New Village Arts Theatre

Lots to share this week (since last week was tech)…enjoy!

BULRUSHER

Asia Nicole Jackson as Vera and Jasmine Allen as Bulrusher. Photo by Ensemble Member Adam Brick.

We had our first preview last night. We still have a few kinks to work out, but I’m confident that by Saturday night, this will be one of the most beautiful plays NVA has ever produced. It’s been an epic experience - the play includes dancing, fighting, braiding, eating, nonch harpin, rain, a pool, blood, oranges, brandy, singing, guitar playing and more. We have two actors making their professional stage debut (above) and some NVA favorites in roles unlike any they have done before. I hope you all have your plans to come see the show! Opening night should be fun - after the show, we are having a party with Nathan James playing the blues and the new FABULOUS restaurant in Oceanside called Felix’s BBQ and Soul catering the event.

So, by now you all probably know how much I like field trips with the cast. The latest one took us up to Jack Missett’s house in Idyllwild to explore the elements of nature in BULRUSHER.  Here are a few photos of our group:

It was a lot of fun and I think it helped to inform our understanding of the play and strengthen the ensemble. Thanks to Asia and Sandy for the fabulous fried chicken and to Jack and Judi for letting us take over the place for the day.

AND THE SD CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD GOES TO…

Amanda Sitton for Lead Performance in a Play, Female (Lorna, Golden Boy); Manny Fernandes (with daughter Bella) for Featured Performance in a Play, Male (Moody, Golden Boy); Ensemble member Rachael VanWormer (seen here with Ensemble Member Tom Zohar) for Featured Performance in a Play, Female (Bash, ion theatre).

A few other fun photos from the night:

Alex, Laura & Dave; Daren & Kristianne; Becky, Dani & Kelly

LEASE EXTENSION!!
We got official notice from the City of Carlsbad that our lease has been extended through June of 2010! That’s very good news. We are continually working on how to stay here and/or move somewhere else here in the Village and feel very lucky to be working with the City of Carlsbad - they have been very supportive.

GOOD PRESS
NVA got great coverage for the opening of BULRUSHER in the press. Here’s a link to the article in Thursday’s Night and Day section of the Union Tribune: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/05/lz1w05stage182155-waterworks/?uniontrib.
And we got the cover of the Preview section in Thursday’s North County Times. Here’s the link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/02/06/entertainment/theater/zc270eef6f6d096a188257551006cc9b4.txt.

GOOD FUNDRAISING
We did meet the matching grant set forth by Hap L’Heureux (thank you, Hap!) so that is a total of $10,000 for NVA! Alex was also able to bring in another $5,000 pledge from Jazzercise to sponsor Bulrusher & our new lighting system; the City grant of $5,500 was awarded and we became a finalist for a grant with Las Patronas Foundation (we asked for $20,000).

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Tonight, Friday, February 6th: Gallery Opening Reception 5:30 - 7 PM. This free event is a great way to see the new art in the lobby and meet the fabulous artist, Mirielle des Rosiers. After that, at 8 PM is the final preview performance of BULRUSHER.
Saturday, February 7th: 12 NOON: NVA at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. I hope some of you can join us for this. We will be doing 2-3 scenes from BULRUSHER amongst the BLACK WOMANHOOD exhibit at the museum (this is the huge one at Balboa Park). I think admission to the museum is $10 - it should be a wonderful afternoon - the exhibit is great and the themes work perfectly with BULRUSHER.
8 PM: Opening Night!
Thursday, February 12th: NVA will be appearing on These Days on KPBS at 10:40AM - be sure to listen in (the interview will feature me and Eisa Davis).
Monday, February 16th: 7:30 PM OFF NIGHT SERIES: Staged Reading of A Skull in Connemara
Wednesday, February 25th: 7:30 PM NVA MUSIC SERIES: Susanna Kurner & Nathan James

Photo Courtesy of Reuters.

How about that plane landing in the Hudson?!? My uncle is a US Airways pilot and he knows the pilot who landed the plane, so everyone with the last name “Kurner” has been bombarded by media inquiries (he spoke about it to the Wall Street Journal). Pretty amazing - and so wonderful that they were able to save everyone. I love when things that could be tragedies end up being examples of good humanity. Cool.

