Actors Theater performance, which draw actors and directors from around the Bay Area.
Heath, a year away from celebrating his 50th birthday, is at home onstage and in Gilroy. He hails from an even smaller town – Sidney, NY – population 3,000. After attending college at Fairfield University in Massachusetts, Heath lived in Connecticut, Boston and New York City, working for an ad agency and then a medical publishing company – always in account executive positions. Tired of the cold east coast winters, he moved to California in 1999.
Moving to San Francisco, Heath said was an easy transition and settled into a human relations job for a public relations company. Two years later he moved to Gilroy, which Heath described as a culture shock,“ but I really craved having a backyard, I wanted to have a dog. I wanted to have a house,” he said.
“ I said, I just have an instinct about it. This is where I am supposed to be,” Heath said. In quick order, Heath bought a home and adopted a dog and soon realized his dream of working where he lives when he landed a job at Dennis Daniels Company, a family-owned wholesale frame and photo album company in Gilroy. Heath’ s position evolved into general manager. He said co-owner Shannon Daniels took him in and was like a sister. He said he enjoyed travelling internationally, representing the company as a buyer, salesperson and at tradeshows, but still harbored a dream to be self-employed.
About this time, Heath said he met his now-husband, local Realtor Alan Obata, through mutual friends.
“ I knocked a drink out of his hands,” Heath laughs.“ We ended up becoming best friends.”
Heath said Obata’ s family, who grew up in Gilroy, quickly became his family as well. They were married in August 2008.
Heath, who is also a wedding officiant and has married 300 people, was thinking about growing his wedding business, when fate took another turn. He was invited to be on the board for the Gilroy Arts Alliance in the summer of 2010.
A year earlier, the city had purchased the old Salvation Army building at the corner of Seventh and Monterey streets, which the Gilroy Arts Alliance began leasing with the hopes of transforming the drab building into an arts center. Heath, who at this point was the president of the board, said it took about 10 months to transform the inside. He said the doors opened with horrible Linoleum floors and no landscaping. Within the first year, a generous donation from the Christopher family made a complete renovation possible – from new floors and lighting to an ADA bathroom, beautifully lit marquee sign, and a parking lot. A year later, additional donations built the courtyard on the property. But the question remained,“ how do we let people know we’ re open?” Heath said.
In November 2010, developer Gary Walton, who owned the Lizarran Restaurant at the time, asked Heath if the center could present a play at the restaurant. Heath was up for the challenge.“ Acting has always been a huge hobby of mine,” Heath said, who had been in shows through Pintello Comedy Theater, the former Odyssey Theater, and the South Valley Civic Theater Company, the latter of which he was on the board.“ Tech is not my thing,” Heath confessed laughing,“ But I can build a beautiful set and I can be on stage.”
While he had no plans to open a theater, fate stepped in when the Board asked him to consider it.
“ If I’ m going to do this, I didn’ t want it to be rinky dink,” Heath recalled. Limelight Actors Theater was born and became the resident theater company at the Gilroy Arts Alliance Center for the Arts.
After mulling over dozens of names, Heath settled on Limelight Actors Theater, which he says is really about the actors.
“ If you don’ t have actors, you don’ t have theater, so I wanted to give actors their credit,” Heath said.
The first production opened on January 21, 2011 for two nights with just a few lights. A handpicked cast starred in the show and audience members were invited to bring their own dinner.
“ It was such a huge hit that I said,‘ we have to do this. There’ s nothing else like this; we have to do this’.”
The second show opened in February for one weekend and the third show – a series of one acts about travel – played at Lizarran for three weekends. A summer show played to audiences at the center for three weekends, when finally the Arts Board realized the benefit of a four-weekend run.
Heath said this season marks the second full season of plays – with five shows opening per year- at the Arts Center.
“ I still look at it and say I can’ t believe this is happening. I didn’ t expect this,” Heath said.
The theater’ s capacity is 50 people and
Heath will often have to place patrons on a wait list or ask them to come to a future performance. Heath said he is“ blown away” by the attention the theater has received, even from directors in San Jose.“ Every time I do a show I say I’ m loving this. We are so fortunate,” he said.“ Part of the success is because we filled a different approach to theater. We filled gaps that weren’ t met here.”
Heath, who now serves as the operations manager of the center, and Obata work as a team- with Heath choosing and casting the shows and directing some of the plays while Obata runs the front of the house. Both work together to construct the sets.
Heath said Limelight Actors Theater presents comedies, dramas, and a onewoman musical theater – a first for the theater and doesn’ t shy away from more provocative or serious storylines, including a son coming out to his father.
“ My belief in theater is it’ s great to laugh, it’ s OK to cry, it’ s OK to feel like you can see yourself up there,” Heath said.
Heath wants to continue bringing quality shows that people aren’ t used to seeing here. This fall, the theater will present a“ dramedy” called“ Art” about three men and their friendship. At the center of the plot is a blank white canvas that one of the characters purchased for $ 250,000.
For Heath, the moment that drove home that they were doing the right thing happened following a showing of the“ Cemetery Club,” a play about widows who visit their husbands’ graves together. One of the characters dies during the course of the show.
Heath said a small group of women approached him at the end of the show. They all said they had just lost their husbands this year and that this was the best therapy for them.
“ I always say if you do theater and you do it well, then that’ s what you want. You want to have a reaction from the audience,” Heath said.
Heath said the performances often become like a big party, noting that theatergoers who originally met at Limelight Actors Theater now come to shows together, arriving early to enjoy the art gallery and check out the handmade wares sold by local artisans.
“ I want an opportunity for people to hang out and catch up and enjoy themselves, and see a quality production, and say you know what? I want to see my friends and do that again. And in the sheer numbers I think that is being accomplished,” Heath said.
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