Jessica Stone, a Tony-nominated director (“Kimberly Akimbo,” “Water for Elephants”), has been named the brand new inventive director of La Jolla Playhouse, succeeding Christopher Ashley on the helm of one of many nation’s preeminent regional theaters. The Board of Trustees of La Jolla Playhouse made the announcement on Tuesday.
Her appointment ends the monopoly of male inventive administrators at peer establishments in Southern California. In a area that boasts a few of the nation’s most vital nonprofit theaters (the Previous Globe, South Coast Repertory, Middle Theatre Group, Pasadena Playhouse and the Geffen Playhouse), La Jolla Playhouse would be the solely certainly one of this elite group with a girl calling the inventive photographs.
Stone had a flourishing profession as an actor, racking up quite a few Broadway credit earlier than she transitioned to directing. Her final outing on a Broadway stage as a performer got here in Kathleen Marshall’s 2011 Tony-winning revival of “Something Goes,” starring Sutton Foster.
The following time Stone labored on Broadway was in 2022 because the director of the Tony-winning musical “Kimberly Akimbo.” The present relies on David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2000 offbeat play about a youngster with a situation that causes speedy growing older. Whereas nonetheless in highschool, she transforms bodily into an aged lady.
Not the stuff of peculiar musicals, however Lindsay-Abaire, who wrote the ebook and lyrics, and Jeanine Tesori, who wrote the rating, nailed the eccentric humor together with the lyrical poignancy. And Stone seamlessly balanced these parts in a manufacturing that was as tonally assured as a John Ashbery poem.
“Kimberly Akimbo” has no connection to La Jolla Playhouse. It started at New York’s Atlantic Theater Firm earlier than transferring to Broadway. However this quirky musical with a dramatic soul may function the platonic superb of a La Jolla Playhouse present.
The official mission of the theater is to inform “tales that encourage empathy and create dialogue towards a extra simply future” by cultivating “an area, nationwide and international following with an insatiable urge for food for audacious work.” In a video name interview that included managing director Debby Buchholz, Stone seized on the phrase “audacious” as a key purpose for her curiosity within the job.
Jessica Stone, left, La Jolla Playhouse’s newly named inventive director, stands with Debby Buchholz, the theater’s managing director.
(Erica Joan Productions)
Stone admitted that she was initially resistant. “It wasn’t essentially one thing that I had on a bucket record,” she stated. “I’m a creature of behavior. And a mom and a daughter and a spouse. I had labored everywhere in the nation as a director, however I had been working in New York for fairly a couple of years, and that was my inventive house.”
She credit her buddy, “Jersey Boys” ebook author Rick Elice, who additionally wrote the ebook for the musical “Water for Elephants,” with opening her eyes. He requested her if she ever had a creative house. Stone thought again to her formative interval at Williamstown Theatre Competition, and Elice’s phrases about not dismissing such a present stayed along with her.
However what actually turned issues round, she stated, was “the chance to be part of making a creative house for others.” In doing her due diligence, she found that audacious creativity actually does lie on the core of La Jolla Playhouse’s dedication to new work. And she or he felt assured it was a match of sensibilities.
In describing her aesthetic, Stone stated, “I really like a daring selection and an enormous swing, and I need to push the boundaries.” She in contrast her work in “Kimberly Akimbo,” an intimate scale musical, and “Water for Elephants,” a grander providing with epic themes and circus-style theatrics, and concluded: “I wish to zoom in and I wish to zoom out.”
Buchholz shared that in the middle of the search course of, a lot of trustees noticed “Kimberly Akimbo” when it was on tour in Southern California. “And the entire dialog afterwards was why didn’t that begin with us?” she stated.
Carolee Carmello, left, and Miguel Gil star within the nationwide tour of “Kimberly Akimbo.”
(Joan Marcus)
Aware of her Playhouse predecessors, Stone stated she needs to proceed to construct on their legacy. She’s labored as an actor for Des McAnuff, whose tenure as inventive director remodeled the Playhouse right into a Tony-winning regional theater powerhouse. And she or he’s collaborated with Ashley, each as a performer and as an affiliate director. (“I believe I used to be a horrible affiliate director,” she stated with self-deprecating humor, “however I’ve an extended historical past with Chris.”)
Stone isn’t the primary lady inventive director in La Jolla Playhouse’s historical past. Anne Hamburger, who succeeded Michael Greif within the function in 1999, served little greater than a 12 months earlier than leaving to grow to be an government vice chairman of artistic leisure on the Walt Disney Co. However Stone’s appointment is nonetheless noteworthy for the area. Girls inventive administrators aren’t unusual elsewhere. The 2 main regional theaters within the Bay Space, American Conservatory Theater and Berkeley Rep, are led by ladies. However Southern California, which has made headway in different areas of management variety, has lagged behind.
When requested to touch upon the importance, Stone stated that she hopes it was her daring aesthetic that was the figuring out think about her appointment and never her gender. Buchholz confirmed that certainly was the case: “I can let you know completely that it was the daring selections and massive swings that made Jessica completely the hands-down selection of our search committee.”
Buchholz added that she appreciated that the board had her on the search committee, “as a result of it is a little little bit of a wedding, a co-leadership. I don’t work for Jessica and Jessica doesn’t work for me. Each of us report on to the board.”
La Jolla Playhouse inventive director Christopher Ashley holds his Tony Award for steering “Come From Away.”
