November 9, 2018

The elaborate sets may be threatening to burst our bandwidth, but the singers and dancers of Sister Act are providing nothing but delight during their lively rehearsals. And why not? When your leading nun Deloris is none other than Felicia Curry, who brought down the house every night as Celie in The Color Purple, you can expect the spectacular. Raising their voices in beautiful harmony will be Broadway and Virginia Rep favorite Andrea Rivette as Mother Superior, plus Susan Sanford as Sister Mary Lazarus, Jenny Hundley as Sister Mary Theresa, Kelsey Cordrey as Sister Mary Patrick, Gwynne Wood as Sister Mary Robert, Corinne MacLean as Sister Mary Stephens, Alisa Ledyard as Sister Mary Martin of Tours, Mallory Keene as Sister Irene, Makenzie Mercer Pusey as Sister Celeste, and Michael Hawke as Monsignor O’Hara. Other cast members, some of them no doubt portraying dastardly villains amongst all this goodness, include Sincée J. Daniels, Durron Tyre, Anthony Cosby, Paul Major, Mark Parello Jr., Landon Dufrene, Zakiyyah Jackson, Michaela Nicole, Terrence Bennett, Havy Nguyen, Lydia Hynes, Jessie Jennison, and Jacob Todd. The wonderful musical comedy is directed and choreographed by Virginia Rep wonder woman Robin Arthur, with music direction by Anthony Smith. Make Sister Act a high point of your holidays by calling our box office today.  

Nathaniel and Artistic Asst Rachel Dilliplane spent last week in NYC as Director and Associate Director of a reading of The Consoling Mechanism, a new musical with Book, Music, and Lyrics by Josh Franklin. Josh performed in the Broadway productions of Anything Goes, Ghost, Grease, Legally Blonde, and appears in The Prom, which opens on Broadway next week. The 11 performers included veterans of the recent Broadway and/or National Tour casts of shows including The Book of Mormon, The Great Comet, Les Mis, Mean Girls, My Fair Lady, Pippin, and Wicked. Virginia Rep alum Josh Marin and Mary Page Nance participated in the reading as actors, and two of our younger Virginia Rep artists now working in NYC, Julia Greer and Jessie Jennison, were in the audience. Music Director Garrett Taylor (rehearsal pianist, Wicked) led a small pit orchestra of six musicians. Attending the reading were nearly 30 Broadway and regional producers, including Rashad Chambers, Erin Craig, Michael Rubenstein, Greg Schaffert, Daniel Wallace, and representatives from 59e59, Glass Half Full, Goodspeed Opera, Papermill Playhouse, Phoenix Theatre, and RWS Entertainment Group. “The purpose of doing this in NYC,” Nathaniel states, “is to begin to generate the relationships that will shepherd this exciting new musical through the necessary stages that will lead to an eventual New York run.” 

The managing committee for RVA’s Acts of Faith Festival had its first meeting on Tues at the downtown digs of convening sponsor Second Presbyterian. We were pleased to submit our offerings for the 2019 celebration.

· On our Signature Season, we will be offering the Broadway musical Once, Feb 8 – Mar 3, faith connection - Love Across Borders, Romans 13:10: “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

· At Hanover Tavern—the Neil Simon comedy Broadway Bound, Mar 15 – Apr 20, faith connection - Families and Forgiveness, Colossians 3:13: “Bear with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other.”

· At our Children’s Theatre—Huck and Tom and the Mighty Mississippi, Jan 25 – Mar 3, faith connection - Growing Up, Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

· And, in Theatre Gym in partnership with Cadence Theatre—the World Premiere of In My Chair by/starring Eva DeVirgilis, Mar 2 – 24, faith connection - Women and Beauty, Song of Solomon 4:7: “You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.”

Bruce (and Hannah via a conference call connection) spent Wed afternoon with Dr. Adam Winsler, professor of applied developmental psychology; Dr. Thalia Goldstein, assistant professor of applied developmental psychology; and Dr. Kim Sheridan, associate professor of educational psychology—co-directors of the Mason Arts Research Center on the campus of GMU in Fairfax County. MasonARC is one of eight research labs established around the country in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, highly visible hubs of research into how arts participation affects child development. Virginia Rep is one of two arts partners with MasonARC. “We will be doing a variety of research in the arts,” Goldstein said, “projects that are started within Mason’s departments of education and psychology, and also projects answering questions the NEA or the arts partners might have.” MasonARC will be working with Virginia Rep, initially, on three of our Community Health and Wellness programs: FIELD (Family Involvement in Early Language Development)®, our Sensory Friendly Performances for Children on the Autism Spectrum, and TAB (Theatre Access for the Blind and Vision Impaired). As we fulfill our vision of “using theatre to serve the community in exceptional ways,” MasonARC will provide access to the latest research, and ensure our alignment with national best practices. 

Last week we wrote about recent attention awarded to Access Virginia Rep, our world-class “welcoming program.” In our 2017-18 strategic planning process, we renewed our institutional core commitment to Access and Inclusion. “Since the founding of our two antecedent nonprofits (Barksdale Theatre in 1953 and Theatre IV in 1975), Virginia Repertory Theatre has been committed to Access and Inclusion. In their first season in 1954, the founders of Barksdale openly defied Virginia’s segregationist Jim Crow laws, firmly enforced at that time, by inviting the President of Virginia Union University to bring 40 of his top students and faculty leaders to Hanover Tavern, eat in their dining rooms and sit in their 150-seat playhouse side-by-side with other patrons. Theatre IV founders announced in their first season that ‘no one will be turned away due to inability to pay,’ permanently establishing our company’s commitment to donate 10% of all tickets and touring performances to those who otherwise cannot afford to attend. The word ‘Welcome’ is written in oversized letters atop our marquee. In honor of our history, and as a cornerstone of our future, we pledge to live that word to the best of our abilities, through six component programs.” Stay tuned for more information about each of these half-dozen in the next six issues of Good News Friday.

For the last three weeks, we’ve been excited to receive and respond to your Suggestions and Corrections. Making this a two-way conversation is our goal. This week, we received more feedback than ever. All of it was positive. (No corrections! Hooray!!) Much of it was on the same topic. Past Board leader Bev Koerin wrote, “Thanks for sending this Virginia Rep update. I was especially interested in the paragraph about Access Virginia Rep and appreciate the theatre's commitment to openness. Sid and I are also involved as supporters/volunteers with SPARC and RTP, so inclusive programs are important to us.” Two other emailers suggested we include more details about Access Virginia Rep. Our favorite comment congratulated us on the program, adding, “You do what you’ve always done. You don’t shout your values; you quietly put them into action.” All of which made a Feel Good Saturday for the hard workers on the Virginia Rep staff … AND prompted the decision to provide more info, as requested, on each of our comprehensive components of Access Virginia Rep. This week we’ve included our Core Commitment to Inclusion. In the subsequent six weeks, we’ll provide more details on each of the component programs. So please, keep those cards and letters (and emails) coming. We really enjoy hearing from YOU.