The newly devoted Dea Hurston New Village Arts Middle in Carlsbad opened Jan. 27, following a six-month, $2.5 million renovation that expanded and up to date the property.
After 15 years in a city-owned former lumber firm warehouse at 2787 State St., New Village Arts reworked the constructing right into a community-centric arts heart that may provide lectures, workshops, artwork lessons and reveals, in addition to theater productions. As a part of the reimagining, the constructing was rededicated within the identify of San Diego playwright and veteran arts volunteer Dea Hurston.
Over the previous 36 years, Hurston has been an underwriter, arts commissioner, neighborhood engagement chief, gala planner, board member and outspoken voice for creating alternatives for actors, administrators, designers and playwrights of shade. The Dea Hurston New Village Artwork Middle is the primary arts heart in america outdoors of New York Metropolis to be named after a Black lady.
pening day of the Dea Hurston New Village Arts Middle in Carlsbad on Jan. 27.
(Courtesy of James Hebert)
On the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, New Village founder and govt creative director Kristianne Kurner stated Hurston deserved the dignity as a result of she has had a much bigger affect on the humanities than virtually anybody within the county: “Once we had been considering of who would replicate our mission and our targets and our beliefs of what arts can do for our neighborhood, there was nobody else however Dea.”
Hurston stated Monday that she’s thrilled that the constructing is a wonderful, state-of-the-art facility that may provide one thing for everybody in the neighborhood.
“I’m honored to have my service to neighborhood acknowledged in such a humbling manner,” Hurston stated. “By naming the constructing in my honor, NVA has stepped and made historical past in an epic manner. My hope is that it turns into a creative residence for locals and a vacation spot scorching spot for these visiting the larger San Diego space. I’m excited to proceed to increase the Dea Hurston Fellowship Program underneath the NVA banner that aligns with my mission to assist native artists make a residing at making artwork.”
The brand new heart’s first manufacturing is Jez Butterworth’s “The Ferryman,” which opened in previews Jan. 27 and has its official opening evening Saturday. It’s the primary U.S. manufacturing of the Tony Award-winning play outdoors of Broadway. For tickets, go to newvillagearts.org.
Matt M. Morrow, govt creative director of Diversionary Theatre, outdoors the College Heights theater in 2021.
(Nancee E. Lewis/For the San Diego Union-Tribune)
Diversionary musical wins growth grant
Diversionary Theatre in College Heights is amongst eight U.S. theaters which have obtained grants this previous week from the Nationwide Alliance for Musical Theatre, which sponsors the event of latest American musicals.
NAMT’s Frank Younger Fund for New Musicals will present author residency grants for EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn, who’re co-developing the musical “Queer. Individuals. Time.” for Diversionary.
Diversionary has but to announce when it’ll current “Queer. Individuals. Time.” however a synopsis of the musical on Chary and Gwinn’s web site describes it as a chamber musical the place 5 individuals stroll right into a queer bar in 5 time durations — the Nineteen Twenties, Nineteen Fifties, Seventies, Nineteen Nineties and right this moment — the place they meet and fall in love, however in every time interval their relationships are difficult by the complexities of the world.
The ten-person committee that selected this yr’s author residency grants is co-chaired by Eric Eager-Louie, govt producer at La Jolla Playhouse.
San Diego actor Victor Morris.
(Courtesy of the Outdated Globe)
South Coast Rep’s ‘Voices’ options two native artists
South Coast Repertory theater in Costa Mesa is presenting “Voices of America,” two American performs in repertory this month that characteristic the work of two San Diego County artists.
San Diego actor and musician Victor Morris is performing in one of many two performs, which was directed by San Diego freelance director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg. Sonnenberg directed Morris final yr in “Bother in Thoughts” on the Outdated Globe.
“Voices in America” is a rotating repertory of Lillian Hellman’s 1939 play “The Little Foxes” and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2013 play “Applicable.” Six of the 12 actors in “Voices of America” seem in each performs, and the 2 performs share a set. Though the performs had been written almost 75 years aside, each are set within the South and take care of problems with household, cash, energy, standing, race and the roles of ladies.
The performs run in rep via Feb. 26. Particulars at scr.org.
Welton Jones, backside proper, along with his son Welton Jones III, left, and his grandson, Welton Jones IV.
(Courtesy of Diana Cantu)
Memorial deliberate for Welton Jones
Longtime San Diego Union-Tribune theater critic Welton Jones, who died Dec. 27 at age 86, shall be remembered from 1 to 4 p.m. Feb. 11 in a celebration of life occasion on the Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park.
Jones served as the primary theater critic at The San Diego Union-Tribune and its predecessor from 1966 to 2001. He served 9 years on the board of the American Theatre Critics Affiliation and was on the jury that awarded Neil Simon the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1991. He additionally based the primary iteration of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. He was a historic constructing preservationist, and the restoration and revival of Starlight Bowl, which shuttered in 2011, was one in all his pet tasks. RSVP to the gathering right here.
Kragen writes about theater for the San Diego Union-Tribune. E-mail her at [email protected].
