Greetings all! We’re back…

Jonah and I had a nice trip to LA last week, but of course missing two days at work means a week’s worth of catch up. Fun.

Big news this week! We have a new full time Managing Director!! Starting September 15th, our new MD will replace Interim Managing Director Elaine Gingery. Elaine has loved her time here with us and is looking forward to what the new person can bring. More on who’s stepping in and a post from Elaine to say goodbye upcoming.

The two shows are running very well. Sailor’s Song is a bigger hit than last year, with many excellent houses and Complete Works is a blast. It doesn’t seem quite right that the three guys should be having so much fun - shouldn’t there be more pain required to do your art??? :). I saw it again last week and laughed as much as I did at opening - it’s a great evening of silliness and laughter. And a wonderful contrast to Sailor’s Song.

ENSEMBLE NEWS:
Our ensemble is getting cast all over town and we are so proud of them! Here’s a short list:
Ron Choularton: Currently in Sight Unseen at the Globe
Amanda Morrow: Just cast as Belle (Scrooge’s love interest) in Christmas Carol at Cygnet
Amanda Sitton: Just cast as the younger nun in Shanley’s Doubt at San Diego Rep
Tom Zohar: Starting rehearsals for Light in the Piazza at Lamb’s Players Theatre
Jack Missett, Joshua & Kristianne: About to start rehearsals for Fool For Love here at NVA
Rachael VanWormer: Being cast all over town in all kinds of shows
Wendy Waddell: Just played the lead in ion theatre’s intimate ibsen series
Dana Case: getting ready to direct Fool For Love here
Sandra Ellis Troy: playing the lead in Driving Miss Daisy at Moonlight at the Avo
Adam Brick: heading back to continue his studies in San Fran
Manny Fernandes: Christmas Carol at Cygnet

Make sure you check them out in their other shows - they are an amazingly talented group of people!

BOARD NEWS
We had our monthly board meeting yesterday and it went very well. Everyone is working hard in their individual areas to help keep the company growing. Congrats to Board Member Gina McBride who is the new president-elect of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. And welcome to David Brudney, our newest member of the Advisory Board.

FUNDRAISER!!!
September 6th and 7th at the Munk’s Amphitheatre in La Jolla.
The event starts at 6:30, with a performance of Complete Works at 8:00 each night. We can always use more silent auction items, so please let us know if you find anything that’s a must have for the event!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the theatre (or the Munk’s!) very soon!
Kristianne

I first read about it on Moxie’s blog.
Then an email arrived from Ensemble Member Ron Choularton including a bit of history from Dori Salois of Vantage Theatre.
Compass Theatre also has  a beautiful write up about her.

The news of Priscilla Allen’s death is moving through the theatre community quickly as we all mourn an artist who managed to touch the vast majority of us, even if it was just as we watched her work on stage.

When I told my husband about her passing he immediately launched into stories of working with her in 1989 during a USIU production of Fiddler on the Roof.  I had the pleasure of meeting her through the years and working with her briefly when she appeared in Sledgehammer’s production of Richard III.  Every local artist I’ve spoken to since has a story to share.  It’s obvious that she will be so deeply missed, on stage and off.

Services will be held on Thursday, August 21 from Noon to 2pm at  the San Diego Repertory Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, San Diego, CA 92101-6144.  In lieu of flowers, please make donations on Priscilla’s behalf to Project Wildlife  or the English Springer Spaniel Rescue Association.

So I have this script I’ve been working on. You know, “that script.” The one every chick with a degree in Creative Writing who found herself in theatre happens to have. Yeah, that’s the one. And I spent a month working the hell out of it before I made the cardinal sin of writing: I started talking about it.

You’d think by now I would have learned, but every time a bit of writing is eating me up inside, talking about it is the kiss of death. As though speaking the words aloud somehow dismisses the need to translate the words to the paper. And that’s what it is at first: this insatiable need to simply get this crap out of my head and onto the paper where the characters can take on their own life. Speaking about the plot or the scene change or the way a character wraps her brain around that thing that happened to her five years ago, just makes it less… urgent. I go from waking at 1am to pound away at the keyboard to sleeping blissfully though the night.

Sounds like a good thing.

It’s not.

