California Shakespeare Theater

Cal Shakes Managing Director Debbie Chinn Named Managing Director of Baltimore’s Centerstage

Wed, 28 May 2008 16:14:06 -0700

CENTERSTAGE, Baltimore’s leading professional producing theater, has named Debbie Chinn its new Managing Director. Chinn, who has served as California Shakespeare Theater’s Managing Director since 2001, will remain at Cal Shakes through August 2008, after which time she will move to Baltimore to transition into her new position. Cal Shakes will be conducting a national search for her replacement. “My time at Cal Shakes has been the most rewarding of my professional career,” commented Chinn, “yet the opportunity to guide such a prestigious organization as CENTERSTAGE to its next phase of growth was one I just couldn’t pass up. I know that Cal Shakes is well positioned to undergo a smooth transition under Jonathan Moscone’s visionary artistic leadership, and the strong stewardship of the board. I leave with wonderful memories and a sense of immeasurable satisfaction at what we have been able to accomplish together.”

“I could not have been any luckier than to have had Debbie as my partner for these past seven years,” commented Cal Shakes Artistic Director Jonathan Moscone. “I am going to miss her terribly. She’s brought this theater to where it is today, and for that I will always be grateful to her. The people of Baltimore are extremely lucky to have her.” During Chinn’s Cal Shakes tenure, she has overseen the organization’s growth from a $2.5 million organization to $3.8 million in the current fiscal year. She has been responsible for significantly increasing corporate sponsorships, more than doubling contributed revenue, and increasing earned revenue by 44%, all of which helped the theater expand its artistic and education programs.

She has also worked in close partnership with Moscone to raise the Cal Shakes profile from that of a community Shakespeare festival to a theater of national prominence (named “Best Classic Theater” by San Francisco magazine in 2007), evidenced by the organization’s move from a LORT D to LORT B theater. They have worked together establishing school residencies and an arts integration/humanities series; engaged under-represented communities; and created a campaign to integrate younger audiences into the organization. Chinn has also been responsible for broadening the geographic, ethnic, age, and gender diversity of the theater’s Board of Trustees, as well as strengthening the theater’s strategic planning process to guide Cal Shakes through the next five years.

“We’re of course saddened to see Debbie go,” commented David Goldsmith, president of Cal Shakes Board of Directors. “She’s a consummate professional, a savvy businesswoman, and a wonderful colleague. Yet I know the rest of the board joins me in wishing her well as she embarks on this next chapter in her professional career.”

Chinn was previously Managing Director of the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, where she developed fundraising, financial, education, and marketing campaigns. Over the past two decades, she has held leadership positions with the San Francisco Symphony, the University of San Francisco, the Center Theatre Group of the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the American Conservatory Theater.

Running the Numbers on Our Education Programs

Wed, 28 May 2008 16:12:47 -0700

Our Artistic Learning department is experiencing growth on every front—extremely significant giving the state of arts education in California schools. Here are some facts and figures regarding our efforts to keeping regional students in the creative loop!
In-School Residencies
• 56 in 2007 with 32 classroom teachers in 19 schools plus Girls Inc.
• 1546 students

Student Discovery Matinee Program
• More than 2720 students attended a matinee in 2007 for either Richard III or King Lear
• 1191 Underserved students attended in 2007
Summer Theater Programs
• Summer Camp attendance grew from 97 students in 2005, 126 in 2006 to 186 in 2007. We are expanding to 4 sessions in 2008 with the potential to serve 280 students.

After-school classes
• In the 06-07 school year, we worked with 106 students in 7 schools spread out from Martinez to San Leandro, and we have already expanded by two schools in 2008.

Number of Employees for 2007
• Hired 44 people to teach for Cal Shakes (numbers do not add up because some people taught in multiple categories) - 1 SMAT moderator - 3 camp administrators - 7 grove talk speakers - 17 class teachers - 14 residency TAs - 16 interns (including 3 who became ECTA’s) - 6 SMAT workshop teachers - 34 summer camp directors and teachers
• All in all for 237 individual positions
• Over 6445 youth served
• Over 7818 adults
• total of 14,263 people served by AL and audience enrichment programs

Cal Shakes in Orinda Friday

Thu, 15 May 2008 12:49:57 -0700

If you’re anywhere near Orinda on Friday evening (May 16), stop by the second annual Orinda Salutes Cal Shakes, where, between 5:30 and 7pm in Theatre Square, the City of Orinda and the Orinda Chamber of Commerce will celebrate the opening of our 34th anniversary season. Featuring Cal Shakes Associate Artist L. Peter Callender as our emcee for the evening, performances by students from Orinda Intermediate School, music by Bob Athayde and Friends, and food and drink, the event is free and open to the public.

