Roustabout Theater Joins Wells Fargo Center for the Arts as
New Resident Theater Company
Regional Theater Productions and Apprentice Training Highlight Roustabout’s Programs and Support the Center’s Mission to Enrich. Educate. Entertain.
Santa Rosa, CA (September 28, 2007) – Roustabout Theater, the newly named resident theater company of Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, is on a mission to create world-class regional theater for Sonoma County audiences and world-class apprentice training for Sonoma County students.
Roustabout’s Professional Division works to engage local students with the highest level of talent the international community has to offer. Building on the success of its 2006 benefit concert featuring Tony-Award winning Broadway composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown, Roustabout provides rare opportunities for local students to learn from some of the world’s most renowned professional artists. In keeping with this philosophy, Roustabout will bring composer Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking) to Sonoma County on November 2nd. A master class presented in association with Sonoma State University will provide local students with the chance to learn from Heggie - an internationally renowned composer who works to intimately fuse music and drama.
Roustabout’s highly successful Apprentice Program is operated by seasoned professionals who bring their high-level conservatory training at institutions such as Juilliard and American Conservatory Theater directly into Sonoma County classrooms. Roustabout also provides exciting performance opportunities for students age 11 to 20. By casting young actors in both leading and supporting roles, students are able gain practical experience while honing on-stage the skills they learn in the classroom. In addition, Roustabout offers after school programs through the public school system with classes and scholarship opportunities throughout the year. In December, the Roustabout Apprentice Program will present the stage production of AnnieJr in the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts’ Carston Cabaret.
Roustabout Theater is led by Clark Lewis, Artistic Director and President. Lewis received his graduate degree from Juillard and has performed Off-Broadway and in many East Coast regional houses. He has also coached and taught leading performers in Broadway houses and first-run national tours of Chorus Line, Les Miserables, Chicago, and countless others as well as hundreds of actors in films and TV shows. Since moving to the Bay Area, Lewis has produced several documentary films. The latest featuring Ed Begley, Jr. aired on KCET in Los Angeles and was instrumental in preserving the Ballona Wetlands in West Los Angeles. Lewis is a member of the Theater Bay Area’s Theater Services Committee and continues to coach privately.
Roustabout Theater is the sixth resident company currently housed at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. The Center’s resident companies also include: Santa Rosa Symphony, Santa Rosa Concert Association, Healdsburg Guitar Festival, Santa Rosa Nutcracker, and American Philharmonic Sonoma County. By providing its resident companies with below market rental rates and services, the Center is helping to create a home for the region’s excellent music, dance, and theater companies and working to support and further the arts in the North Bay.