(Lauren Radack)
Stone added: “I like to have a associate in crime. Our talent units complement one another’s nicely and I consider this scaffolding is important for any establishment. I really feel actually fortunate to have Debby’s experience to lean on in addition to her generosity with regard to my very own spreading of wings.”
Final 12 months, the Playhouse appointed Eric Eager-Louie as inventive producing director. Buchholz defined that the place took place in recognition that, given the period of time Ashley was away with initiatives that had been developed at La Jolla Playhouse, there was a necessity for “somebody in place who stays and doesn’t direct elsewhere.”
“Our expectation is that Jessica will develop work right here and that whether or not it’s a co-production or one thing transferring to Broadway or commercially that she’ll must proceed to work on it,” Buchholz stated. “And now we’ve a really robust construction in place that helps the persevering with work on the Playhouse.”
“I’ve recognized Eric for a very long time,” Stone stated, “and the factor that I’m enthusiastic about is he and I run in a few of the similar circles, however we even have totally different relationships with totally different artists. I’m actually excited to fulfill his of us and introduce him to mine. He has impeccable style, and it’s actually enjoyable already to learn scripts and hearken to scores collectively and spitball with one another. I believe it’s going to be a extremely wealthy partnership.”
Who shall be figuring out the programming? Stone confirmed that the inventive buck will cease along with her.
Regional theaters have been preventing for his or her survival for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic. Budgets have been slashed, layoffs have been rampant, manufacturing prices have soared and morale has plummeted as audiences have been recalibrating their leisure choices.
La Jolla Playhouse isn’t impervious to those headwinds, however Buchholz stated that the theater is in a comparatively wholesome place. Each Stone and Buchholz acknowledged the advantages of a powerful, supportive board, and that assist is indicative that one thing has been working.
“We now have a reasonably clear mission and we’ve an viewers that understands what that mission is and we’ve largely caught to it,” Buchholz stated. “And so our audiences got here again just about as quickly as they may come again. As a matter of reality, our subscription and single ticket numbers have grown.”
Has the altering political panorama had any affect on programming or on fairness, variety and inclusion initiatives? The dialog has modified and maybe grown extra intense, Buchholz acknowledged, however the values and priorities of the Playhouse stay the identical.
“Proper now politics is entrance of consciousness for everybody, however we’ve at all times been an organization that has prided itself on folks seeing themselves on stage and represented,” she stated. “However we’ve by no means programmed on the nostril. And a few times we’ve unintentionally discovered that our programming was on the nostril, and that’s when our audiences didn’t come. They arrive for numerous programming, however numerous with a smaller ‘d’ moderately than an enormous ‘D.’”
“It appears to me that probably the most thrilling theater comes from a mess of voices however includes common themes,” Stone added. “To me, that’s at all times the organizing precept.”
La Jolla Playhouse has a popularity for being an opulent Broadway launching pad. The complicated, which incorporates three main venues (every beneath 500 seats) and a black field that’s used primarily for readings and workshops, occupies a serene nook of UC San Diego’s scenic campus. The Playhouse has not solely cachet however geography. (Who wouldn’t need to spend a winter growing a brand new present on this sun-drenched, seaside San Diego neighborhood?)
Throughout Ashley’s tenure, “Memphis” and “The Outsiders” received Tony Awards for finest musical and “Come From Away” earned Ashley a directing Tony. However there has additionally been a great deal of business dross. There are conspicuous downsides for a nonprofit firm getting accustomed to enhancement cash from exterior producers.
“The dangers are that we begin to really feel like a rental home and don’t have our fingerprints on one thing that we stand by that goes to New York,” Stone stated. “The objective is for that to not be the case. There are advantages to the enhancement that comes with these exhibits that transfer to New York, however the objective has to first be what’s proper for San Diego.”
The manufacturing setting has grown more difficult for severe drama. It’s simpler to promote tickets to a brand new musical than a brand new play. The identical holds true for revivals. However Stone, who pointed to Kimberly Belflower’s “John Proctor Is the Villain” as a up to date drama that may impress an viewers, stated that she’s focused on “deepening the assets for being an incubator for brand spanking new voices.
“I’m additionally focused on increasing prospects for later stage playwrights to develop their new work,” she added, in a refreshing nod to an usually ignored space of inclusiveness.
Stone is not any stranger to San Diego, having directed comedies by Shakespeare, Shaw, Neil Simon and Christopher Durang (amongst others) on the Previous Globe. In a textual content trade, Previous Globe inventive director Barry Edelstein described Stone as “witty, sharp and wealthy in creativeness.” He known as her “an incredible rent, fantastic for the La Jolla Playhouse and San Diego for positive, but in addition for the American theater at giant.”
Unstinting in his reward, Edelstein wrote, “I’ve had the privilege of manufacturing her at The Previous Globe, and he or she’s grow to be a buddy. I do know her to be heat and open, passionate, fiercely dedicated to artists, and likewise — and this actually issues — actually humorous. Chris Ashley did nice work on the Playhouse and leaves big sneakers to fill, however Jess is poised (along with Debby, who can also be sensible) to guide the place on an enormous leap ahead.”
Ashley, who has been named inventive director of Roundabout Theatre Firm, leaves his submit on the finish of the 12 months. Stone, who’s married to Tony-nominated actor Christopher Fitzgerald and has two kids, shall be dividing her time between New York and La Jolla when she takes the reins in early 2026.