The writing that has brought me the most attention and sparked the greatest emotional response has come from the stuff I didn’t speak to anyone about before it was published. I know this and yet, there I found myself, talking up a storm about the story behind the play and the people involved, speaking about my characters as though they were actual people I know. Stupid.

I’m thinking I need to start wearing a pin that reads: “Just tell me to shut up and write.”

Luckily, some recent events in my life, which made day to day rather hellish for a bit, have provided me with some insight into one of my characters. I may be able to get back to the story now. But who knows, the muse is a fickle bitch and I fear she’s enjoying my inability to finish this thing.

How do you tame the muse? What makes your art come best to life?

I’m sitting in an empty theatre.

Perched on the edge of the stage I have the set for Sailor’s Song at my back and rows and rows of empty seats before me, just hours from filling with an opening night crowd. As always, the theatre is oversold for opening and the slight hum of anticipation buzzes in the lobby outside. There are still almost two full hours before people start packing the joint and yet, that buzz still permeates the landscape, getting ready to join noise and heat and the excitement of what could go wrong.

Really, that’s why I love opening night. There’s this sense of danger all around you. Donors, critics, loved ones, people with a stake in the project, all are settled into their seats, throwing waves across the heads of fellow patrons, getting ready to see what might happen that wasn’t expected. Of course, those of us producing theatre want no surprises and yet, much like lookie-loo freeway demons, the audience kinda hopes to see a little blood. More than that, we want to see how the actors, frozen in the moment with an audience full of witnesses, deal with those small moments of panic. Will they break character? Will we even know there was a problem? Will the theatre collapse in laughter when one actor ad libs their way though their pants falling off (seen it)?

Television and film just doesn’t give you the danger that theatre affords. And that’s one of the many things I find so thrilling about it. Well, that and the sheer beauty of a story told well. We all long for that.

So I sit in an empty theatre, waiting for the evening to take hold. I wonder what gems will fall onto the stage tonight; what unexpected bits of brilliance will skitter across the stage unnoticed and which will come leaping into the audience to thrill each and every one of us. But mostly, I long for the story and the grace and the surprising beauty of John Patrick Shanley’s elegant romance, Sailor’s Song.

Make sure you don’t miss it.

ETA: Photos from the production can be found over on our Flickr site here.

Joshua Everett Johnson and Tim Wallace (set for Golden Boy) get giddy at strike for Golden Boy.

Joshua took to the streets in this get-up. We really ought to let him out of the theatre more often.

It’s hard to believe we are already at tech for Sailor’s Song.  I love this play.  I think what it has to say about love, life, death and beauty (all the small, simple topics) is so wonderful to get to experience every night.  I get jealous of the cast - to be able to go through this every night is such an amazing gift.  And they are all so talented!  I feel that as we continue to build NVA’s Ensemble, my role as director gets easier and easier.  Don’t miss this show!

 Then, of course, during the days, we are rehearsing the zany Complete Works.  The guys are great - and seem to be having so much fun exploring all the plays of Shakespeare (and being as silly as humanly possible).  Our audiences are going to eat this one up - and since it is pay-what-you-can, we will probably have some repeat visits!  Make your reservations now, if you haven’t already - they are going fast.

 And then to top everything else off, we did the first set of photos for Fool For Love (thank you Adam Brick), which opens our next season, last night.  It’s one of the things I love about running a theatre.  You get to work on a show with a group of people, fall in love with it, and then send it off and move to the next one.  It is always a completely new experience - new people, stories, drama, fun.  No boring corporate jobs here.

Speaking of fun, check out the photos from the strike for Golden Boy.  It’s nice doing a play with 13 men - you get lots of help taking it down.  From the photos, it might appear that some people spent more time dressing up, but we did get that entire big set down, so…

 Thanks for reading - I can’t wait to show off our two August shows to you - they will both be unforgettable experiences!

Hello all! This has been a very busy week in the office, so here’s a quick re-cap of what we are doing:

Golden Boy

Wow. What a successful show. We have sold out most performances (actually, all performances the past two weeks with the exception of the Saturday matinee). This is the final weekend and we will be taking down this set and putting up Sailor’s Song on Sunday. I think we will all be pretty sad to see it go.

