About LSPA

The Lafayette Society for Performing Arts (LSPA) is non-profit organization that strives to promote cultural awareness, artistic expression and appreciation for the performing arts with our wide array of organizations and services for all ages. Whether your passion is acting, dancing, singing, storytelling, or other forms of artistic expression, we hope to offer you a place to engage and nurture all of your creative needs. LSPA is the home of the Azalea Storytelling Festival, the Lafayette Center for Dance & Ballet Company, the Lafayette Theatre Company & Academy, Young Singers of West Georgia, and Lafayette Outreach. In addition to weekly classes and summer programming in the performing arts, LSPA provides over 50 events and productions throughout the year in Troup County, Georgia.

LaGrange has always had an affinity for the performing arts, though, in the late 1970s, something was lacking. The local Mutual Concert Association made the effort to provide world-class performances to locals, though there were few performing opportunities for the locals to develop and exhibit their own talents. This problem became most evident when the association invited a musical group to perform but needed talented local singers as a background chorus. Association volunteers began calling around and eventually built a fine chorus of local vocalists. So successful was the effort that the community chorus, what would later be called the Lafayette Singers, was born.

The chorus gave its first performance just before Christmas of 1979. A forum was held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on November 19 of that year to determine interest in establishing a local performing arts organization. The first meeting of the Board of Directors of the Lafayette Society for the Performing Arts took place on February 18, 1980, and the discussion concerned a membership ball. Its mission was established to “promote, cultivate, and further enhance the performing arts experience available to all LaGrange area residents.”

The first performances began the following year with dancer Harry Streep, who performed around the city for a week and a half as an artist in residence. Streep, the brother of actress Meryl Streep, performed for local schoolchildren, civic groups, and churches. The community chorus also performed several times that first year.

Performances continued into 1982 with scenes from Mozart’s opera Cosi fan Tutte being performed at Price Theatre under the direction of Inge Manski Lundeen with the Lafayette Community Chorus. The Ruth Mitchell Dance Company presented a ballet performance alongside local ballet students, and the Atlanta Virtuosi performed with local talent in Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel.

Christmas 1983 brought the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker. Under the direction of dancer Elizabeth Turley and with support from Troup Tech (now West Georgia Technical College) and the Junior Service League, the Lafayette Society was able to stage the entire production. Since that performance, the LaGrange Ballet Company has staged the beloved Christmas classic nearly every year.

These first performances became a springboard for bigger and better things. The bill for the following seasons eventually saw the addition of youth performing ensembles including the Young Singers of LaGrange, later the Young Singers of West Georgia; and the Lafayette Youth Orchestra, established in 1995 and 1997 respectively, all of which were established to develop the finest musical skills in the youth of the area.

The Azalea Storytelling Festival began as a dream concept of three local LaGrange women…Pat Gay, Public Relations/Children’s Librarian and storyteller at LaGrange Memorial Library; Evelyn Jordan, Chairman of the LaGrange College Education Department; and Joyce Morgan-Young, Assistant Superintendent with the Troup County School System. Assisted by storyteller Donald Davis, their dream became a reality in March of 1997.

That year, the Azalea Storytelling Festival held its first storytelling performances featuring nationally known storytellers Donald Davis, Ed Stivender, and Kathryn Tucker Windham. After the rousing success of its first year, the festival has grown into a premier event in the region that continually attracts the best storytelling talent in the country.

Work began in the early 2000s to create a space for the organizations under the society’s umbrella to rehearse and perform. Though those plans fell through, an effort was made to renovate the old LaGrange Theatre on Main Street. An old commercial structure on Bull Street had provided some space at that time, and after much work and renovation, the entire structure, which had formerly housed businesses ranging from a bowling alley to several grocery stores to a hardware store, was wholly purchased and renovated for use as a home for the LSPA. This also provided valuable rehearsal and performance space for the Lafayette Theatre Company, which was created in 2002. After many different children’s theatre programs were executed with the school system and summer musical theatre performance camps, the Lafayette Theatre Academy was officially started in the fall of 2015 to create a space for students to learn the many facets of theatre arts.

Now getting closer to celebrating nearly fifty years, the society continues to strive to provide excellent performing arts performances, education, and experience to the citizens of Troup County, West Georgia, and the surrounding areas.

Provided By Shannon Johnson, Executive Director of the Troup County Archives and Legacy Museum on Main