TexArts
A change of cast in the role of management
By Robert Faires, Fri., Aug. 13, 2010
Ever since TexARTS came into existence in 2005, the Lakeway-based arts company has been pretty much synonymous with Todd Dellinger and Robin Lewis. The veterans of the New York arts scene – Dellinger as an actor, director, and arts administrator; Lewis as a dancer and choreographer in Broadway musicals – founded the company themselves, and in the early going not only taught many of the musical theatre training classes they offered and rehearsed the student and adult performers in the musicals they mounted but also ran the whole shebang out of the home they shared. And even when they obtained their own facility, Keller Williams Studios in a strip mall on Lohmans Spur Road, Lewis and Dellinger were just as likely to be sweeping the halls, painting the walls, and hanging studio mirrors as any member of their staff or volunteer army.
This summer, that is changing. Dellinger is leaving the post of executive director to take a new job directing the arts administration degree program for Westminster College of the Arts at Rider University in Princeton, N.J. (He was recruited for the position and was made the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse.) And though Lewis will remain TexARTS' artistic director, he's also deep in academia, heading the dance component of Texas State University's ambitious new musical theatre degree program – a task that will consume much of the time and energy that he previously dedicated to TexARTS.
The move doesn't mean the pair have lost any of their passion for the organization they founded. Far from it. They'll continue to teach at TexARTS and contribute to both the shows staged with their academy students and the three professional productions mounted annually in the 99-seat Kam & James Morris Theater. And they're still deeply committed to realizing their vision of a full-scale professional visual and performing arts center to serve the Capital Lakes region. This is more a reflection of just how highly valued and sought after they are as professionals skilled at training aspiring young theatre artists.
Fortunately, another pair of highly regarded professionals will be taking the reins of TexARTS management. In the role of producing director will be Robert Armitage, a newcomer to Austin but a 20-year veteran in commercial theatre, with a decade of that in the service of Disney Theatrical Productions as a performer (Aida on Broadway and on tour) and assistant stage manager (The Lion King on tour, Tarzan and The Little Mermaid on Broadway). Joining Armitage will be Shari Getz in the post of interim managing director. The native Texan has extensive experience as both an artist (working with Los Angeles children's theatre company Imagination Station, teaching acting, and co-writing and performing the educational play The History of Art in Forty Minutes or Less) and administrator (executive director of the Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering).
In a phone conversation, Dellinger admitted that it's hard for him to leave the day-to-day life of this organization in which he's invested so much for five years (which, for those of you outside the arts, is the equivalent of 20 years in the real world). What makes it bearable is knowing that the academy is in good shape (registration more than doubled in TexARTS' second year in Keller Williams Studios, despite the lousy economy), that management of the organization is in good hands, and that, come summer, he'll be able to return to Texas and reimmerse himself in all things TexARTS.
TexARTS' 2010-2011 off-Broadway season opens Oct. 15 with a reprise of the 2009 production Always ... Patsy Cline. For more information, call 852-9079 or visit www.tex-arts.org.
