Most of us think about performing arts as entertainment. When we
think of it as a livelihood, we think of singers, dancers, and
actors. But some people love theater so much that they’ll make a
career out of it even if they don’t have their eyes on stardom. And
that’s just the case for Amber Wallen, who is in the “honeymoon”
phase of her new job as managing director at Sonoma County
Repertory Theater (The Rep) in Sebastopol.
Amber remembers drawing, painting, dancing, and putting on skits
when she was a youngster in Turlock, CA. In high school, her
passion for all aspects of theater took over her world, and she
found herself acting, managing, designing sets – she jumped into
anything related to the process. From high school, she entered CSU
Stanislaus to study acting.
And that’s where she discovered that she liked the business end
of theater more than acting on the stage. The theater was getting
ready to open its first show of the season, The Mikado, when the
box office manager quit. Amber hadn’t been cast in the show
“because I can’t sing” so she offered to help. As she explained to
me, “no one knew how to use the ticketing software . . . I was
given the box office key and was showed the door. I locked myself
in the room for two days and came out ready to sell tickets! From
there, I started working on publicity and was completely hooked. I
find such joy in sharing my passion for the arts with the community
that I can’t imagine doing anything else. I am passionate about
theater and feel very fortunate that my job is to promote it.”
She headed to Detroit to get her MFA and took a job at Hilberry
Rep Theater, a suite of performance spaces ranging from 110 seats
to about 1,300. But she was itching to get closer to home, and
California was calling. She spotted a job listing for The Rep on an
online posting. She’d never heard of Sebastopol, but the job seemed
to offer what she was looking for. When she was invited to a formal
interview, “I packed up my car and drove as fast as I could (four
days!). I got into California on a Friday and was in Sebastopol
interviewing the next week!”
Everything has fallen into place so quickly that Amber likens it
to an out-of-body experience. Friends had assured her she’d love
Sebastopol, and she knew when she arrived that they were right. The
Rep, a much smaller and younger organization than the one she left
in Detroit, represents a chance for growth and transformation. To
Amber, theater management is about creativity, problem-solving, and
strategy, and she sees her partnership with artistic director Scott
Phillips as a team effort “to ensure the integrity and quality of
the art on stage as well as the fiscal health of the
organization.”
I asked Amber about the role of theater when people are just
worried about taking care of basic needs. As she explains, “It’s
really not about convincing people to support theater; it’s about
sharing its significance and allowing the community to be a part of
it. Theater is an essential part of our society that cannot be
disregarded. It has the power to challenge, transform, entertain
and educate its audiences in ways that nothing else can. It
provides our youth with social skills that promote communication,
community, and creativity. Whether you’re a spectator or
participant, theater provides you with a sense of purpose and
fulfillment that is essential to our daily lives.”
With her kind of passion, something tells me the folks at The
Rep are just as lucky as Amber is.
For more information on The Rep, go to www.the-rep.com. The theater just
opened the Sebastopol Shakespeare Festival last Friday with their
production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which runs through July
26.
Carol Noack, marketing, Raven Performing Arts
Theater.
