You might be familiar with Austin local Lisa Scheps from “Off the Stage and On the Air,” a radio show she hosts each Wednesday on KOOP 91.7. Her latest brainchild is Ground Floor Theatre, a new theatrical venue in East Austin, at the corner of Airport and Springdale.
The goal of Ground Floor Theatre is to foster “an environment for creative thinkers and artists to produce new works by and for underrepresented communities, lifting voices that need to be heard to people who need to hear them.”
Scheps got the idea for the project when chatting with Ken Webster and Christina J. Moore, co-producers of Austin’s FronteraFest, back in January 2014. “I love opening theatre venues,” Scheps explained. “Austin needs them desperately. I decided to take every penny I have and go with this thing, knowing it was a stupid idea,” she said, half-jokingly.