge. This is also when play collaborative arts venue was born. play blends the healing arts with the performing arts by offering donation based yoga, sound meditation, self-development workshops as well as theater, dance, music, parties, and multidisciplinary art events. It was a match made in heaven and I felt so welcomed by the downtown LA community!
We have since expanded by opening a second venue also downtown called Montserrat where we collaboratively program interactive and immersive theatrical events. We have a close-knit group of collaborators that are constantly innovating and incubating new ways of artistic expression in this ever-expanding city of angels. With the healing arts to keep us present, still, healthy, and creating we are total artists – crossing many mediums in theater and beyond.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My biggest struggle so far was when at the end of 2015, the VICE police squad shut down play’s DTLA Arts District home for not having the correct entertainment license and venue permitting. We have since been in a very long, bureaucratic, and confusing process to try and get the correct permitting and licensing to re-open the space for performance. In the meantime, we are collaborating with other DTLA spaces and still holding our healing arts events at our venue.
DIY spaces are being shut down all over LA and across the country – it is truly a crime. Most artists do not have the funds to buy the permits, complete the building code construction or to pay the many departments of the city that need to sign off on these things, forcing these smaller, innovative spaces to close before they can institutionalize their visions.
This is the third time I have been a part of a venue that has had to move, shut down, or submit to a more formal and hierarchal way of running due to gentrification or authorities. Once in London, once in New York (the Brooklyn Lyceum is now a Blink! Fitness) and now in LA! Because of this experience, I have become a bit of an activist spending the last year meeting with the powers that be and requesting that the city create a smoother and easier way for underground spaces to become legitimate venues.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I feel most successful when I’m healthy, happy, and creating with like-minded collaborators. One of the major ideas behind both UglyRhino Productions and play collaborative arts is that anything can be done if people are given the time and space to play together, and boy do we need to play right now!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1018 South Santa Fe Avenue, DTLA Arts District 90021
- Website: playcollaborativearts.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: playdtla
