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

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

Thank you to everyone for an excellent run of Dancing at Lughnasa with one of the best attended dramas in NVA history. We closed on Sunday with a sold out show and an enthusiastic audience, many who wished we’d play for just one more weekend so they could bring friends and family to see this heart wrenching play about love, loss and the strength of family. A very grateful THANK YOU to all involved in this production and to those of you who came and supported the work we do here at New Village Arts.

Prelude to a Kiss is now on sale with Opening Night on Saturday, April 18th at 8pm. We’re offering up the two preview nights (April 17th & 18th at 8pm) as Pay-What-You-Can performances, so don’t worry about how empty your wallet is, just come make a donation and enjoy the show. We suggest a $5 donation, but seriously, just come; we want you to see the show no matter what financial situation you’re currently experiencing. If you book your tickets online the default is currently set to $5 for both the 17th and 18th but we’re looking into putting a donation button there so you can set the price. Otherwise, just bring cash the night of the show and we’ll shoehorn you in. Pay-What-You-Can’s often sell out so make your reservation online now or call us at 760.433.3245 to snag your seat.

We look forward to seeing you at the theatre!

First read through for Prelude to a Kiss. And yes, our stage manager really does move that fast. March 24, 2008. Photo © Elaine Gingery.

New Village Arts hires new Managing Director & Kristianne Kurner becomes Executive Artistic Director

Carlsbad, CA. New Village Arts, Carlsbad’s award-winning theatre company, has announced the following changes in leadership: Kristianne Kurner has become the new Executive Artistic Director, Elaine Gingery has joined the company as the new Managing Director and Artistic Director Francis Gercke has stepped down.

New Village Arts founding artistic director, Francis Gercke has stepped down effective February 1, 2008. Gercke founded the company in 2001 with Kristianne Kurner and has shepherded it from an upstart group with a $5,000 budget to a regionally known theatre with a budget of nearly $400,000. The company’s current stability with the formation of a new space in the heart of the Carlsbad village in June 2007 makes this the right moment for Gercke to move on and pursue other interests and projects.

New Village Arts founding Managing Director, Kristianne Kurner, has been named Executive Artistic Director. Kurner has directed, acted and/or designed over twenty productions for New Village Arts, including the critically acclaimed Orphans, The Waverly Gallery and the regional premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s Sailor’s Song, for which she was recognized for her “Outstanding Direction” by both the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle and the Patte Awards for Theatre Excellence. Kurner, who is excited about the direction of the company and thrilled to take over the leadership at New Village Arts stated that she is, “honored to take over the leadership of New Village Arts Theatre at this time. NVA will continue to provide the type of exciting, ensemble driven theatre that it has become known for - theatre that excites the audience and encourages everyone to live more fully. I am especially looking forward to working with Elaine Gingery, our new Managing Director, to continue to grow NVA into a nationally known regional theatre.”

Joining New Village Arts in the role of Managing Director is Elaine Gingery. Gingery is the former Managing Director of Sledgehammer Theatre where she brought in over $40,000 in new grants during her last year with the company. She has worked as the Ticket Operations Manager at the Old Globe Theatre, ran Patron Services at Mainly Mozart and studied Guerilla Marketing with the National Arts Marketing Program in Chicago. Gingery’s background in Marketing and Management makers her a perfect candidate for NVA during this time of growth and artistic expansion. “New Village Arts is on the edge of a very exciting time with a full eight play season that includes a holiday show and Shakespeare in the Park. The new space is versatile, in the heart of the community and able to accommodate so many of the new ideas we are looking to implement. It’s a dream job for me to work in such a vibrant theatrical community and with such outstanding artists.”

New Village Arts is currently in the midst of its seventh season of plays. Coming next is Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa directed by Esther Emery, followed by Craig Lucas’ Prelude to a Kiss directed by Delicia Turner-Sonnenberg. In June, NVA will produce Clifford Odets’ American classic Golden Boy, followed by a reprise of the highly awarded Sailor’s Song. The season will conclude with the Seventh Annual Free Shakespeare in the Park, The Tempest. More information can be found on the website at www.NewVillageArts.org