Sailor’s Song/Complete Works

We started rehearsals this week for Sailor’s Song. I’m so excited about our cast changes - having Manny Fernandes play “Uncle John” and Joshua Everett Johnson play “Rich” is going to be wonderful. Complete Works… will have its first read thru this Tuesday at 12:30 at the theatre and it’s going to be hysterical.

2008-9 Season

Joshua has been working on the new season brochure - it’s going to be very cool. Along with that is the look we will use on the website, etc. We are aiming for it all to be finished and go to the printer by the end of next week. We’ll be sending out a “re-up” letter to our current passholders at the beginning of next week (look for it!). We have already sold a number of passes, and our audiences seem to be excited about the coming season - our examination of what it means to be from California.

Ensemble

We will be holding our first Ensemble Meeting on Monday night. This is a chance for all the members of our Ensemble to get together, do some exercise work and keep building our artistic identity.

Here’s some good news from the Ensemble:

Ron Choularton: Just got cast in Sight Unseen at the Old Globe Theatre! It runs August -September.

Tom Zohar: Opens in Yank! at Diversionary theatre this weekend. Word of mouth has it that this is his “break-thru” performance - he sings, he dances and he is supposed to be amazing - go see it!

Amanda Sitton: Has a big call back next week for a wonderful show - send good thoughts.

Amanda Morrow: Has been breaking it down in her hip-hop classes - we can’t wait to see her in action.

Wendy Waddell: announced her engagement - she and Brad will be married in October!

Adam Brick: comes down from San Fran this weekend to start rehearsals for Complete Works.

Dana Case: Is finishing up auditions for Fool For Love.

Sandra Ellis-Troy: Got a standing ovation for a playreading (!!!) in Woman Before a Glass here at NVA.

Manny Fernandes: and his wife Melissa have announced that they have a second child on the way! We are also keeping him busy with Golden Boy & Sailor’s Song (in addition to his other job as Marketing Director of Cygnet Theatre).

Joshua Everett Johnson: is living, breathing and sleeping NVA for the next two to six months. His work is amazing.

Jack Missett: is in New Orleans running the show at the huge Jazzercise convention (and running Carlsbad Playreaders)

Daren Scott: is taking LA by storm

Rachael VanWormer: was awesome in Moxie’s The Listener and has become one of the most sought-after actors in San Diego!

Kristianne: well, you know about me.

Board/Staff

We have narrowed down our Managing Director applicants to two people, which we hope to have the Executive Committee interview in the next week or so. We’re really looking forward to getting our new MD on his/her feet and working!
Amanda Sitton officially kicked off our Education Program last week, and went in to do a few theatre workshops at a school for boys in the juvenile detention center. She volunteered her time for this, and the kids loved it - one even asked Amanda if she would marry him!

New Classes!We are going to be starting up classes at NVA again in Mid-September. The classes will be offered on Sunday evenings, and will go from 5-10 PM. From 5-6:30 will be yoga taught by Amanda Morrow; from 6:30 - 7 will be voice taught by Susanna Kurner; and from 7-10 will be acting with me. We will be the only place in San Diego outside of the colleges to offer this complete “workout” for actors, and I am very excited to get it started. We haven’t figured out prices yet, but will have that ready soon.

Thanks to everyone for their hard work! See you at the theatre…

Kristianne

GOLDEN BOY

Wow, what a show. We are selling out most performances, the audiences are thrilled, and we set a record for single day ticket sales last Sunday (for a matinee!!) I hope you all have your reservations - you truly do not want to miss this one. The show runs 2 hours and 40 minutes. We do still have tickets left for every show, but they are going fast.

Eddie Yaroch (who plays Roxy Gottleib in Golden Boy) having a very good opening night…

Also pictured: Frankie Regal (who sponsored the opening weekend events), Amanda Dane (Anna in GB), Amanda Sitton (Lorna in GB), Kristianne, Susanna Kurner and Box Office Manager Kelly Iversen. Did I mention we have the best looking team in San Diego??

A big thank you to the members of the Board who sponsored our Equity actor, Eric Poppick (he plays Mr. Bonaparte). His performance is wonderful, and he has been thrilled with his experience at NVA. He took Joshua and I out to lunch this week as a thank you, and commented so highly about NVA. His credits include work on Seinfeld, NYPD Blue and the movie Hero with Dustin Hoffman. Cool.

NVA’s FIRST SUMMER STOCK ACTOR!!

