Mission:

GraceArts LIVE, main street’s performing arts theatre in Lake Havasu City was established in 2006 and offers large and intimate scale theatre productions, concerts, youth productions, educational workshops and special events. Through its affiliation with Arizona Coast Performing Arts Dance Studio, GraceArts LIVE Youth Theatricals, a non-profit company and ArtsTix Box Office, it is your connection to performing arts excellence.

History:

Grace Ann Etcheberria grew up in a first generation Basque family in San Juan Capistrano, California and schooled in the Mission School.  She and her sisters were immersed in the Spanish/Basque and Mexican cultures.  They grew up with a great sense of family, traditions, and artistic culture.  Louie Etcheberria, Grace Ann’s Dad, was a farmer where she remembers fondly riding tractors with him in his fields and being a total tomboy.  And it was from her Mom, Prudencia Arbonies Etcheberria, where she learned to dance at a very young age.  Prudencia was a kindergarten teacher and taught traditional folk dances to Grace Ann, her sisters, cousins, and friends.

Her high school years were spent at San Luis Rey Academy, a private parochial girl’s school at the Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, California. She feels she was blessed to be there at the perfect time.  One very special nun, Sister Brenda Montiel, had just begun a Creative Arts Program (CAP) and all Grace Ann’s academics revolved around the arts.  She spent four years there under Sister Montiel’s direction as well as many other warm and talented teachers. She performed in several high school plays and was given the opportunity to choreograph some as well.  It was a time of great learning, creative thinking, and fun.  Grace Ann’s mother passed away the summer between her freshman and sophomore year.  It was a devastating time for her and her family and was so blessed to have the academy sisters and the arts to help get her through.  This is where her respect for and cultivation of teaching began.