Society for the Preservation of Gravity is a theater company founded in 2016 by actor and director Eric Balcerzak and writer Kara Garbe Balcerzak. We now have our own space - PSST! - and a new show opening January 17, 2026.

Eric began his acting career at age 14 with the Columbus Junior Theater of the Arts and continued acting throughout his college years at the University of Minnesota. After a decades-long hiatus from the stage (during which time he built climbing walls, became a pro-gravity advocate, and raised two sons), Eric began acting again in Minnesota in 2017 with Mission Theater Company, Upright Egg, and the Minnesota Fringe Festival (for which he coproduced two shows with his lovely wife Kara). He debuted at Theatre Shenandoah in 2025 with "Brighton Beach Memoirs," then portrayed Otto Frank in “The Diary of Anne Frank.” When Eric isn’t acting, he can sometimes be found making art out of things that other people have discarded, or ensuring that the laws are gravity are not being broken..

Our new space is the Parts & Service Stage Theater (PSST!), located in:

Bonfire Bookstore & Yarnery
108 N. Main Street
Woodstock, Virginia
(540) 630-2892

Kara Garbe Balcerzak studied creative writing at the University of Virginia and Minnesota State University Mankato. The recipient of grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, she has written more than a dozen nonfiction children's books (under a pseudonym, so don’t go looking) and published numerous personal essays in locations including the Huffington Post and some literary journals you've never heard of. These days, most of Kara’s time is spent nerding out with people about books, yarn, jigsaw puzzles, and games at Bonfire Bookstore & Yarnery.