We figured since we convinced Joshua Everett Johnson to stay in town, we’d use him as much as possible. It helps that he’s a damn good actor. During the next two months, Joshua will be in not one but TWO shows with us! We have him lined up to be one of the three actors in Complete Works, and we just decided to cast him in Sailor’s Song as well (it’s going to be so great!). Manny Fernandes, who previously played Rich, is going to move to the role of Uncle John, and Joshua will come in as Rich. We had an informal reading last night, and it is so exciting!

CARLSBAD MAGAZINE

Those great guys at Carlsbad Magazine, Troy and Tim, included NVA as #6 in the Locals’ Top 25 Things to do in Carlsbad (this was after the top ten, so I guess we’re actually #16, but that’s still good)! They produce our season guide as well, and it has been a successful partnership.

MANAGING DIRECTOR SEARCH

As Interim Managing Director Elaine Gingery comes to the end of her stay here at NVA we’re in the process of interviewing for a full time MD and have already seen some great candidates. You can check out the listing at the San Diego Performing Arts League website if you or someone you know might be a good fit. But move quickly, the deadline for applications is July 15, so we hope to have a decision made by August 1.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

July 4th: Happy Fourth Of July (no Golden Boy performance)

July 8: First Read of Sailor’s Song: 7 PM at theatre

July 13: Closing performance of Golden Boy: Strike Set

July 14: Ensemble Workshop 6:30 - 10:30

July 15: First Read of Complete Works: 12:30 PM at theatre

August 2: Sailor’s Song opens

August 10: Complete Works opens

September 6 & 7: Fundraiser at the Munk’s in La Jolla

Have a wonderful and safe Fourth of July.

All the best-

Kristianne

Cast, crew make this boxing tale into a contender

By James Hebert

UNION-TRIBUNE THEATER CRITIC

June 23, 2008

The boxer at the center of “Golden Boy” is a lightweight. Clifford Odets’ play definitely is anything but.

This moody piece about pugs and palookas and a fiddle-playing champ has been through more than a few rounds (it was first produced more than 70 years ago), but it still fills a stage with its bracing wit and rough-and-ready sense of poetry.

Speaking of filling a stage: You would think New Village Arts Theatre must have been punch-drunk to take on this sprawling three-act work, featuring enough characters to populate a week’s worth of undercards.

It’s a seriously ambitious undertaking for a small theater – even one as accomplished as NVA, which just marked its seventh anniversary (and its first at the company’s downtown Carlsbad space).

But director Joshua Everett Johnson, his cast and an able creative team pull it off in grand style. Their own sweet science is in keeping the play’s feel intimate, even with 15 actors and an epic, Greek-tragedy thematic sense.

Joe Bonaparte (Michael Zlotnik) is a boxer from a poor New York family who has the chops and brash ambition to become lightweight champ. Trouble is, he’s a little too talented: When he’s not giving opponents chin music, he’s showcasing his virtuoso touch on the violin.

His wrenching choice between the fist and the fiddle – between a lust for money and a devotion to art – is at the heart of this tough-minded but often mordantly comic play.Joe knows he can’t do both; boxing will ruin his hands for music. But he carries a deeply buried streak of violence (or self-destruction) that he seems helpless to prevent from overpowering his love for the violin.

“If music shot bullets, I’d like it better,” as he puts it, in one of Odets’ jab-like lines.

Zlotnik at first seems impossibly young and slight as Joe, but he makes the role his own with an understated sarcasm and a way of conveying inner turmoil with an economy of expression (in what could be an easy role to ham up). He makes it easy to believe in a kid who can’t stop picking fights even when there’s no ring in sight.

Versatile Manny Fernandes, an NVA regular, steps deftly into the shoes of Tom, Joe’s at-first-reluctant manager; he’s a schemer and a shlub who decides this new kid is “everything we want, everything we need from life.”

No one seems more perfectly in period, though, than Amanda Sitton as Lorna, the “tramp from Newark” (a self-description she wields like a doctor’s note for chronic failure) who is the married Tom’s squeeze. She’s a doll turning into a moll, with her wisecracks and the pugnacious set of her jaw.

Director Johnson, an actor who never fails to be interesting onstage, brings a whole weather system of weirdness when he arrives in Act 2 as the spooky Eddie. He’s a promoter who seems more professional extortionist; Johnson plays him like a snake about to molt a fresh pinstriped suit.

