The Next Stage

But moving is also thrilling – new possibilities, new endeavors, new growth. New friends, a new neighborhood. The memories, history, and knowledge from your old home will, after all, come with you.

In January, as Miami Light Project moved from The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse in Wynwood to the Miami Theater Center (MTC) in Miami Shores, artistic and executive director Beth Boone reflected on leaving their home of 13 years to start a new era in a new place.

“We exceeded my wildest dreams here,” Boone says. “I feel so lucky and filled with joy that we were able to do all that we did. Proud of what we did for so many artists for so long.”

“The passage of time is what takes my breath away. But those stories live on. I’m excited about what lies in front of us, the possibilities we haven’t thought of.”

Creating new possibilities is what artists, and Miami Light Project, do. That’s a crucial skill in this constantly morphing city. Since MLP moved into The Light Box in 2010 (with the first full performance, of Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Symphony on the Dancefloor, in 2011), Wynwood has changed from a neighborhood filled with dazzling street murals and energized by adventurous artists and galleries, to an upscale commercial and tourist district full of restaurants, stores and towering apartment blocks, where art is primarily decorative.

Impelled by the pandemic, Goldman Properties, which owns the building, had already extended MLP’s decade-long lease by two years. Another extension was possible. But the departure of artists and arts organizations, and the increasingly raucous atmosphere, meant Wynwood didn’t feel right anymore. Meanwhile, Boone and MLP staff found their time and energy increasingly eaten up by, essentially, being landlords: managing the longtime partner tenants, such as Arts for Learning or DJ Mr. Pauer, and the event rentals (a Sunday church was a regular) needed to cover costs. Meanwhile, Wynwood’s explosive ongoing development made the building – and MLP’s – future too uncertain for longterm plans.

“It all created the moment where we said ‘let’s move’,” says Boone.

“I love [The Light Box], have always loved it. For me it’s the end of an era,” says Teo Castellanos, board president and theater artist whose creative life has been entwined with MLP.  But Castellanos, a Buddhist, understands all eras must end. “We moved into Wynwood knowing someday we’d have to move out, that nothing is permanent,” he says. “It follows the natural progression of things; artists come in, make areas more attractive, and then artists need to move on. We benefited and they benefitted.”

Memories echoed one January morning as Boone, planning and development director Regina Moore, and artist volunteers sorted, discarded, and packed years of archives and supplies. “Look what I found!” Boone, elbows deep in boxes of papers, exclaimed, holding up the original score for Drumin’, Tania Leon’s groundbreaking Afro-Caribbean orchestral work that MLP co-commissioned in 1997, whose Pulitzer Prize winning composer was a 2022 Kennedy Center honoree. “The problem with moving is you keep wanting to stop and go down memory lane,” said Boone, who began working at MLP the week in 1998 it moved into its first home, an office/studio/performance space on Biscayne Blvd. “It’s a slippery slope.”

Choreographer Sandra Portal-Andreu, sorting through years of flyers, was wistful. Since doing Here & Now in 2016, she’d rehearsed here often. “This was definitely a creative haven for me,” she sighed. “There’s no space like The Light Box. But it was here, it lived, and now it moves on. I’m curious to see if the next chapter creates that same community.”

In the black box theater, resident filmmaker Randy Valdes and technical director/facilities manager Eventz Paul had stacked the theater lights, face down, in long, black rows. The songs on the radio seemed ironically appropriate: All Night Long, Another One Bites the Dust, I’m Still Standing.

“This was our space,” said Paul, who started with MLP’s Technical Fellows Program (which will continue at MTC) and became the backbone of The Light Box. “We could be here anytime, for anything. But we’re going to make the next one our own space.”

But along with nostalgia and acceptance, there’s also anticipation.

“There is this sadness, for sure,” says dancer/choreographer Cecilia Benitez, 25, who was drawn back to her hometown in 2021 by the community and opportunity she found at Miami Light Project; and, with fellow Miami returnee Stephanie Perez, earned a spot on the 2022 Here & Now festival. During a last rehearsal at The Light Box, Benitez went round kissing walls goodbye. “I know I’m gonna miss it,” she says. “But I’m excited to move on to a new chapter. I get to be at the beginning of something new; we get to give it new life, new creative energy. We’re going to make new memories, of growing, changing and expanding. We’re gonna bring life to a new community, because art always brings life.”

MLP has an enthusiastic new partner in their new life at the Miami Theater Center. Artistic director Victoria Row-Traster has been planning the move with Boone – who’s become president of MTC’s board – for several years. The change coincides with an energized new MTC board, and the group’s post-pandemic return to live performances and rebuilding audiences. Row-Traster says Miami Light Project’s adventurous contemporary performances and commissioning of new work will complement MTC’s family and children’s theater, while MLP’s decades-deep audience and artist community will broaden MTC’s profile as a cultural center. (Row-Traster is also working on bringing in two more artistic organizations to share the Art Deco era theater.)

“I’m thrilled to have Beth as an arts partner,” Row-Traster says. “Miami Light Project is activating the space, bringing in new life and new people. Her programming will bring something new and fresh to Miami Theater Center.”

Located on NE Second Avenue in the middle of Miami Shores still-quiet downtown, MTC is a skip away from neighborhoods like Little Haiti, North Miami, and Biscayne Park, while remaining easily accessible from most of Miami-Dade. Parking is free and plentiful; traffic, by Miami standards, non-existent.

“There’s a huge diverse population nearby that doesn’t necessarily have children but wants to access the arts,” Row-Traster says. “People want to do more things in their own communities; they don’t always want to fight traffic and stress to go to the Beach or Wynwood.”

MTC is only 15 years into a 99-year lease, offering a rare stability. And Miami Shores officials are very pleased to have another arts group join their community; Mayor Sandra Harris says she is “elated” Miami Light Project is moving in.