Village Theatre
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Village Theatre is a major regional theatre located in the
Seattle metropolitan area The Seattle metropolitan area is an urban conglomeration in the U.S. state of Washington that comprises Seattle, its surrounding satellites and suburbs. It contains the three most populous counties in the state—King, Snohomish, and Pierceâ ...
. It is a member of
Theatre Puget Sound Theatre Puget Sound (TPS) is a not-for-profit organization devoted to supporting the performing arts in the Puget Sound area of Washington. It was founded in 1997. Both individuals and organizations can be members of Theatre Puget Sound. Currentl ...
and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. The theatre was founded in
Issaquah, Washington Issaquah ( ) is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 40,051 at the 2020 census. Located in a valley and bisected by Interstate 90, the city is bordered by the Sammamish Plateau to the north and the "Issaquah Alp ...
, in 1979 and built a second location in Issaquah in 1994.Issaquah History Museums

Issaquah Theater (Village Theatre First Stage)
" Published December 9, 2015. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
Village Theatre was contracted by the City of
Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat and largest city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the ...
, in 1998 to be the resident performing and management company of the Everett Performing Arts Center. Programming includes a five-show Mainstage season (performed in Issaquah and at the Everett Performing Arts Center), Village Originals (a program of musicals in-progress presented in collaboration with authors and composers), KIDSTAGE (a year-round youth education program), and Pied Piper (an arts-presenting program with performances in Everett,
Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...
, and Issaquah).


History

According to Village Theatre's Executive Producer, Robb Hunt, the theatre's roots run all the way to Montana, where actor and director Carl Darchuk ran a small theatre. When a member of that theatre's board of directors, Jon Wheeler, moved to Issaquah in the late 70s, he encouraged Darchuk to come out and take a look. Issaquah had an old movie house that was standing empty, and a burgeoning population of young families looking for entertainment. Village Theatre debuted ''
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' may refer to: * ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' (book), a 1952 book written by Shepherd Mead and the inspiration for the musical of the same name. * ''How to Succeed in Bu ...
'' on April 20, 1979. In that year Village also elected six members to the original board of directors, with Darchuk as the founding artistic director. Village, which now has 20,000 subscribers in Issaquah and Everett, is one of only ten companies in the National Alliance for Musical Theatre reporting such high attendance figures. Their Mainstage productions have included beloved classics such as '' Annie Get Your Gun'', ''
The Full Monty ''The Full Monty'' is a 1997 British comedy film directed by Peter Cattaneo, starring Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber and Hugo Speer. The screenplay was written by Simon Beaufoy. The film is s ...
'', ''
Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...
'', and ''
Jesus Christ Superstar ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with ...
''. Additionally, the theatre's youth education program serves over 57,000 young people, families and schools annually. Village Theatre has been under the guidance of Executive Director Robb Hunt and Artistic Director Jerry Dixon since 1979 and 2018, respectively. Dixon succeeded original artistic director Steve Tomkins, who retired in the spring of 2018 at the conclusion of his 25th season at the helm. Dixon, a New York director and actor known for his Broadway and off-Broadway credits, has directed Village's productions of ''
Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...
'', ''
The Full Monty ''The Full Monty'' is a 1997 British comedy film directed by Peter Cattaneo, starring Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber and Hugo Speer. The screenplay was written by Simon Beaufoy. The film is s ...
'', ''A Proper Place'', and ''
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time ''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'' is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title refers to an observation by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes (created by Arthur Conan Doyle) in the 1892 short story ...
''. Dixon, whose career has largely focused on new work, plans an expansion of Village's commitment to it.Somers, Dusty.
At Village Theatre, Artistic Director Steve Tomkins leaving a legacy, while Jerry Dixon looks ahead
',
The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...
, Published November 3, 2017. Retrieved June 5, 2018.


Production history

Village Theatre's production history reaches back to 1979.


New musicals

The theatre's Village Originals program has launched over 160 new musical productions since its inception in 1995 (when it was called the First Stage New Musicals Series). The program presents readings and workshops of nascent shows during the annual Festival of New Musicals, and full-fledged trial productions as part of its Beta Series. Notable musicals that had their debuts as part of the Village Originals program include: * ''
Million Dollar Quartet "Million Dollar Quartet" is a recording of an impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash made on December 4, 1956, at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. An article about the session ...
'', developed and premiered at Village Theatre in 2006 and 2007, respectively, opened on Broadway in 2010 and received three
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
nominations, with Village Theatre performer
Levi Kreis Levi Kreis (born November 4, 1981) is an American actor and singer from Oliver Springs, Tennessee. In 2010, he won a Tony Award for playing Jerry Lee Lewis in '' Million Dollar Quartet''. Career Music Kreis's debut album, ''One of the Ones'', ...
winning the
Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. The award has been given since 1947, but the nominees who did not win have only been publicly announced since 1956. Winner and ...
.
Internet Broadway Database The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade assoc ...
,
Village Theatre - Producer, Presenter
',Retrieved June 8, 2017.
* ''
Next to Normal ''Next to Normal'' (stylized in all lowercase) is a 2008 American rock musical with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. The story centers on a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effects that managing ...
'', written and workshopped at Village Theatre by Issaquah native
Brian Yorkey Brian Yorkey is an American playwright and lyricist. His works often explore dark and controversial subject matter such as mental illness, grief, the underbelly of suburbia, and ethics in both psychiatry and public education. Early life Yorkey w ...
, went on to win three 2009 Tony Awards out of its eleven nominations and the 2010
Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were a ...
.Duff, Deanna.
Most Influential: Robb Hunt and Steve Tomkins
'
Seattle Magazine
Published November 2010, Retrieved June 8, 2017.
* ''
It Shoulda Been You ''It Shoulda Been You'' is a musical with music by Barbara Anselmi and book and lyrics by Brian Hargrove. The musical ran on Broadway from March 17, 2015 (previews) to August 9, 2015. The musical involves a wedding which brings together the fami ...
'', workshopped and produced at Village Theatre in 2010 and 2012, respectively, opened on Broadway in 2015, becoming Village Theatre's third original musical to reach Broadway. * In March 2020, '' Hansel and Gretl and Heidi and Günter'', a new work written by Hannah Kohl, Will Aronson, and Daniel Maté, was cancelled on opening night due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.


Locations

Village Theatre was founded in 1979 in a historic theater building. This building, now known as the First Stage Theatre, was built in 1913 by Mr. Rufus H. Glenn as a silent-film theater. The theater has a flat floor and originally had removable seats to make room for other activities held in the building. Village Theatre then constructed the Francis J. Gaudette Theatre—down the street from the First Stage Theatre—in November 1994. Village Theatre holds its Mainstage productions in the Francis J. Gaudette Theatre and its Issaquah KIDSTAGE and Village Originals programs in the First Stage Theatre. In 1998, Village Theatre was contracted by the City of Everett to be the resident performing and management company of the Everett Performing Arts Center. Village Theatre began leasing the adjacent property, a bank building built in 1962, from the City of Everett in 2010. Village Theatre renovated the building, now the Cope-Gillette Theatre, in 2015 to house their Everett KIDSTAGE and youth education programs.


References

{{Authority control Theatres in Washington (state) Organizations based in Issaquah, Washington 1979 establishments in Washington (state) Theatres completed in 1994