I've known Gia for several years, having waited in line with her in auditions many a time. Gia is an Ivy League-educated neuroscientist who is also an advanced yoga instructor and trained Fosse dancer. In the past few years, she did a stint with the Living Theatre as well. (Those of you who follow theatre in New York should find nothing surprising about either of those sentences.)
While working there, she met Carlo, a long-time theatre practitioner (actor, director, composer) who'd been with the Living Theatre on and off since the seventies. They worked together on two productions, Korach and the revival of Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism. They proceeded to found their own space and company, the Alchemical Theatre Laboratory, which both creates experimental theater itself and provides quite beautiful rehearsal and performance spaces for outside artists.
Recently, they moved to a new location, which they've been renovating and refurbishing. It's only in the past few weeks that they've been at a point where they could begin renting space again. And as it turns out, Dragon's Breath has had the honor of inaugurating this new rehearsal space. In New York City, these kinds of spaces are rare and treasured resources, so to have a new one of any kind good news - much less a space as welcoming, airy, and fun to work in as Alchemical.
Beyond that, it's nice to be able to help our friends make their dream a reality. We're all trying to do this, after all. And for Gia and Carlo, as with most of us in the theatre, these dreams aren't something that they put out of mind when they go home at the end of the day. We're trying to live our dreams, in the hope that doing so will make a difference to others. And indeed, given how joyous an environment it is in which to work, their dream is certainly making a difference to ours.