Back in February, the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle honored 3-year-old CCAE Theatricals with two of its highest awards — for producing the county’s top production of 2022, the world premiere musical “Witnesses,” and the Don Braunagel Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Small Theater. But just six months later, CCAE Theatricals was forced into hiatus.
CCAE Theatricals was founded in February 2020 by managing producer Jordan Beck and artistic director J. Scott Lapp as the in-house theater producer at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. But in August, the city-owned arts center eliminated the theater company from its budget due to ongoing financial challenges.
But that wasn’t the end of CCAE Theatricals. It was the beginning of a new chapter as a self-supporting independent nonprofit that will continue presenting its shows at the Escondido arts center as the resident professional theater company.
A scene from CCAE Theatricals’ 2022 world premiere of “Witnesses.”
(Courtesy of Ken Jacques)
Over the past three months, CCAE Theatricals has re-established itself as a nonprofit and reorganized in a small San Marcos office. Julianna Crespo, formerly the director of performing arts at the arts center, has signed on as the theater company’s new executive director. Tom Abruzzo, who formerly led the theater company’s conservatory training program at the center, is now the company’s director of education and engagement.
The company’s education program, launched at the center earlier this year, was established with a $1 million grant from the San Marcos-based David T. & Dorris E. Staples Foundation. It provides K-12 theater education program with drama camps and master classes. There is also a Conservatory program where post-high school paid apprentices are given professional workforce development training in theater trades such as scenic and costume design, community relations and production and company…
Read the full article here
