2017 Top 40 Under 40: Lucian Restivo, 28

Associate Producing Director, Richmond Triangle Players

When Lucian Restivo was 9, he was making dance videos in his parents’ basement. After seeing his sister act onstage, he changed course.

Upon graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University, one of Restivo’s first big acting roles was Lucas, a rapping drug dealer in “Bare: a Pop Opera” at Richmond Triangle Players, which won an Artsie.

He still acts and directs, but now Restivo also works as associate producing director for the theater, meaning he’s responsible for all daily activities, including managing six main-stage productions a year plus 150 events such as rentals and cabarets.

He’s most proud of the company’s youth outreach program, Spectrum, a partnership with TheatreLab. “It gives LGBTQIA high school students an outlet and safe space to create a devised work of theater that we end up presenting in May or June each year,” he says.

Restivo just finished directing musical “The View Upstairs” and is currently directing the musical “Murder Ballad” with Fifth Wall that will open Oct. 26 at Infusion RVA in Scott’s Addition.

His motto is simple: Try always to say yes.

“A rule of improv is to never say no in a scene. Every single project or thing that has come my way, it’s always saying yes and making it happen.”

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