Archived entries for Terence McFarland

NEWS RELEASE — 2015 LA STAGE ALLIANCE OVATION AWARD WINNERS

2015 LA STAGE ALLIANCE OVATION AWARDS
PRESENTED MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9
AT THE AHMANSON THEATRE

Ovation Awards 2015The 2015 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards, celebrating theatrical excellence and achievement during the past 12 months, were presented on Monday, November 9 at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center.

Thirty-five awards were bestowed upon 18 different Southern California theatre companies. The most honored companies of the year were The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts/Deaf West Theatre/Cody Lassen (Spring Awakening); Center Theatre Group (Chavez Ravine: An L.A. Revival, The Price, Luna Gale); Circle X Theatre Company (Trevor); Ebony Repertory Company (The Gospel at Colonus); Sacred Fools Theater Company (The Behavior of Broadus, a co-production with Burglars of Hamm and Center Theatre Group); Four Larks (The Temptation of St Antony); and Loft Ensemble (She Kills Monsters).

Other companies honored were 3-D Theatricals, Actors Co-op, Cabrillo Music Theatre, Coeurage Theatre Company, Los Angeles Performance Practice, The Pasadena Playhouse, Rogue Machine, Unbound Productions, and VS. Theatre Company. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts received the Best Season Award (Enter Laughing, Love, Noël: The Letters and Songs of Noël Coward, Spring Awakening).

For a complete list of winners, go to @ This Stage Magazine (ThisStage.LA).

LA STAGE Alliance Board Chair Brian Kite said, “What a night! It is always a thrill to gather the Los Angeles theatre community together to honor excellence. The work on our stages this year was invigorating, riveting, thought provoking, and daring. Congratulations to all the artists that keep LA theatre among the best in the world. Bravo!”

Sarah Lyding, Senior Program Officer for The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, presented the BEST Awards, including checks totaling $105,000 to the following LA theatre companies: Casa 0101 (also won in 2012), Center Theatre Group, East West Players (also won in 2013 and 2014), The Pasadena Playhouse, and Watts Village Theater Company.

Additionally, Center Theatre Group presented the 2015 Sherwood Award for innovative and adventurous artists to Miwa Matreyek. This award is endowed by the Sherwood family and is accompanied by $10,000 to further Matreyek’s artistic work.

The ceremony was hosted by French and Vanessa Claire Stewart, and this year’s presenters included LA theatre luminaries (in alphabetical order) Keith Allan, Bekah Brunsetter, Lap Chi Chu, Guillermo Cienfuegos, Tim Dang, Abigail Deser, Robert Egan, Christina Elmore, Ann Closs Farley, Shirley Jo Finney, Brighid Fleming, David and Kiki Gindler, Harry Groener, Sofia Klatzker, Michael Kricfalusi, Deborah Lawler, Alan Mandell, Terence McFarland, Stephen Sachs, Oz Scott, Madhuri Shekar, Trent Steelman, Seema Sueko, Jose Luis Valenzuela, and Kirsten Vangsness.

Founded in 1989, the LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards are the only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles. Voters are Los Angeles theatre professionals who are chosen each year, through an application process, by the Ovation Rules Committee. The list of nominees is determined by a tabulation of scores conducted by Green Hasson Janks. This year’s Ovation Award eligibility period ran from September 1, 2014 through August 31, 2015.

Since 1975, LA STAGE Alliance has dedicated to building awareness, appreciation, and support for the performing arts in Greater Los Angeles. All of its initiatives aim to serve and strengthen the sector — both at an individual and community level — providing resources that facilitate audience engagement, collaborative marketing, community building, and professional development.

Sponsors for this year’s Ovation Awards ceremony were The Sheri & Les Biller Family Foundation, TheaterMania, Goldstar, Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment, USC School of Dramatic Arts, UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television, Green Hasson Janks, Bakers Man Productions, Performances Magazine, City Tavern, Peter Konerko Photography, and Ken Werther Publicity. Variety was the media sponsor.

For more information, visit lastagealliance.com.

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11-09-15

CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS

NEWS RELEASE — LA STAGE ALLIANCE CEO TERENCE McFARLAND DEPARTS APRIL 30

LA STAGE ALLIANCE CEO TERENCE McFARLAND
DEPARTS FOR LEADERSHIP POSITION
AT VALLEY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY NORTHRIDGE

LA STAGE ALLIANCE BOARD LOOKS TO NEW LEADERSHIP
TO CONTINUE THE WORK OF THE 40-YEAR-OLD
ARTS SERVICE ORGANIZATION

LA STAGE Alliance Chief Executive Officer Terence McFarland will be stepping down effective April 30 after an 11-year tenure at the not-for-profit arts service organization, it was announced today by the LASA Board of Directors. On June 1, McFarland becomes Associate Executive Director at Valley Performing Arts Center, California State University, Northridge. He will join Executive Director Thor Steingraber in leading VPAC with multiple and varied responsibilities which include business development, institutional fundraising, box office, finance, community and campus engagement, and a variety of programming initiatives.

“Our thanks to Terence for his decade plus of service to our organization and to our community,” said Board Chair and La Mirada Theatre Producing Artistic Director Brian Kite. “He is an incredible leader and has guided us through many challenges and successes. I’m pleased that Terence is staying within the Southern California arts community and look forward to continued work with him as a colleague, artist, and friend.”

