If you think you’ve seen every theater production Santa Rosa Junior College had to offer, you might just need to stick around for summer school, because you ain’t seen nothing yet.
SRJC’s Summer Repertory Theatre (SRT) Festival is back for its 2013 season with a line-up sure to deliver.
A repertory is a theater company that produces multiple plays, usually alternately, in the course of a season. SRT is one of the last few U.S. companies taking on this challenging feat.
Artistic Director James Newman believes ‘rep’ attracts audiences because of the familiarity and comfort it provides.
“I think audiences really engage in this idea that our company is here. They get to know the actors and they have their favorites from year to year,” Newman said. “I think audiences get more out of a season like this. Seventy-five percent of our audience sees three or more of our shows. That’s pretty astounding.”
During the summer, SRT is set to perform five different plays simultaneously over a seven-week period, transforming its theater and actors to deliver a unique show on any given night.
Newman says the company works diligently to continue into its 42nd season.
“We have a very specific schedule. We work very hard six days a week from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m.,” Newman said. “It is very, very hectic but we do it in order to do five shows so quickly. We work this hard just to sort of get it all done.”
This summer’s line-up includes “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,” “The Fox on the Fairway,” “Pirates of Penzance,” “Shrek the Musical” and “Stones in His Pockets.”
Newman says SRT boasts talent from various actors and that he chose the diverse productions to provide a balance of arts to students.
“The company is made up of students from all over the place. This year we have maybe a quarter of our students who go to school here. The rest of the people come from all over the state,” Newman said.
“One of the things we do is we’re trying to, in a very compressed time period, give people varied and diverse experiences. They’re working on ‘Shrek the Musical’ and they’re also working on a thriller adaptation of ‘Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.’”
SRT will perform in SRJC’s Burbank Auditorium and Newman Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.summerrep.com/ticket.html. The festival begins at 8 p.m. June 21 in Burbank Auditorium with its production of “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.”
Training opportunities and scholarships are also available through SRT’s website at http://www.summerrep.com/training.html.