BULRUSHER
Have I told you that I love this play? I do. We finished our first round of Act One last night and will be taking it apart and working it in more detail tonight and tomorrow. Next week is all about Act Two and then we’ll put it all together. Janell finished making all our 12 foot tall trees - they are amazing. I’m expecting to pick up our 1940’s truck seat today or tomorrow and the water gets set up soon. And isn’t this a gorgeous poster that Joshua put together?

PARTNERSHIP WITH THE SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART
We are really thrilled to parter with SDMA for BULRUSHER. Their upcoming exhibit fits perfectly with the themes of our play, so we are going to be doing some cross-promotions, presentations and media coverage. On February 7th at 12 Noon, members of the BULRUSHER cast will be in the exhibit at SDMA to perform some of the scenes. I think it is a great partnership for NVA - this is the major art museum in Balboa Park, for those of you who might not be familiar with it. Their website is www.sdmart.org and here is the info about the exhibit:

Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body
January 31–April 26, 2009
Black Womanhood is the first major exhibition to explore the direct relationship between historic and contemporary representations of the black female body as they have been expressed in both African and Western arts. The exhibition presents prints, photographs, paintings, sculpture, video, and installations about black womanhood. Approximately 95 works of art reveal how ideologies and realities of race, gender, identity, and sexuality have been constructed, critiqued, and transformed through visual representations of the black female body from the 19th century to the present. The exhibition will be organized according to three thematic areas—the traditional African, the colonial Western, and the contemporary global—each with its own sub-narratives juxtaposing Africa and the West, male and female, historic and contemporary, and subject and object. As such this exhibition will provide a truly unique and in-depth look at how ideologies of black womanhood have been variously created through images of the female body.

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR (AWARD SHOWS, HERE WE COME)

This Monday night is Pat Launer’s Patte Awards for Theatre Excellence - a small group of us will be going to cheer on Joshua & Tom Zohar as they pick up their awards (we don’t know what they’re for yet - I’ll let you know next week).

The following Monday (the 26th) is the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Awards. We know Ensemble members Amanda Sitton, Manny Fernandes and Rachael Van Wormer will be awarded for their work.  Should be a fabulous event!

MONDAY’S NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE

Working for a non-profit, we all donate our time, talent and energies in some small way almost every day. I love the idea of honoring the work of Dr. King by doing a little something extra for our community on Monday. Think of something fun you can do - and if you’d like to join us at NVA, we’ll be here at the theatre organizing our new storage areas, building and painting the BULRUSHER set and various other jobs. We’d love to see you here!

Make it a Day On… Not a Day Off!
During the 1950s and ’60s, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the power of service to strengthen communities and achieve common goals.

Initiated by Congress in 1994, King Day of Service builds on that legacy by transforming the federal holiday honoring Dr. King into a national day of community service grounded in his teachings of nonviolence and social justice. The aim is to make the holiday a day ON, where people of all ages and backgrounds come together to improve lives, bridge social barriers, and move our nation closer to the “Beloved Community” that Dr. King envisioned. With thousands of projects planned across the country, the 2009 King Day of Service on January 19 promises to be the biggest and best ever!

ENSEMBLE NEWS

We have Ensemble members opening shows all over town - here’s a small example:

Amanda Sitton: DOUBT, San Diego Rep

Daren Scott: LOVE SONG, Cygnet

Ron Choularton: PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS, La Jolla Playhouse

Jack Missett: BULRUSHER, NVA

Rachael Van Wormer: THE SUGAR SYNDROME, Moxie Theatre

Sandra Ellis-Troy: BULRUSHER, NVA

Tom Zohar: THE HISTORY BOYS, Cygnet

I’m sure I’ve left some others out - that’s quite a list of shows to go see!

Tim Parker, Susanna Kurner & Nathan James having a little jam session

 Our next production, BULRUSHER, contains original music composed by playwright Eisa Davis.  Local blues guitarist Nathan James joined up with my fabulous jazz singing sister, Susanna Kurner, to give actor Tim Parker some practice time.  The music is a mix of roots blues songs with some folk stylings thrown in.

It looks like we’ll have Nathan James playing at opening night - you won’t want to miss it - he’s a great musician.  Check out his website at www.nathandjames.com.

Susanna’s website is www.susannakurner.com.  She has an upcoming gig at Bing Crosby’s in San Diego in January.

And you can see some of Eisa Davis’ other music at: http://cdbaby.com/cd/eisadavis.

The whole production/creative team can’t wait to share this beautiful play with you…more soon…

K.