Parallel 45 Theatre announces new executive director, enjoys early demand for 2021 season
Photo by Michael Poehlman
From staff reports
The nonprofit Parallel 45 Theatre Festival, celebrating its 11th year, has announced record early demand for tickets as northern Michigan audiences signal a strong desire to reconnect with live performances. Since launching just weeks ago, over 20 percent of available seating has already been sold, with four months left before Opening Night.
The 2021 season returns to their home at Civic Center Park in Traverse City from July 8 to August 1 with the centerpiece reinvention of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, followed by You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown based on the beloved Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schulz. Rounding out the repertory will be a new pop-up marathon of three mini plays in one afternoon.
Main stage shows rotate daily and anytime online, and advance reservations are always recommended.
P45 audiences will experience live performances from a comfortable distance on the lawn where small groups can be seated as voluntary pods. Guests can also pre-order picnic food and enjoy local wines, all while maintaining a safe distance from performers and other audience members. Masks will be required in designated areas and P45 respectfully follows all public health guidelines from the Theatre Communications Group, TYA/USA, USITT and the State of Michigan.
In other announcements, founding Executive Director Erin Anderson Whiting will join the P45 Board of Directors, departing day-to-day operations to become Chief Philanthropy Officer at Impact 100 Global.
As co-founder of P45, she has grown the organization from a start-up to an established cultural leader with a full time staff of 5, and a company of over 60 artists each year. Whiting led the launch of a state-of-art outdoor performance venue at Civic Center Park in 2019, creating a public base for the organization in the heart of Traverse City, among a decade of other accomplishments.
In a coordinated transition, P45 has recruited Joseph Beyer as the new Executive Director, effective April 19th. Beyer will co-manage the organization alongside founding Artistic Director Kit McKay. Both report to the Board of Directors, led by Co-Presidents Paula Jo Kemler and Meg Staley, Treasurer Christopher M. Lamb, Secretary Tracy Magoon and Directors Andrew S. Buchholz, Amanda Brink, Chris Dennos, Nancy Flowers, Molly Kuras, Diana Milock and Angela Schuler Chapman.
Beyer has spent the last two-and-a-half years serving as Executive Director of Michigan Legacy Art Park, a thirty-acre outdoor sculpture experience and nonprofit cultural organization located at Crystal Mountain Resort. He relocated to his native Michigan from Los Angeles in 2018, and briefly worked as Executive Director to the Traverse City Film Festival, and then later as Director of Audience Engagement and Brand Strategy to MyNorth Media.
He was a staffer to the nonprofit Sundance Institute for more than 14 years, lastly as Director of Digital Initiatives where he led creative development and operations of digital content and special Institute projects. Later he joined The Redford Center as Director of Marketing and Distribution.
In a career devoted almost exclusively to nonprofits and connecting audiences to new work, Beyer’s first experiences and original love for the arts came through live theatre. He started at the award-winning Holland High School theatre department, spent summers working with Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, and later studied at the acclaimed University of Evansville theatre program in Indiana, The Chautauqua Institute in New York, and was a three-time student company member of The New Harmony Project, a development center in new works for stage and film.
