There's a new boss in town at Seattle Children's Theatre. He's Tim Jennings, a Canadian who took the post of new managing director on Aug. 15, having been lured away from Roseneath Theatre in Toronto.
The award-winning Roseneath is one of the largest producing and touring companies of theater for young audiences in Canada, according to an SCT press release, and the theater grew substantially under Jenning's watch.
"When I started at Roseneath in 2000, they had a very small budget," Jennings said. That was doubled within a year, and within five years there was a 600-percent jump in earned revenue, he added. Part of the jump in tickets sales can be traced to the fact that the Roseneath had touring companies in the United States for 20 to 25 weeks a year, Jennings added.
Prior to Roseneath, Jennings worked for Ainsworth Production at the Skydome, the Canadian Stage Company, the Canadian Opera Company and the River Run Centre in Ontario.
He was the perfect fit for SCT, according to board president Jody Ehrlichman Pineda. "Everything fell into place when we brought Tim in," she said in the press release. "His career experience, knowledge and passion for professional Theatre for Young Audiences is unparalleled."
Longtime SCT artistic director Linda Hartzell will be Jennings' direct partner, with her choosing and developing the shows and him managing the production and business side of operations, he said.
"I have a significant production background," said Jennings, who explained that he will secure rights to shows and hire the actors as part of his duties as a producer. He'll also be in charge of running SCT's drama school.
Jennings faced Homeland Security hassles at the border when he moved to America with his wife and son, he said, but he'll be on somewhat familiar ground in the children's theater realm in this country.
"The American system of developing new works is significantly different in general to Canada," he explained. "We have a tendency to do more new works."
That's possible because relatively generous government funding allows theaters to spend longer amounts of time developing new shows, and there's less emphasis on making money with productions, Jennings explained.
By contrast, productions in the States tend to be more commercial because they don't have the same level of government funding that's available in Canada, he said.
The Roseneath was an exception. The focus there was on earning money because the theater received comparatively less money from the government until recently, Jennings said. "We thought the work should be able to earn more revenue, and it did."
With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts eroding over the last several years, SCT is facing the same kind of constraints. But the children's theater does have one advantage: It's well supported by the community and by individual foundations, Jennings said.
SCT is the second-largest children's theater in the country, and it has the reputation of putting on good shows, he noted. "I don't think it's hard to sell good art," Jennings added, "especially for young audiences."
He conceded that the shaky economy in America is a
factor for SCT. "People think they have to be careful how they spend money," Jennings allowed.
But people still need to go out and do things - even with high gas prices cutting into travel plans, he said.
"Coming here is easier."
Staff reporter Russ Zabel
can be reached at
rzabel@nwlink.com
or 461-1309.
[[In-content Ad]]