The blogs, they are a-changin’

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:55:17 -0700

The Cal Shakes Bullpen Blog—begun last year as a window into the works of Cal Shakes in the off-season—has become the Cal Shakes Blog. This is where you’ll find our popular actors’ blogs during the Main Stage season, but that’s not all: This new, all-company blog is a place where the many voices of California Shakespeare Theater—teaching artists, dramaturgs, New Works/New Communities collaborators, office staff—can e-harmonize.

Cal Shakes named “best of 2007” in every major local paper

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:19:07 -0800

For those of you who were away from your newspapers over the holidays, Cal Shakes production of Man and Superman, directed by Jonathan, was named as one of the top productions of the year by the Chronicle, Contra Costa Times, East Bay Express, Marin Independent Journal, and Oakland Tribune.

Here's what they had to say:

“The ever-penetrating wit of George Bernard Shaw seemed freshly burnished in Artistic Director Jonathan Moscone's smartly pared (from five hours to three) California Shakespeare Theater production of the unwieldy masterpiece about sexual politics. With Susannah Livingston and Elijah Alexander heading an exceptionally strong cast, Moscone integrated Shaw's vibrant play of ideas with its surrounding comedy into a whole greater than the sum of its parts.”
- SF Chronicle, 12/30/07

“A three-hour production of a century-old work is risky, even if the playwright is George Bernard Shaw. That's particularly so when it is performed outdoors on often-chilly summer nights in the Orinda hills. But the gamble paid off big for Jonathan Moscone and his Shakespeare Theater. The production, which included the often-omitted "Don Juan in Hell" portion, was a flawless masterpiece of theater.” [listed as top production of the year]
- Contra Costa Times, 12/23/07

“Jonathan Moscone's sharp staging of Shaw's antiromantic romance was an absolute delight from the ruthless machinations of well-bred ladies down to an impishly anachronistic "Don Juan in Hell" sequence.”
- East Bay Express, 12/26/07

"Shaw's long-winded masterpiece was given an audience-friendly production that even Orinda's famous chill couldn't dampen.”
- Marin IJ, 12/27/07

“This unbelievably vivid version of George Bernard Shaw’s massive existentialist comedy benefited from superior direction by Jonathan Moscone and an impeccable cast headed by Elijah Alexander and Susannah Livingston.”
Oakland Tribune, 12/27/07

Grant News

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:34:47 -0800

The Steinbeck Project, our third New Works/New Communities undertaking, is continuing to attract new funding: The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation has made a first-time grant of $50,000 over two years, and the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded Cal Shakes a grant of $15,000 over two years.

Ron Campbell receives Fox Actors Fellowship

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:53:09 -0800

We recently received word that Cal Shakes Associate Artist Ron Campbell (with the help of our Artistic Administrator Daunielle Rasmussen) was awarded a Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship recognizing Distinguished Achievement. The award—which was given last year to, among others, Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham—gives the recipient $25,000 to further artistic and professional development, deepen and enrich his/her relationship with a not-for-profit theater, and ensure his/her continued professional commitment to live theater. Mr. Campbell, most recently seen at Cal Shakes as the gardener Dimas in The Triumph of Love (and previously in Restoration Comedy, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Tempest, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, and Henry IV) will use his Fox Fellowship to study techniques with theater companies in Greece, Italy, Japan and finally, Sweden in three specific stages: Mask in Greece and Italy, Body in Japan, and Voice in Sweden. He envisions this Fellowship as a "comprehensive exploration into combining mask work, movement and voice and applying these techniques to classical texts.” Mr. Campbell—whose performance accolades include the Los Angeles and Bay Area Critics Circle Awards, the Helen Hayes and Jeff Award nominations, and four Backstage West Garland Awards—then plans to hold workshops for California Shakespeare Theater's associate artists to share his findings with the possibility of developing a performance piece marrying Mr. Campbell's physical work with aspects of Shakespeare.

What a Grand Prize Winner Looks Like

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:28:54 -0800

This is Special Events and Marketing Manager Dana Mathes (left) awarding Mary Durbin of Pleasanton our 2007 season raffle's Grand Prize: A Pair of Roundtrip Business Elite Class Tickets to Europe on Delta Air Lines. This year's raffle made a record $25,000 to help support Cal Shakes Artistic Learning programs. Thank you to everyone who purchased a ticket and helped bring Cal Shakes into the classroom. And congratulations to Mary and all the other winners!