Photos by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Owner Kenley Smith (left) and artistic director Todd Ristau are shown in the green room of the theater building.

The K.W. "Pete" Smith Theatre building is the home of Studio Roanoke, a new theater space on West Campbell Avenue. Most of Studio Roanoke's full productions will be offshoots of the Hollins playwriting program.

Clockwise from above: Todd Ristau is shown in the back stairway of the theater. The building's upper floors could eventually be used for administrative and rehearsal space and, someday, actors' apartments.

Clockwise from above: Todd Ristau is shown in the back stairway of the theater. The building's upper floors could eventually be used for administrative and rehearsal space and, someday, actors' apartments.

Fans of the late Mill Mountain Theatre's splashy, main-stage musicals may not find much to their taste at Roanoke's newest playhouse.

But for those who liked the edgier fare in Mill Mountain's alternative venue, the Waldron Stage -- well, Studio Roanoke just may be for you.

Arts entrepreneur Kenley Smith has turned the former New York Fashions building at 30 West Campbell Ave. into a new, bare-bones, black-box theater space.

And Smith is a fan of new and groundbreaking plays. His favorite Mill Mountain offerings, he said, were the original works.

"Even when Mill Mountain was in its heyday, the highlight for me was the new play festival," said Smith, referring to Mill Mountain's annual Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works.

But as for the Broadway retreads -- forget about it. Smith, 50, has already said Studio Roanoke will present "contemporary new works of the type that we don't often get to see in Roanoke. You'll never see 'Music Man' there."

A soft-spoken bear of a man with a beard to the top of his belly, Smith is a playwright himself. He won top honors at the Eighth Annual Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights at Abingdon's Barter Theatre last year for his play, "Devil Sedan."

No stranger to risky ventures, Smith ran a high-performance driving school called "Car Guys" for 11 years.

Among other things, "Car Guys" taught people how to drive really fast on racetracks.

No Shame start

Studio Roanoke will open quietly April 3, with a production of No Shame Theatre.

Staging the popular, anything-goes amateur night for playwrights, actors and musicians is a poignant way to open a new live theater in Roanoke. No Shame was once a Friday-night staple at the Waldron. Mill Mountain, including the Waldron, closed in February, citing mounting debts.

In fact, echoes of Mill Mountain resound in this hopeful new project on a rebuilding stretch of downtown, where vacant storefronts mingle with new ventures. In addition to No Shame, a lunchtime reading of "The Angel of Brooklyn," by playwright and Roanoke Times senior editor Dwayne Yancey, will be presented at Studio Roanoke on April 8. The play was originally scheduled for a free reading at Mill Mountain.

The theater officially opens in May with "Ant Farm," by Ben Williams of Martinsville. "Ant Farm" had been slated for production in Mill Mountain's 2009 new works festival -- now canceled, of course.

Williams is a No Shame regular. "This is his first full-length play," Smith said. "We're certainly delighted we can still get the play up this year."

Studio Roanoke's artistic director is Todd Ristau, former literary associate at Mill Mountain. Ristau was responsible for much of the programming at the Waldron Stage, including the new works festival, No Shame and performances by the comedy troupe Big Lick Conspiracy.

Studio Roanoke owes much to Mill Mountain's history of programming new works, Ristau said. "We definitely stand on the legacy of Mill Mountain's new works programming." But he also said Mill Mountain had cut back its alternative programming in recent years.

Ristau said the cuts were "part of the frustration that led to Ken and I creating Studio Roanoke." Their goal, he said, is to offer a platform for "new works and alternative programming that Mill Mountain Theatre had become less interested in offering."

Expect Hollins presence

Of course, there are plenty of differences between Studio Roanoke and Mill Mountain Theatre, too.

Mill Mountain was a professional equity theater. Studio Roanoke is not. It is closely allied with Hollins University, where Ristau directs the graduate program in playwriting. Smith is a student in the program. Most of Studio Roanoke's major productions will be offshoots of the Hollins playwriting program, both men said. The casts will include Hollins students and local actors.

And then there are the ticket prices: $10 for a full Studio Roanoke production, less than half of what a show at Mill Mountain usually cost. Most other events in the space will be $5. Those events will include poetry readings, music, comedy and, of course, No Shame on Friday nights.

Studio Roanoke's first full production will be "The Biology Lesson and Other Experiments," a collection of women's monologues by Sandra Dietrich, from April 28 through May 3.

Bare bones, for now

Like most of Studio Roanoke's early efforts, "The Biology Lesson" will likely take place in a rough-hewn space still awaiting its final touches. As of last week, Studio Roanoke still had no seating or stage lights.

Once past the entryway, in fact, visitors enter a space that looks very little like a theater. There is no stage, and there are no seats. The seats will probably be movable risers, Smith said. A rudimentary stage will be built for some performances, as needed, though the site may vary.

"We're going to be test driving and tweaking it and getting it ready for the grand opening month of May," said Smith. "We really hope by 'Ant Farm' that we have a good theater system up and running."

"We're looking forward to finding out what the problems are, so we can solve them before we officially open," Ristau said.

Much of the recent renovation work on the building was focused on meeting city codes, which required the construction of a new staircase in back, Smith said. The building also has a new sprinkler system.

The 6,600-square-foot building contains a mezzanine and two upper floors, which could eventually be used for administrative and rehearsal space and, someday, actors' apartments, Smith said.

Smith owns the building, which he named the K.W. "Pete" Smith Theatre, after his father. Studio Roanoke is the nonprofit production company that will produce the plays. Studio Roanoke is currently raising money to outfit the theater, Smith said.

The cost of the theater remains something of a mystery. City records show Smith's company "Karma Guys LLC" purchased the building for $295,000 in January 2008. Smith said his target price for the project was $500,000, but he exceeded it.

Jenny Kincaid Boone contributed to this report.