Sierra Rep turns 35!
Break out the bubbly, Sierra Rep is turning 35!
The
theatre started in 1979 as the dream of five friends – Dennis and Sara
Jones, Doug Brennan, and Kathryn and David Kahn – who shared a love of
the stage. All five met at the Fallon House Theatre in Columbia while
working there as staff and students in the University of the Pacific’s
summer stock program.
Today
Sierra Rep plays a prominent role in the arts scene of the Central
Sierra with a dedicated team of staff members, trustees, volunteers and
donors. SRT continues to move forward, launching our first-ever
education program and recently reaching a significant milestone: one
million tickets sold!
We’ve grown and changed since our early days, but one thing remains the same: a focus on quality theatre.
“It’s
about art,” said Dennis Jones, SRT’s producing director. “That’s what
drives this organization. It’s about creating something on that stage
that will stay with people.”
Sierra
Rep started as a vision of the friends who believed they had the right
combination of drive and experience to start their own year-round
theatre. They quit various full-time jobs in the Central Valley and Bay
Area, moved to a Sonora house together, and began to pull together
resources to launch a debut season.
Their first production? Dracula. With 99 seats, six shows, and 59 performances, 5,100 patrons saw SRT’s first season.
Sierra
Rep’s popularity continued to grow, and so did the theatre. It hired
professional staff, professional guest artists, added a second stage
(the Fallon House Theatre in Columbia) and did its part to contribute to
the Tuolumne County economy by attracting more than half of its patrons
from out of town.
Its
latest accomplishment: More than one million tickets sold, not counting
seats to the sold-out opening-night Gala and performance of Les Miserables, set for March 1.
Another
recent triumph for the theatre is its new education program, called
Sierra Repertory Theatre Jr. While SRT has long hosted shows for
students, it held its first theatre production with and for children
late last year. Additionally, under the direction of new Education
Director Ralph Krumins (he played the lead in last year’s production of Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story),
25 children learned about acting, music and dance last month during a
series of workshops, culminating in a performance on Jan. 30.
SRT
Jr. is in the planning stages for a Spring Break camp for children, as
well as a traveling “trunk show” that will visit area schools. There
will also be a series of summer workshops for children interested in
theatre.
What’s next for SRT? Jones assures patrons the theatre will keep striving to stage quality productions – just as it always has.
“We throw ourselves in,” he said, “and we think that’s what makes our audiences enjoy what we do.”
