A Noise Within plans its future
The acclaimed A Noise Within theater company in Pasadena is celebrating its 25th anniversary of producing classic plays with a season titled “Beyond Our Wildest Dreams,” with a long list of immortal works and a fundraising drive aimed toward growth in the future.
“We are reaching new people each year, which is really exciting at a time when a lot of the industry is either stagnating or having to consolidate,” says Michael Bateman, managing director at A Noise Within. “Each of the last four years, one show or another has broken our box office record.”
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The 2016-17 season will include full productions of Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” Molière’s “The Imaginary Invalid,” the theater’s popular annual adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” and Eugene O’Neill’s “Ah, Wilderness!” The season continues to expand on the theater’s founding mission of producing “classic” works, adding modern plays, such as season opener “Arcadia” (which premiered in 1993) that artistic directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott are confident will be considered classic pieces in the future.
Included in the season, Bateman says, are the “rarely produced gems that are a central part of our programming and vision. Our audience trusts us and will come out for those plays just like they will for ‘Romeo and Juliet.’”
In addition to the plays, A Noise Within is aiming for an investment of $2 million, and has already raised $600,000 in funds for a range of needs — from creative investment in actors and directors, to modest capital improvements to its theater space in Pasadena. (It was previously based in a Masonic Temple in Glendale.)
“Each of the pieces of the initiative explores a way to enhance the mission, build on the solid foundation that A Noise Within has built over the last 25 years,” says Bateman, who says the initiative follows significant “growth of the company, the popularity of the shows, the loyalty, the patrons and funders” with the move to Pasadena.
This year, for the first time, A Noise Within offered a blind subscription renewal before plays were announced. It follows an 85% subscriber renewal rate over the last three years.
The result of that support has been the freedom to look far ahead, a luxury when many other theaters are struggling. A Noise Within exists “not in the poverty mindset of what we have to do to keep the lights on, but what are the most exciting visions that we can bring to the stage?” says Bateman. “That’s the next step in the evolution.”
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The first play of the new season, “Arcadia,” opens Sept. 4. Stoppard’s play takes place in both the early 19th century and the present day, and explores romance and intellectual curiosity with comedy and drama. It runs through Nov. 20.
It is followed by “The Maids” by Jean Genet, Sept. 18 through Nov. 12, with a story of murder and class conflict based loosely and on a true story of two maids who killed their employer and her daughter in 1933.
Molière’s “The Imaginary Invalid” runs Oct. 9 through Nov. 19. (A Noise Within first produced the play in 2001.) The company’s fifth annual rendition of “A Christmas Carol” returns Dec. 2 through 23.
Shakespeare’s “King Lear” runs Feb. 12 through May 6, 2017. O’Neill’s “Ah, Wilderness!” arrives March 5 through May 20, 2017. The musical “Man of La Mancha,” by Dale Wasserman with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion, is performed March 26 through May 21, 2017.
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What: A Noise Within
Where: 3352 E Foothill Blvd., Pasadena
More info: (626) 356-3100, www.anoisewithin.org
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Bradley Zint, bradley.zint@latimes.com
Twitter: @BradleyZint
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