About The Theatre
Mission Statement
Our company of storytellers harnesses the art of live performance for the community. Through established plays, new works, and dynamic educational programming, we provide experiences designed to bring enrichment to all.
Vision Statement
To create a lasting home for innovative theatre that transports, delights, and inspires.
Our Values
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Artists
We rely on our core of artists to provide a high standard of excellence in all areas of theatre artistry and production.
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Bravery
We pledge to listen to the Social Conscience and bravely promote the artistry, artists, and causes of the future.
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Community
We value the individuals, groups, and businesses that comprise this place we call home and strive to serve their needs.
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Creativity
We believe that imagination is our greatest tool and will nurture joy, innovation, and creativity on our stage.
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Education
We enrich artists and audiences through education, internships, and performance.
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Inclusion
We believe it is our responsibility to showcase the true diversity of our world on our stage and in our audience. We embrace people of all heritage, genders, ability, income, identity, faith, sexuality, and nationality.
The Artist Council
The Artist Council serves as tLTC’s artistic core, and as an advisory panel to the artistic director.
DAVID JANESKI
[he/him/his]
David Janeski has been performing on stage for over 20 years. His journey began in his home state of Virginia where he would use his imagination to entertain his many younger siblings.
Somewhere along the way he was advised to pursue something he loved as a career. David chose performing. Achieving BFA and MFA degrees in Theatre, he was on stage with regularity in the Richmond area. Most artists live dual lives of mild-mannered day job and passion project night job. David's career has been no different. In his day job career he has worked in arts administration for nonprofit theatres and museums of high caliber. He is a triple-certified Database Administrator who is sought after for his advice in the field.
Somewhat atypical of database professionals David also loves being in front of an audience. In his early days as an artist David did anything he could to be near the stage; including sell tickets in the box office, work tech crew in the wings, and hang and repair instruments (stage lights). On stage he's performed as men, women, and animals, conquered a handful of european dialects, sung hundreds of songs, and played at least a half dozen instruments. He's entertained in thirty states and at least two countries. He even met his wife onstage. Outside of the theatre (or on Youtube) you can catch them performing duets together as "The Beverly Lovers”.
Some of David's favorite plays are the classic Greek tragedies of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides. He looks forward to seeing you in the audience very soon.
Courtney Loving
[She/Her/Hers]
Courtney Loving is thrilled to be working with The Artist Council. Creating in community is a deep passion and life-long pursuit. Courtney has been a member of AEA for over 20 years and finding opportunities in this culturally rich and small community is extraordinary.
When she arrived she was honored to be a part of the cast of Company of Fool’s production of August Osage County. Since that time she’s performed with St Thomas Playhouse as Mother Superior in Sound of Music and The Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods, countless readings with Sawtooth Productions thanks to Jonathan Kane and beautiful Covid concerts at the Reinheimer Ranch. Before that she was playing at the Springer Opera House in Georgia. Her favorite role was Vickie in The Full Monty. She toured with a production of Oklahoma!, and cut her teeth in Texas at theaters like Casa Mañana as Sister Amnesia in Nonsense 3: Sister Amnesia’s Jamboree, Theatre Three, Deep Ellum Opera House and Garland Theatre.
Her life in the theatre gave her a deep love for exploring herself and others which ultimately led to becoming a therapist specializing in trauma and the now renaissance of psychedelic assisted therapy. Courtney is deeply honored and humbled to partner with our community in healing wounds and increasing conscious awareness. These conversations in community and in private can change and heal our world.
TESS MAKENA
[she/her/hers]
Tess Makena is a professional actor, stage manager, stage electrician, musician, and consumer of all things food and beverage.
She's a proud member of Actor's Equity Association and is now over-the-moon to be the Company/Office Manager and Artist Council member for The Liberty Theatre Company. Her professional endeavors onstage, offstage, and backstage have given her opportunities to explore the ever-inspiring world of theatre-making throughout Idaho and New York. Many of these great opportunities were given to her by Company of Fools, Boise Contemporary Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The O'Neill Theatre Center, and Playwrights Horizons.
Tess received her BA in Theatre Performance from Boise State University, though she only attended one game on the glorious blue turf. When she's not pursuing her love for storytelling, Tess can be seen binge-watching films and television, playing board games, spending too much money at local restaurants and pubs, and playing one of the many instruments she somehow knows how to play.
Joel Vilinsky
[he/him/his]
Joel has been performing professionally for the last 30 years, but since his move to the valley, his theatrical heart has been in Hailey, ID. A founding member of Company of Fools during its infancy in Richmond, VA, it’s the theater that brought him to these mountains, and now he’s excited to serve on TLTC’s Artist Council with talented professionals who’ve also made their artistic home in Hailey.
The written word is what draws Joel to drama; it holds an author's truth and offers it as a collective experience like no other, trusting the actor and audience to interpret and receive these personal messages through honest expression and open hearts. It’s a shared reflection of the world presented intimately on stage, and that’s the spell live theater casts.
An avid reader and educator, Joel has taught literature, writing, theater, and American Studies in public and private schools, and adult extending classes for 36 years. His path stretches from Brooklyn to colonial Williamsburg, and for more than two decades, at the Sun Valley Community School in Ketchum. He has established theater programs for middle and high schools, created long-standing one-act play festivals, fostered original, award-winning plays from young thespians, written over 25 novels with students, dabbled in his own writing, and edited the work of others. He has also been found camping out at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference every summer since he’s moved here. And now, he’s collaborating on a new chapter in Idaho theater.
When not in a playhouse, at school, or in his Hailey home with wife, Jeanne, Joel can be found hiking in the backcountry of our beloved Idaho. Yeah, after 22 years, he’s a true Idaholic, with one foot in the mountains and the other in the theater.
