Lisa Scheps has a dream. She started out as an actor, just one year removed from high school, moving from Houston to New York at the ripe old age of 18. She quickly realized that acting probably was not the most financially viable career choice, so she switched to stage managing and directing, eventually starting her own company and producing industrial theatre, which quite literally is musicals for business meetings and product launches and the like. And she did pretty well, financially speaking. But she missed Texas, her home – and she had this dream.
“I and a friend of mine in New York dreamed this up and the vision behind this theatre and the way I want it to run back in the 1970s,” says Scheps. “A regional, LORT theatre kind of situation that is mainstream with a slight edge. And we had this idea of educating an audience and having a very eclectic season and trying to get those people that only like musicals to like something a little bit different, maybe slightly more edgy. Getting people who only accept Shakespeare or O’Neill as real theatre to enjoy musicals. But for the first couple of years of operation, we were going to be reasonably mainstream because we wanted to build an audience. So that was sort of the germ of the idea.”
After her move, she met Stuart Moulton, who has been around Austin for more than a few years and is probably best known for his cabaret work, specifically his company Austin Cabaret Theatre. “Stuart and I were introduced by a mutual friend, and we just hit it off right away,” says Scheps. “So I took him to lunch one day and I asked him two questions: Did he think Austin could support another theatre? He said yes, so I asked him if he would be interested in working on it, and he said yes again. So the next thing you know – because he’s a real estate agent in his day job – he was showing me all these properties. And I bought this building.” That would be the one at 1204 Cedar, which now houses Austin’s newest theatre company, play! Theatre Group.
“The people in the Austin theatre community have welcomed me with open arms. All the theatres on the Eastside have been really, really wonderful. Bonnie Cullum [at the Vortex] and all the folks at Rude Mechanicals and Blake Yelavich [at Arts on Real] and everyone has been really wonderful. Ann Ciccolella [at the Zachary Scott Theatre Center] has been wonderful to me. All the people that I’ve met and talked to in the theatre community have been very welcoming, so I’m following my heart.”
Everybody has a dream. Some have more than one, and there isn’t one of us that wouldn’t like to grab just one of those elusive animals by the tail and ride it as far as it will take us. But the next-best thing might be helping someone else take that ride. So go on down to 1204 Cedar to see play! Theatre Group’s very first production, the comedy/drama Marvin’s Room, by Scott McPherson. And help Lisa Scheps live her dream. 
Marvin’s Room runs March 17-April 3, Thursday-Sunday, at play! Theatre, 1204 Cedar. For more information, call 891-7100 or visit www.playtheatregroup.org.
This article appears in March 18 • 2005.