Play On!

Alex Citron drives around with a bumper sticker that reads “What is Ix?” Well, at the moment, the former Frank Ix & Sons textile mill is 17 acres of mostly dilapidated space along Sixth Street between Elliott and Monticello avenues. But, if all goes as planned, it will soon be home to another Downtown theater group.
Citron is executive director of Play On!, a new theater company that’s taking advantage of the wide open space and available parking four blocks from Downtown.
Once completed, Play On!’s theater will include a stage with a 26’x15′ proscenium, seating for about 150, a box office and administrative offices, plus a rehearsal studio next door. Citron says it will be “very comfortable…very high-tech.”
Play On!’s niche will be mainstream musicals and comedies—genres that Citron feels are underrepresented in town. “Most of our audiences are people who just make do with going to Ash Lawn during the summer,” or don’t get to see their favorite musicals at all, Citron says.
Construction should be completed by mid-July, and Play On!’s first show, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, opens September 29.
The revitalization of Ix means Mall foot traffic may extend southward. Citron says a plaza with outdoor cafés will be a draw, as will the parking. As more businesses pour in, Citron predicts, “the theater will help them, and they will help the theater.”
Ix is already home to the Charlottesville Newsplex, a gym, nonprofit groups and even a satellite police station, with more tenants to come. As previously reported, a small cadre of Trader Joe’s fanatics hold on to hope that the specialty grocery chain will make its Charlottesville home at Ix, which would make it the place for musical theater and bulk granola.—Meg McEvoy