Carving out its own history in the Ancient City
Hello Dolly
St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre is celebrating their 25th Anniversary this 2016-2017 season. Since 1992, Limelight has been the only year-round community theatre in the city. Their silver anniversary season will open in September with the beloved musical Oklahoma! and will feature I Ought To Be In Pictures, the very first play presented by Limelight twenty-five years ago.
The theatre is unveiling a new logo to commemorate the season, one that pays homage to the Ancient City and the theatre’s contribution to it as it’s carved its own unique history. Created by St. Augustine digital marketing agency
Ring of Fire
Design Extensions, the logo features two lion heads arranged as theatre’s comedy and tragedy masks. These Limelight lions have been playfully named Pounce de Leon and Pawdro Menendez and are a nod to the statues that anchor the city’s iconic Bridge of Lions.
“We wanted to stress the importance of our longevity in St. Augustine and felt that the lions incorporated into our logo signified that we are an important part of the history of the area,” says Limelight Executive Director Beth Lambert.
This replaces the theatre’s first logo, a drawing by Georgie Altenbach of an actual limelight – a stage light used in the 19th century comprised of a candle or gas flame illuminating a cylinder of quicklime.
Anne Kraft and Jean Rahner with their founders portraits.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to realize that the Limelight has become a kind of legacy for me here in St. Augustine, which is my hometown,” says Anne Kraft, who co-founded Limelight with Jean Rahner, now president/producer of A Classic Theatre, Inc.
“St. Augustine has an artistic soul,” says Kraft. “There has been live theater available here forever, from the Spanish bringing musicians with them to the current Limelight Theatre.”
Growing a community theatre from the ground up is no small feat. Kraft and Rahner started Limelight after the Monson Dinner Theatre, for which Rahner had produced and acted in shows through the 1980s, closed and the Monson Motor lodge space became available. Rahner says she called Kraft and they agreed to work together on a dinner theatre … for two years.
Article written by Meredith T. Matthews
