October 12, 2018

Tonight we conclude the biggest week yet for our Muriel McAuley Fund for New Play Development. Muriel was one of Barksdale’s (and Virginia Rep’s) co-founders. She was also co-author of Red Hot and Cole, arguably the most successful World Premiere thus far in our 65-year history. In honor of her legacy, we reinvigorated our company’s commitment to new play development in our 2010 Strategic Plan. Muriel’s niece (Virginia Rep Board member Mary Linhart) launched the Muriel McAuley Fund with her husband Ted Linhart in 2014. We have staged at least one World Premiere every season since; each Premiere has been made possible, in large part, by the Fund. Tonight we will celebrate this exciting and institutionally vital initiative when supporters of the McAuley Fund gather at the home of Board leader Lynn Greer to catch the first sneak peak of In My Chair, the new play by actress/playwright Eva DeVirgilis that will make its debut next spring on our Cadence Season. In honor of the successful completion of our 2018 commitment to raise $100,000 for the Fund, Ted and Mary will present Virginia Rep with their matching gift of $100,000 in fulfillment of a previously issued challenge that matches one-to-one all other 2018 gifts to the Fund. Great week for a great program! 

Between Riverside and Crazy, the electrifying new drama by Stephen Adly Guirgis that won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, began preview performances on Thursday and will open tomorrow in Theatre Gym. BRAC is co-produced by Virginia Rep and Cadence Theatre, and directed by Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, maestro of last season’s A Raisin in the Sun. In announcing their award, the Pulitzer Committee wrote that the dramedy is “a nuanced, beautifully written play about a retired police officer faced with eviction that uses dark comedy to confront questions of life and death.” The New York Times described the piece as a “rich new play somewhere south of cozy and north of dangerous, west of sitcom and due east of tragedy.” The cast of the Virginia Rep / Cadence production is led by award-winning actor David Emerson Toney, and features Broadway veteran (and Virginia Rep favorite) Jerold E. Solomon, Thony Mena, Juliana Caycedo, Bianca Bryan, Larry Cook, and Maria Hendricks. Designers include Rich Mason (set), Sarah Grady (costumes), Andrew Bonniwell (lights), and Jesse Senechal (sound). The production is made possible by Salomon & Ludwin and the Carpenter Foundation. Other supporters include Frona and Alan Colker, For the Love of Chocolate, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Shubert Foundation. 

Of the several great things that have come about during our current run of Curious, perhaps the most providential is this: the two “pound puppies” who stole hearts during their stage debuts, alternating night-to-night at the play’s conclusion, have both found permanent homes! Depending on which show you attended, you saw either Louise (a 1-year-old Chihuahua mix) or Russ (short for Pythagoras, 2-years-old, congenitally three-legged, also of Chihuahuian lineage). Louise was fostered during the run of the show by Michael Mannochio and his wife Laura. Michael plays our central character, Christopher. Happily, they were what our partners at the SPCA affectionately call “foster failures.” They fell in love with Louise and permanently adopted her two weeks ago. She is now forever a proud member of the Virginia Rep family. Russ is being fostered during the run by our Artistic Assistant Rachel Dilliplane. Several families saw him onstage and subsequently applied directly with the SPCA to become his new home. Both dogs have won the hearts of Virginia Rep cast, crew, and staff alike, and we couldn’t be happier for them. And both have asked their agents to keep them informed about Toto auditions for next summer’s production of The Wiz. To catch their final performances in Curious, call for your tickets today. The show closes this Sunday and you don’t want to miss it! 

The week began with a great night at the Artsies, aka the annual Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Awards, hosted and staffed again this year by Virginia Rep at our historic November Theatre. By evening’s end, team Rep had garnered eleven honors, including Best Play for Appropriate (co-produced with Cadence Theatre) and Best Musical for West Side Story. Firehouse Theatre had a great night too, also earning eleven trophies for their work. Cadence Theatre took home six of the prestigious tchotchkes (including Best Play for Appropriate), TheatreLAB proudly claimed three, and 5^th Wall, Richmond Triangle Players, and Swift Creek Mill each received one Best of the Year honor. Richmond Theatre Legacy Awards were presented to Roy Proctor (dean of RVA theatre critics) and Jack Welsh (posthumously, beloved theatre professor and director). Richmond theatre favorites Jessi Johnson and Alexander Sapp ably served as singing/dancing emcees, Bryan Harris did an outstanding job as Musical Director, and Jerry Williams produced four excellent videos that seamlessly moved the evening forward. Nearly 400 celebrants were in attendance. All proceeds go to support Richmond’s Theatre Artist Fund, administered by the Community Foundation. People too numerous to mention worked tirelessly to make the festivities possible. Please join us in thanking them all.  

“There’s no business like show business, like no business I know.” It may not be the most glamorous part of our operation, but it certainly is among the most sustaining. Business management. Virginia Rep has identified artistic growth, symbiotically connected with institutional growth, as a key component of each of the nine 5-year strategic plans created and implemented since the founding of Theatre IV in 1975. Yesterday, Phil Whiteway, our Controller Ruth Garrett, and our Director of Development Jennifer Cunningham attended the 16^th Annual Nonprofit Seminar, “Staying Current in a Changing Landscape,” sponsored by McGuire Woods LLP at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. The event was led by several of RVA’s foremost legal and accounting specialists in nonprofit management. Strategies and creative uses of Charitable Gift Annuities, Charitable Remainder Trusts, and other donor vehicles were highlighted. Bill Gray, one of Greater Richmond’s most respected nonprofit tax attorneys, reviewed the 2017 Tax Act and its effects on tax exempt organizations. Michele McKinnon, McGuire Woods partner, shared valuable reminders in her segment “Me Too, Et Tu, and Other Employment Hot Topics.” All in all, it was an invaluable opportunity to stay current with “show business,” for the ultimate benefit of Virginia Rep’s audience, artists, and institutional stability.