WEAVE Presents – Celebrating diversity, music and more!

For native New Yorker Liza Pascal, creating an intimate performance venue centered around Black, Brown, Indigenous, Immigrant, Queer, and Women artists is a way of using her experience to make a dent in dispelling the inherited narrative of racial, ethnic, and gender hierarchy.

Liza is the Executive Director of WEAVE Presents, a small theater in the quaint Rolling Bay neighborhood of Bainbridge Island. She grew up studying classical violin in New York City, performing both at Carnegie Hall and Tanglewood.  She attended as many cultural events as possible with her mother, “Ballet, Symphony, Broadway, Modern Dance, Recitals, Jazz clubs – you name it,” Liza recalled. Money was tight, so they’d often purchase tickets in the $5 range where they’d stand to watch the performances, and if available, they would grab empty seats after the shows started.

She went on to live in San Francisco, where she worked on the Operations team at the famous music venue, The Fillmore. After returning to New York City, she was a music producer for a jazz quartet. All of these experiences would eventually shape the concept of WEAVE, “Over time, I think I developed a feel for my ‘ideal venue’. World-class artists, intimate environment, pristine sound, exquisite bar, dark with select lighting, and positive vibes.”

In 2014, Liza and her family moved to Bainbridge Island, but the dream of creating her own theater was still a few years away. When the Rolling Bay Hall, which had been occupied since 2014 by the Island Music Guild (a non-profit CO-OP comprised of music teachers), went up for sale, generous community members who wanted to preserve the building for the Guild and other performing arts on Bainbridge, purchased the property. Liza was hired to manage the property, ultimately proposing that the venue side be used for her theater. Today, Island Music Guild and the Bainbridge Chorale occupy offices in the front, and WEAVE’s theater occupies the back half.

In 2018, Liza launched WEAVE with the help of some key community members and volunteers, and (later) recruited the help of her life partner, Ayan Rivera (who was a successful restaurateur in NYC), together they got to work creating the perfect environment. WEAVE officially launched their first season in 2019 to sold-out audiences.

The idea behind WEAVE is to invite audiences to acknowledge and celebrate the myriad roots of American culture. The name is representative of “the way American culture came together – a weaving of so many ethnicities and races, and the resulting cultural fabric of our society,” Liza explained.

The theater produces performances by world-class artists in classical, folk, and world music with jazz & funk performers being most prominent. I was honored to recently experience a performance by Greta Matassa, who attended middle school and high school on Bainbridge in the mid-1970s. One of her first performances was at Wing Point Country Club via her jazz group, Jazzberry Jam. She went on to a professional music career, and was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in 2014. Greta’s sultry voice and accompanying band music made for a wonderfully soothing evening.

WEAVE also collaborates with inD Theater and The Lesser Known Players to provide cutting edge plays, and they host dance and lounge parties, provide music education and offer rental space for rehearsals, fundraisers for local nonprofits, private parties, lectures, and screenings, click here for more details on rental opportunities.

As you enter WEAVE, you’re greeted by a wall of unique posters—many of which are designed by Alex Sanso of Island Life Artisan Gifts on Winslow Way—of past performances and are inspired by Liza’s time at The Fillmore. An open reception space, complete with a wonderfully stocked bar serving top-shelf liquors, well-poured cocktails, seasonal local beer and cider on tap, along with a great selection of wines, allows for friendly pre-show and intermission mingling.

The theater itself is painted a warm charcoal color, adding to its intimate setting, and the comfortable seats are set up stadium style so that everyone can see and enjoy the shows. There is also balcony seating and front row floor seating (all seating is removable for dance and lounge parties, as well as other events requiring open space). Upcoming events include Club Night with Deejay Hershe (dance party), The Power of THREE, and the play, Venus in Fur, just to name a few. For a full list of upcoming events, visit their events page at: EVENTS | Weave Presents

None of this would be possible, Liza noted without the support of the community. “The most important thing I want to share is that we are not only infusing our concerts and venue with equity as a core value, but we are doing the same with our fundraising. We are looking to put Bainbridge on the map as a model for a community-centric fundraising—a model that doesn’t only reward people with the most capital, a way to allow everyone to participate, a way that would take out the concern of nonprofits competing for dollars. We created the $5+1 Community Campaign with a vision towards a true community venue.”

Liza hopes to see this new fundraising model become a leading example for communities across the nation to rally support for small venues “that are sadly destined to close not just because of the repercussions of the pandemic but because our government doesn’t support the arts the way other countries do. And we think we found a way to do it without making too big a dent in the pockets of people who might be wary of spending in our current climate.”

The goal of the $5+1 Community Campaign is to focus on 100% community participation. “The more participation within any local community, the more sustainable the arts venue within that community can be,” Liza explained. “So we are asking every household on Bainbridge to contribute $5 per month to that end. Even if some Bainbridge residents are not interested in the performing arts, this community campaign gives them an opportunity to engage in social and economic justice within their own community.” To watch a video and learn more about the community campaign, visit their website: 5 Plus 1 – Five Plus One.

You can also support WEAVE by becoming a WEAVER or sponsor, visit their donation links for more details: become a WEAVER  / BECOME A SPONSOR | Weave Presents.

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