 |
New Rep Artistic Director Kate Warner Discusses her Inaugural Season: |
| Dear Friend, |
I am thrilled to invite you to join us for New Repertory Theatre's 26th season. I am honored to be your next Artistic Director, and I truly look forward to getting to know you and my new home.
I thought I should start by telling you a little bit about my background. Starting in 1995, I spent nine years as the Managing Director/Artistic Associate with Atlanta's Theatrical Outfit. As Artistic Associate at both Theatrical Outfit and Dad's Garage, I expanded my directing experience, but also started my freelance directing career by working for other Atlanta theatres, American Stage in Florida, Festival Playhouse in Michigan, and Magic Theatre in San Francisco. In January 2005, I was named Artistic Director of Dad's Garage. During my tenure there, I established a team culture that created sustainability for the organization without compromising our aesthetics. We focused our efforts on driving excitement about our work, fundraising, and building leadership within the company and community, while furthering our artistic mission.
I love directing - interpreting scripts and working with actors and designers is one of my greatest joys. The kind of work I want to do is work that is relevant to the community. The kind of artistic choices I make support a balanced season of new work, comedies, musicals, interpretations of classics, ensemble-developed work, and moving drama. I’m attracted to work that has a certain revolutionary spirit. I love developing new works by up-and-coming writers, and I personally love contemporary comedies and satires, too. Most of all, I'm interested in changing people’s perspectives on what it means to go to the theatre. I want your evening out to be a whole experience that is meaningful, accessible, and entertaining. Like a stimulating conversation with your smartest friends or an outstanding meal at your favorite restaurant, I want you to crave coming to our theatre.
As I started to plan New Rep's 2009-2010 season, I was drawn to plays where the characters faced a search for purpose in a challenging world, a theme that will resonate with everyone as we face these trying times. And while we know that change is on our horizon, I also sense that stories about rediscovering purpose will be more relevant than ever before. I plan to continue New Rep’s mission of producing plays that speak to the essential ideas of our time, while exploring this theme through different perspectives, different theatrical styles, and different eras of theatre. We will meet a WWII Naval Officer, Mister Roberts, who wants to make a difference in a war that will change the nation. In David Mamet's incredibly written Speed-the-Plow, we will debate artistic versus commercial success. We will explore what "happily ever after" means in the comedy Indulgences by Off Broadway's celebrated playwright Chris Craddock. In the play Opus, we will meet five musicians whose artistic drive overrides their personal relationships. And finally, in David H. Bell's adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, we find duty and purpose with a twist of swing.
Downstage @ New Rep, we bring you Lisa Kron's 2.5 Minute Ride, one of my all-time favorites that puts personal experience into perspective between silly and solemn. We will also present boom, a comedy about the end of one world, and the beginning of something new.
I can't wait for our first season together to begin! I look forward to meeting each and every one of you, and I look forward to our spirited conversations throughout the season. Please look for me when you are at the theater. I will be the one wearing glasses, making new friends, and memorizing the Red Sox roster.
See you at the theatre!
Sincerely,
Kate Warner
Artistic Director
Subscription Information:
Subscriptions for New Rep's 2009-2010 season are on sale now. Please note that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and The Santaland Diaries are not included in any subscription package. Please see below for links to further information:
Read about the 2009-2010 Season
Read about Subscription Packages
Look at 2009-2010 Season Subscription Pricing
Read about our Subscription Payment Plan
Download a Subscription Order Form (pdf)
