New Peninsula theater group opens season at full strength

By Jan Gaillard

Correspondent

NEWPORT NEWS

Theaters are born every day across America - but rarely with such aplomb as the Tidewater Regional Repertory Theatre.

"It's a newly formed, professional theater that's also fully formed with all the components in its first year," said Steven Breese, artistic director. "Usually theaters are born on a shoestring, but this is a huge investment. It was a perfect storm of ideas."

Founded in 2007, Tidewater Regional Repertory Theatre operates on the Peninsula in partnership with Christopher Newport University, where Breese is chairman of the department of dance and theater, and the Ferguson Center for the Arts.

"CNU decided some years ago it wanted to be a leader in the performing arts, so the theater program was formed in the Ferguson," said Breese, a Norfolk resident with a national and international acting and directing career spanning more than 25 years. "After the Yoder Barn was gifted to CNU last year, artists and people at the Ferguson presented the idea of TRR to me."

Breese and William Biddle, executive director of the Ferguson Center for the Arts, took the concept to CNU.

"The university supported it wholeheartedly..., " Breese said. "CNU is really taking a strong stand on it, and it's good for the region."

"We're the only other theater besides Virginia Stage Company that has a contract with the Actor's Equity Association," Breese said, explaining that TRR hires only professionals, using regional actors when available but employing professionals from across the nation as needed.

"We're in that elite group already in the first year, because the university has sponsored us to be able to bring them in. They really wanted us to be a high-quality summer theater. It's a very exciting time."

TRR is dedicated to producing plays and musicals that illuminate the great American spirit, he said.

Plays are Wednesdays through Saturdays, June 18 to July 26. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster or at the Yoder ticket office.

This summer's lineup includes this week's feature, Broadway's "Quilters," written by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek; John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and the award-winning play "The Foreigner," written by Larry Shue.

"Quilters" is a musical about women that tells the stories of life in the late 1800s through blocks on a quilt.

"It's a beautiful play woven together through song and dance, lively and funny, and uplifting in the end," said Breese.

The Yoder Barn is a perfect venue for American theater, he added.

"We think you'll love the work that's going on here. In Hampton Roads we're in the cradle of America, and our historic barn is a quintessential symbol of America. Why would we want to do French farce?"

Jan Gaillard, jangaillard007@yahoo.com