“What a thrilling time I’ve had leading this organization for the last eleven-and-a-half years,” said McFarland. “I want to thank the members of the board, the remarkable artists, administrators and leaders of our membership, and the tremendous staff I’ve had the extraordinarily good fortune to work with and learn from during my time at LASA. It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve this robust and dynamic community.” He continued, “I’m proud of the many partnerships we’ve developed during my years at LA STAGE Alliance and the nimbleness with which the staff and I have been able to address the shifting needs of the community with the resources at hand. My tenure has been dedicated to raising the floor for the entire community while focusing on building capacity for the ‘accidental arts administrators’ who lead so many of our cultural organizations. I’m most proud of our success at strengthening and diversifying our contributed income in service to the community and I thank the long list of funders who have enabled our programs to serve Los Angeles. What a joy to know that I depart having recently secured the single largest donation in LASA’s history — the gift from Bill Bordy — a gift that secures five years of operational support for the arts journalism program.” McFarland concluded, “I look forward to seeing the resilient LA STAGE Alliance organization adapt and thrive under new leadership.”

The LA STAGE Alliance Board has engaged Karen Constine, an arts/culture management consultant, to serve as the Consulting Interim Director. Constine provides strategic counsel and management consulting to entertainment and economic development nonprofits, government agencies and corporate clients, and has served in leadership capacities including Interim General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Constine and the board will also draw upon the extensive resources of the LASA staff among others to help carry out the mission and programming of LA STAGE Alliance during the transition. Board Chair Brian Kite also announced a search committee will be formed immediately to identify the next Executive Director.

Since 1975, LA STAGE Alliance has empowered artists and engaged audiences through a series of programs, events, and advocacy efforts. All of its initiatives aim to serve and strengthen the sector — both at an individual and community level — providing resources that facilitate audience engagement, collaborative marketing, community building, and professional development. Among its accomplishments, LA STAGE Alliance produces the annual Ovation Awards, organizes LA STAGE Day to train and support arts administrators, offers convenient and clear access and pricing for rehearsal space, rents set and costume pieces to member and non-member companies and partners with technology firms such as Patron Technology and TRG for ticketing and database solutions for all member organizations. The major funders of LA STAGE Alliance include The Shari and Les Biller Family Foundation, Bill Bordy, California Arts Council, California Community Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, DEW Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Walt Disney Company, NBC/Universal, and RSF Social Finance.

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04-20-15

PRESS RELEASE — KATE BURTON & KATIE LOWES SET TO HOST 2014 OVATION AWARDS ON SUNDAY 11/2 AT 7PM

KATE BURTON & KATIE LOWES
SET TO HOST 2014 LA STAGE ALLIANCE
OVATION AWARDS CEREMONY
AT HISTORIC SAN GABRIEL MISSION PLAYHOUSE
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2, AT 7PM

Kate Burton and Katie Lowes: 2014 Ovation Award HostsKate Burton and Katie Lowes have been set to host the 2014 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards Ceremony on Sunday, November 2, at the historic San Gabriel Mission Playhouse in San Gabriel, it was announced today. Red carpet arrivals begin at 5:30 and the ceremony starts at 7pm.

Kate Burton is a three-time Tony Award nominee and a three-time Emmy Award nominee. On the stage, her critically acclaimed work includes productions of The Elephant Man, An American Daughter, The Cherry Orchard, The Constant Wife, Hedda Gabler, Spring Awakening, Doonesbury, The Grand Manner, The Water’s Edge, and The Beauty Queen of Leenane, among many others. In 2002, she portrayed two roles on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award for both — nominations for Best Actress in a Play (Hedda Gabler) and for Best Featured Actress in a Play (The Elephant Man) made her one of only five actors in Tony history to be nominated for two acting awards in the same year. TV appearances include work on Law & Order, The Practice, The West Wing, Judging Amy, Medium, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Rescue Me, and Grimm, to name only a few.

Katie Lowes is the co-artistic director and co-founder of IAMA Theatre Company. LA theatre credits include Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (Comedy Central Stage), The Blank Theatre’s Young Playwrights Festival, The Accidental Blonde, Assistance, and Montana. Lowes has starred in many off-Broadway plays as well as regional productions. She currently stars on ABC’s Scandal, now in its fourth season. Other television credits include The Sopranos, NCIS, Castle, Leverage, The Closer, Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, and Royal Pains. Film credits include Transformers 2, Super 8, The Job, Cafe, Circle of 8, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, and the upcoming Big Hero 6.

Scheduled to participate as presenters are (in alphabetical order) Max Adler, Hugo Armstrong, Alexandra Billings, Debby Boone, Danielle Brazell, Anne Gee Byrd, Deborah Craig, Dana Delany, Drew Droege, Lorna Duyn, Todrick Hall, Daniel Dae Kim, DJ Kurs, Matthew Lillard, Josefina Lopez, Justina Machado, Jenny O’Hara, Peter Paige, Nicole Parker, Freddy Rodriguez, Leon Rossum, Tessa Thompson, and Greg Watanabe.

The production team for The Ovation Awards: 25 Years of Excellence is led by executive producer Terence McFarland, and his team of producers includes (in alphabetical order) Andrew Carlberg, Crystal Diaz, Dani Oliver, and Matt Sweeney. Sponsors for this year’s ceremony are Bakers Man Productions, Dazian, the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, Deep Eddy Vodka, Actors Equity Association, Goldstar, Green Hasson Janks, Ken Werther Publicity, Kinetic Lighting, Inc., and the Los Angeles Times. For more information and details on how to attend the Ovation Awards ceremony on November 2, visit www.OvationAwards.com.

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10-27-14