Site briefly reopens to help visiting artists
After shutting down its artists-in-residence program almost two years ago, Montalvo Arts Center reopened its live/work spaces this month for a brief visit from out-of-town artists. The visit may pay dividends down the road not just for Montalvo but for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, whose creative team alighted at the Saratoga arts center to work on developing a new musical.
The short-term payoff for the collaboration was a Dec. 11 staged reading of “Alice Bliss” at Montalvo’s Carriage House Theatre in front of a small but supportive audience. The performance came after just five days of rehearsal.
“We got a bunch of new pages today,” Giovanna Sardelli, director of new works for Palo Alto-based TheatreWorks, told the audience.
Despite the short prep time, the nine cast members, many of whom are regular performers at TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival, gave solid readings of “Alice Bliss.”
“The first day they were rusty, but they’re back,”
Sardelli said in an interview before the performance. “They’ve been wanting to do something like this.
“There’s so much gratitude around being able to do the work that it’s made it really special.”
“Alice Bliss” was supposed to be part of TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival in 2020, but that event was cancelled due to the pandemic.
“When we didn’t have the festival again this year, we thought, ‘We promised them that structure,’” Sardelli said. “We wanted to have that.”
Sardelli began conversations this spring with Kelly Sicat, director of the Lucas Artists Residency Program at Montalvo, about using the Saratoga venue to make good on that promise.
“This collaboration of talent has been a blessing,” Sardelli said.
For Montalvo’s part, Sicat said “Alice Bliss” could be the first of many collaborations with TheatreWorks.
“Our hope is to test the waters and see how it works,” she added. “TheatreWorks and the Lucas residency program both have a longstanding commitment to developing new works. We’ve discovered a shared energy.”
In addition to Montalvo, readings of “Alice Bliss” were scheduled for Dec. 15 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, where TheatreWorks usually holds its development workshops, and for Dec. 18 at Sobrato Center for Nonprofits in Redwood Shores.
Commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, “Alice Bliss” had already been workshopped at several other residencies before coming to Montalvo.
“Musicals take years to develop,” Sardelli said. “I don’t think any one theater can handle the whole process, especially with four of the workingest people in musical theater working on something together.”
The musical is directed by Mark Brokaw, whose Broadway credits include “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella.” Lyricist Adam Gwon’s work includes the off-Broadway musicals “Scotland, PA” and “Ordinary Days.” The book is by Karen Hartman, whose musical “Rattlesnake Kate” is set for its world premiere next year at the Denver Theater Center.
Composer Jenny Giering, who has written incidental music for several TheatreWorks shows, was the one who brought “Alice Bliss” to Sardelli’s attention. The musical is based on Laura Harrington’s novel, set during the war in Iraq, and deals with how teenage Alice and her family cope— or fail to—when her father goes missing in action.
“It’s about a military family, which is a story we don’t often tell,” Sardelli said. “You watch people try to figure out how to love each other.”
As this was the first time since March 2020 that the artists’ residences at Montalvo had housed creative guests, staff had to figure out how to accommodate them within the restrictions necessitated by the pandemic.
“We have really strict COVID protocols in place,” Sicat said. “With 20 artists in the studio for two days with their masks off, everyone needs to feel incredibly safe.”
It helped that TheatreWorks has staged two full productions this season and so already has a good feel for how life is now operating under pandemic conditions.
“We feel confident in providing a safe creative space for artists,” Sardelli said.
No matter the circumstances, Sicat said she’s happy to be working with TheatreWorks.
“It’s exciting to see more theater come back to Montalvo,” she said. “We’ve created new works with playwrights in residence, but