TheatreWorks S I L I C O N V A L L E Y About TheatreWorks Silicon Valley May 2016 From the Board Chair Volume 47, No. 8 In this Issue Welcome to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and our 46th season of award-winning Just wondering… Has this season flown by for you, too? Hard to theatre. Led by Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley and Managing Director The Velocity of Autumn, believe that it’s already June and time for 2 About TheatreWorks Phil Santora, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents a wide range of productions our eighth and final mainstage production of 2015/2016. Looking and programming throughout the region. back, it’s clear that it has been a wonderfully eclectic and thoroughly Silicon Valley Paul Heppner Triangle Founded in 1970, we continue to celebrate the human spirit and the diversity of enjoyable season: a tuneful world premiere ( ), several smart Publisher The Country House, tokyo fish 4 Summer Studio @ TheatreWorks our community, presenting contemporary plays and musicals, revitalizing great multigenerational regional premieres ( Susan Peterson story, The Velocity of Autumn), reimagined classics (Proof, Cyrano), works of the past, championing arts education, and nurturing new works for the Design & Production Director a reprised audience favorite (Jane Austen’s EMMA), and a unique THE 2016/17 SEASON American theatre. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has produced 65 world premieres 6 one-man powerhouse (Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin). Innovative. Diverse. Inspiring. and over 150 US and regional premieres. In the 2015/16 season, we add the Ana Alvira, Robin Kessler, Shaun Swick, Stevie VanBronkhorst Quintessential TheatreWorks. 8 Coming Next: CONFEDERATES world premiere of the musical Triangle and five more regional premieres to our Production Artists and Graphic Design So, a very big THANK YOU from TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s Board of Trustees résumé. Mike Hathaway and staff, and all the actors, writers, musicians, and production teams who have 9 From the Artistic Director TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s 2014/15 season included the world premiere of Sales Director helped to bring these plays and musicals to life. This season wouldn’t have been possible without you—our audience. Your subscriptions, single-ticket purchases, and The Great Pretender, as well as regional premieres of Water by the Spoonful, Brieanna Bright, 10 Will You—Will We—Be a Liability generous contributions throughout the year allow all of us who work and play at The Lake Effect, and Fire on the Mountain. Last season’s holiday production, Joey Chapman, Ann Manning or a Resource? Peter and the Starcatcher, joined our January show 2 Pianos 4 Hands as the Seattle Area Account Executives TheatreWorks Silicon Valley to continue to do what we love. two highest-grossing plays in our history. In the course of the year, shows that But our 8-play season is only part of what you all support. Our Writers’ Retreat Marilyn Kallins, Terri Reed each winter offers selected playwrights and composers from all over the country the debuted here were produced at theatres around the world, including our world San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives time, space, and resources necessary to further develop and refine the first draft or premiere Memphis, which opened in London’s West End. Brett Hamil the next draft of their new play or musical. In the summer, our acclaimed New Works With an annual operating budget of $8 million, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Online Editor Festival serves up multiple staged readings of promising new works, allowing writers produces eight mainstage productions at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto Jonathan Shipley to tweak, reimagine, and rewrite, while encouraging theatre-loving audiences to and the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Fifteen years ago, we Associate Online Editor experience and help shape new shows. launched the New Works Initiative, rededicating ourselves to the development of Jonathan Shipley Additionally, your ongoing support allows us to enhance and expand our wide- new plays and musicals. The Initiative has since supported over 140 new works Ad Services CoordinatorENCORE reaching and diverse education programs. Issue-based shows that tour elementary schools, theatre arts integrated into core curriculum, dedicated student matinees, through retreats, workshops, staged readings, developmental productions, Carol Yip summer camps, and playwriting workshops for teens are but a few of the ways and the annual New Works Festival, inspiring The Mercury News to call us “a Sales Coordinator TheatreWorks enriches the lives of Bay Area youth. We know that arts education premiere breeding ground for new musicals, which has put the company on the unlocks hidden potential and is a key component in developing the next generation national map.” of creative thinkers and problem solvers—not to mention encouraging the upcoming TheatreWorks Silicon Valley believes in making theatre accessible to the entire artists and theatregoers who will keep theatre vibrant in the future. Playwright Eric Coble Silicon Valley community. Our Arts Education Department reaches more than John Steinbeck wrote, “The theatre is the only institution in the world which has 25,000 students in 70 schools in 7 counties annually. It sponsors outreach been dying for 4000 years and has never succumbed.” With supporters like all of you, programs that include the Children’s Healing Project at Lucile Packard Children’s it’s clear that TheatreWorks will continue to thrive. Innovative. Diverse. Inspiring. Eric Coble and the Path to 11 Hospital, the Young Playwright’s Initiative, specially-priced student matinees, See you at TheatreWorks next season. THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN Paul Heppner extensive school tours, post-show discussions, and theatre camps, classes, and President conservatories for youth. Barbara Shapiro TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Mike Hathaway 13 For more information on our 2016/17 season, New Works Festival, and Vice President presents THE VELOCITY OF Education Programs, please visit theatreworks.org or call 650.463.1950. Genay Genereux BOARD OF TRUSTEES AUTUMN Accounting & Office Manager Barbara Shapiro, Chair E N R Sara Keats Jayne Booker Michael Kahn Nancy Ginsburg Stern AFFILIATIONS—TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and E Who’s Who B 15 N Marketing Manager Bill Coughran Julie Kaufman Debra Summers operates under agreement between LORT and Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the union of professional actors I V and stage managers in the United States. TheatreWorks is a constituent member of Theatre Communications E Susan Fairbrook Robert Kelley Lynn Szekely-Goode K Ryan Devlin Group, Inc., the national organization for the nonprofit professional theatre. TheatreWorks is a member of the O Contributors T Ciro Giammona Tom Kelley Tzipor Ulman 18 National Alliance for Musical Theatre, a national service organization for musical theatre. In addition, O Business Development Manager H Anne Hambly Ray A. Rothrock Mark Vershel TheatreWorks is a member of Theatre Bay Area, the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce, and the Mountain View P / Chamber of Commerce. TheatreWorks’ 2016/17 Season is presented in cooperation with the City of Mountain S Judy Heyboer Adam Samuels Holly Ward P TWSV Staff I 21 View and the City of Palo Alto, Community Services Department, Division of Arts and Sciences. L L I Larry Horton Phil Santora Lisa Webster H P Corporate Office Roy Johnson Loren Saxe Jane Weston The director is a member of the Society N O TWSV General Information S 22 th Derry Kabcenell Gayla Lorthridge Wood of Stage Directors and Choreographers, R 425 North 85 Street Seattle, WA 98103 E Inc., an independent national labor union. D N p 206.443.0445 f 206.443.1246 A The scenic, lighting, and sound designers BOARD EMERITUS K are members of United Scenic Artists. This R A [email protected] season is supported in part by an award M Nancy Meyer, Founder • William F. Adler • Edward T. 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