Dayton Entertainment

The function of any quality performance venue should be to enrich the lives, learning and leisure of the surrounding community through the performing arts. Performance theatre should strengthen the economic and artistic vitality of community arts partners through presenting quality and diverse arts experiences and stewardship. If you're lucky, your community has an entertainment venue that accomplishes all of the above via a state-of-the-art performance venue.

Some theatres even function as a hub for local educational and outreach opportunities, transforming stages into classrooms, creating places where theatre professionals partner with educators and parents to ignite students' quest to discover the world, each other and most importantly, themselves.

Fortunately, I was born and raised in a town with a performance theatre association that has provided these community services and more for my entire life.

The Victoria Theatre Association, located in the historic Victoria Theatre in downtown Dayton, Ohio is Dayton's premier not-for-profit arts organizations. They present more than 300 performances for all ages each year, operating and maintaining three vital arts facilities for the benefit of the community and the arts organizations that use them, and further serving the community with a thriving events & catering business in the heart of downtown Dayton.

On top of that, Victoria Theatre Association's Education and Outreach team offers an in-depth education project at no charge to participating students and teachers every year. Each project is built around a particular performance and theme: Past projects, for example, have focused on the Holocaust, or been built around productions such as Hairspray, Freedom Train, and Ragtime. A typical project begins with hands-on theatre workshops in the classrooms; is followed by a critical writing or art project that explores key themes of the work in question (especially its historical context) and connects those themes to the present day; and culminates in students' attendance at the performance.

I know I'm not alone in my community when I say that I feel lucky to have a theatre association that provides such quality entertainment options.

The performance venues of the Victoria Theatre Association provide our patrons with some of the best Ohio entertainment options available.