By Tracy Yochum

Marla Brown's venue for artistic growth is The Warehouse

Marla Brown hopes this year is when her fledgling performing arts center, The Warehouse, comes into its own as a venue for local performers.

“This will be a neighbor's living room where we come and watch art … local art happenings, the whole 1960s John Cage thing,” says Brown of the 3,500 square foot space at 9216-A Westmoreland Road near the Highway 21 intersection.

Some organizers have been trying unsuccessfully to get Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville to support a joint performing arts center. The Davidson Community Players are so entrenched that there's no appeal to move, Brown notes. She hopes to eventually launch a joint project with a group such as the Cornelius Arts Exchange.

“We need to establish a Cornelius presence,” says Brown.

Last year was a year of testing what worked and didn't work at The Warehouse. “Our mission is slowly starting to gel,” she says. “The mission statement keeps shifting.”

This year, Brown hopes to launch a 2010 season rather than piecemeal productions and establish a board and organization structure sound enough to look ahead.

Upcoming performances include “The Reluctant Lovers,” a one-act comedy; “The Serial Killer's Daughter,” a poetry performance piece; and “Fast Trip to Omaha,” a full-length script-in-hand reading by Don Cook.

Another goal is to launch a Village Voice series where once a month The Warehouse supports and produces a Lake Norman writer via a play reading or production and talk about their mission as a visual artist. “Some type of cool event,” Brown says. “I am good at linking material and audience. … I'm not good at much else and there's not much of a need for that out there.”

The third goal is “to keep plugging away with the classes” where participants can share the joys of the process and share their stories in a process in which the artist becomes a creator, shaping it while having fun with it, says Brown.

The Warehouse is non-profit, but a full-time job for the Mooresville mother of two. She may work odd hours to reach the full-time benchmark.

“Some people will say I go through phases where I'm up with communications. And then I'm doing what needs to get done with kids,” she says.

Once a project is launched there are lots of volunteers who put in sweat equity by acting or producing. “I'm learning more how to delegate and find a structure so everyone can have a piece,” says Brown.

She acknowledges that she is in a luxurious position because of strong benefactor support.

Her father, Jim Morton of Cornelius, owns the building where The Warehouse is located and let her have the space in November 2007. Morton is also the developer of Park 21 in town.

“We can pay the bills,” says Brown. “Some pressures of a new business launch are held at bay because of the benefactor.”

Brown has a doctorate in performance studies and was teaching women studies at UNC Charlotte when she decided she needed a change. She was active in theater projects at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church and other community productions.

“That's the type of performance that I've always been involved in and loved,” says Brown.

Once Brown got the space, she knew that she had a springboard from which to explore the performance and artistry needs of the Lake Norman community to find The Warehouse's niche. She tried various things starting with intimate, one-act productions in January 2008.

The two threads that seem most prominent are the teaching of the literary side and performance. Some members of the Charlotte Writers Club North teach morning classes at The Warehouse.

“It seems like our area is eclectic and growing, people from all over are coming. We have a lot to offer. This is wonderful place for children. Discovery Place, ImaginOn, all the children's activities,” says Brown.

But adult venues for entertaining or recreation are more limited.

“We're ready to offer space, alternative space that's not a bar, sports event or sports bar,” says Brown. The goal for The Warehouse is to be “somewhere you can come and see something different, something you wont' see on TV, something provocative or uplifting, a place of pathos where it's safe and go outside and see the world's OK.”

Brown is ready for people to come. People who play music, write poetry or short stories, even if you haven't tapped into that creativity in years. Or maybe you're an accountant who plays in a really good band, and needs a place to jam.

“I'd like this to be a place to nurture that side,” she says.

Think of The Warehouse as off-off Davidson, where the Davidson Community Players, another non-profit organization with a mission to entertain, enrich and encourage community participation in the dramatic arts.

Brown now sees The Warehouse becoming a semi-professional vs. community project. Community theater productions generally have large casts so lots of locals can participate, but a semi-professional production may have only two actors and there's an opportunity to explore material that is dark or alternative.

“I'm not trying to fill such a big house,” Brown says, more like 50 seats maximum.

One production, for example, was done by an 86-year-old man who had written his memoirs. His show was to read his memoirs, with his grandchildren in the audience.

“It's about finding your own voice and knowing it's valid,” says Brown.

The Warehouse
To find out more about offerings or to volunteer, contact Dr. Marla Brown at 704-619-0429 or marla@warehousepac.com