Less than a year after one new live theater opened on Williamson Road, a former Roanoke businessman has announced plans to open a live theater downtown, in the former New York Fashions building on Campbell Avenue.

Kenley Smith, a playwriting student at Hollins University, has bought the building at 30 Campbell Ave., he confirmed recently. Smith plans to convert the first floor into a 75-seat black box-style theater, and the second floor into rehearsal space.

The theater will have its own artistic director -- as yet unnamed -- and highlight new plays.

"We're looking for contemporary new works of the type that we don't often get to see in Roanoke," said Smith, 49, who formerly ran a high-performance driving school. "You'll never see 'Music Man' there."

Smith's announcement follows the opening of the Star City Playhouse on Williamson Road last summer -- which he said was an inspiration to him. The Star City Playhouse, which is owned and operated by Marlow and Karon Sue Semones Ferguson, focuses on 20th-century drama.

Smith, who also donated seed money to this weekend's first-ever Dumas Arts Festival, hopes to have his theater up and running as early as this fall.

He said a nonprofit theater company with its own board of directors will occupy the building, though others might perform plays there as well.

The city's best known live theater, Mill Mountain Theatre, has struggled in recent years, amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Smith said he plans to keep his costs down. "I think our advantage is we're coming in here looking to be lean and mean."

He also said he doesn't want to shy away from doing controversial fare. One of the theater's mottoes, he said, is "theater without compromise."

Todd Ristau, director of the Hollins graduate program in playwriting, said he is supportive of the project, which Smith conceived partly to give his fellow playwriting students more opportunities to stage their work.

"I think it is a very exciting dream, and one which need not be threatening to any other arts organizations, because we are actively working to involve them in the project," Ristau said.

The theater is the latest in a wave of arts-related development taking place on Campbell Avenue west of the City Market. Several art galleries and studios have opened or soon will open in the 100 block of Campbell, though the granddaddy of them all, Studios on the Square Gallery, recently announced it is closing because of insufficient sales.

Best in 'Best in Show'

Lexington artist Marsha Heatwole won "Best in Show" at the third annual SPCA fundraiser of the same name on Feb. 15.

Heatwole's "Shadow and Leon at Play" was one of 109 artworks entered in the popular annual art show and fundraiser at the Market Gallery. Her painting shows her dog, Leon, romping with a neighbor's pup.

The painting will grace the cover of next year's SPCA calendar. At least 50 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the paintings in "Best in Show" will be donated to the SPCA as well.

Vinton artist Marie Gobble Levine won the people's choice award for her painting "Cat Eyes." More than 250 people cast votes.

"We were thrilled with all the entries," said Barbara Dalhouse, board president of the Roanoke Valley SPCA. "It really turned out to be a great event."

All 109 paintings may be seen at the Market Gallery, 23 Salem Ave. S.E., through March 1. Call 342-1177.

Meeting time

The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, under new director Laura Rawlings, will hold its first "Art Town Meeting" at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Jacksonville Center in Floyd.

The meetings, Rawlings has said, are an effort to find out how the council can better serve the region's arts and cultural community.

They will take place at multiple locations around Southwest Virginia in the coming months.

The first of several meetings in the Roanoke Valley will be at 5:30 p.m. March 18 at WVTF Public Radio, 3520 Kingsbury Lane.

For more information call 342-5790, ext. 5, or visit www.theartscouncil.org.

Staff writer Jenny Boone contributed to this column.