New Village Arts Theatre

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!