The play, a bit long but with enough momentum to sustain the slow moments, boasts plenty of other sharp performances: Eddie Yaroch as the excitable business partner Roxie; Jeff Anthony Miller as the good-hearted, bemused trainer Tokio; Eric Poppick as Joe’s devoted but heartbroken dad; and Greg Wittman as a comical brother-in-law.

The inventive set by NVA executive artistic director Kristianne Kurner and Tim Wallace includes a loft where boxers perform in nickelodeon-esque vignettes behind a scrim; the effect is a technical knockout.

From early on, Odets makes it clear that the golden boy will pay a price for the life he chooses. Though Joe’s love for music can feel glossed over – as though it’s a matter we should take on the playwright’s word – Odets’ indelible characters and NVA’s expert staging still make this show a winner.

Writer: Clifford Odets. Director: Joshua Everett Johnson. Sets: Kristianne Kurner, Tim Wallace. Lighting: Nate Parde. Costumes: Mary Larson. Sound: Adam Lansky. Cast: Michael Zlotnik, Amanda Sitton, Manny Fernandes, Joshua Everett Johnson, Eric Poppick, Jeff Anthony Miller, Eddie Yaroch, Greg Wittman, Ryan Lahetta, Pat Moran, Ryan Hunter Lee, John DeCarlo, Amanda Dane, Carlos Darze, Sassan Saffari.

James Hebert: (619) 293-2040; jim.hebert@uniontrib.com

Joshua Everett Johnson, right, directs and co-stars in “Golden Boy” for New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad.

By PATRICIA MORRIS BUCKLEY - For the North County Times | Wednesday, June 18, 2008 9:28 AM PDT

Joshua Everett Johnson admits that Clifford Odets’ “Golden Boy” is just the type of show that scares theater companies —- even New Village Arts Theatre.

“This isn’t a play that you just throw together,” said Johnson, who both directs and acts in the production. “It’s scary to do, but we’ve always been a theater company that lives on the edge of our seats. It’s very close to the kind of theater we do —- theater inspired by the Actor’s Studio. It felt time to tackle it.”

First produced in 1937, “Golden Boy” is the story of Joe Bonaparte, a promising violinist who has another talent —- boxing. The lure of boxing is the opportunity to make big money. But it also holds the threat of hurting his hands so that he can no longer play the violin.

The play also follows a real struggle in Odets’ life. He had started to dabble in Hollywood after the success of his plays, “Waiting for Lefty” and “Awake and Sing!” Hollywood, like boxing, held the promise of big money, while theater meant a more satisfying artistic experience to him. Interestingly enough, the play eventually became a movie, which starred a young William Holden in his first starring role.

“This play originated with Odets’ work in New York City with the Group Theatre,” said Johnson, who plays Joe’s prizefighting promoter. “It was during a very inspiring time for American theater. We are such fans of the Group Theatre, and you can see its influence all over this work.”

The writing is what makes the play special, he pointed out.

“This is a play that’s simultaneously of the streets and poetic. It’s a combination of beauty and street smarts, of guts and softness. It’s like a great slice of humanity. It’s so unbelievably beautiful and alive,” said Johnson, a longtime New Village Arts company member who became the company’s artistic associate this past spring.

It’s also one of the largest casts ever assembled for a New Village Arts production. Originally written for 19 actors, this production features 14 actors.

“The greatest challenge of the show is the size,” he said. “It’s a three-act play with a large cast. Even the set is huge. It can be really intimidating unless you get a firm grasp of the language. But the same things that make it challenging are the things that make it exciting.”

The play is set during the Depression era of the 1930s in New York City.

“It’s soaked in that time and place,” he noted. “It couldn’t be in any other place or time.”

The ultimate message is clear: “We all fight to become someone bigger or better, but perhaps you need to stop,” he said. “You might already be who you want to be. And you might lose your humanity in the struggle for material things. This play shows how there’s such beauty in strength itself.”

“Golden Boy”

When: Opens Saturday and runs through July 31; showtimes, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: New Village Arts Theatre, 2787 B State St., Carlsbad

Tickets: $26, general; $22, seniors, students and military

Phone: (760) 433-3245

Web: NewVillageArts.org