Heart board  blog

From Heart Board's desk. We will keep a blog on what is happening at our end of the new theatre company.

August 30th, 2024

It certainly takes a village to put up a show and I am very grateful for mine! From the actors who helped me in auditions (Caro!), to the theater I borrowed platforms from (thanks Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society!), and then Burien Actors Theatre also offering their platforms, and borrowing glass animals from SecondStory Repertory, and furniture from Woodinville High School. I certainly am thankful for everyone who helped me put this show together. And especially to Hjalmer Anderson who has been a tremendous help in every facet of my directing this show. Thank you all and happy opening to the cast and crew who designed the show!

-Adrian Cerrato

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July 31st, 2024

We've started rehearsals and the work these actors are doing is already so moving. I can't wait to see this show when it is fully up and running! I've always said I can make a great show just with great actors, minimal set and hinted at costumes. We will have a more fully designed set and costumes for sure but knowing that I already have great actors involved is very inspiring!

-Adrian Cerrato

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June 22nd, 2024

I think the best part of being a director is working with actors. They bring so much passion and energy to their roles and are willing to adjust their choices with such wonderful results. I enjoy seeing people in different roles and try different tactics in the audition process as well as seeing the adjustments they make when prompted. In particular I have enjoyed casting The Glass Menagerie and seeing Latine actors in these roles and finding (through experience and not just as a theoretical idea in my head) that it works just as well as white actors in the same roles. I have also marveled at the different actor that have auditioned and the different and often difficult choices that had to be made. I truly look forward to starting the rehearsal process and working with our talented actors we have cast!

-Adrian Cerrato

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May 27th, 2024

I finished another read through of The Glass Menagerie and it strikes me how vastly different even the same modern play in your own native language can be different from other versions of it. The acting edition I have is much more simplified and different version from the one I read in college. I am of course very grateful to be working on this play and grateful to Tennessee Williams for the freedoms that he gives his directors. I'll have to think about which design elements I will keep or omit from past editions but I think at this juncture I might be sticking pretty closely to the acting edition I have. More to come!

Adrian Cerrato

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March 26, 2024

We are in the middle of rehearsals for Agnes of God which will open on April 19, 2024.  The cast of Jeanninie Early, Alyssa Gaudinier and Brianne Green Bailey are going to be outstanding.  Don't miss the show it is a very powerful piece of theatre.  I saw the original cast on Broadway in the late 1980s and it has always been one of the shows I wanted to direct.  

Hjalmer Anderson

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January 31, 2024

Hey all,

Adrian Cerrato here, the director of The Glass Menagerie. I once studied under a director who advised all his students that directors read the play 77 times before beginning the script analysis process. And as such my goal until I get closer to summer is to read the play at least once a week for the foreseeable future starting with this week and then perhaps moving up to two to three times a week. So here’s to read one, I can’t wait to dig into this  text and learn as much as I can about this family to explore how this story might be told through the lens of a Latine family.

-Adrian Cerrato, Director for Glass Menagerie 

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Hjalmer Anderson, Artistic Director/President of HEART

January 7, 2024

Happy New Year.

We started rehearsals on our next production of Nick Payne's  Constellations.  Rehearsals started the past week and we are excited to bring this show to you in February.   Following that show we will be presenting Agnes of God which is one of my favorite shows I had seen in New York on Broadway with its orginal cast. 

Followed by The Glass Menagerie which will be directed by Adrian Cerrato at our Kenmore site in September 2024.  

October 9, 2023

We closed The Catastrophist yesterday.  I will miss Dan, Jack and the company for a wonderful production.  Now it is time to prepare for our 2024 season.  Stay tuned!

September 24, 2023

David Baldwin, and our stage manager Jack Bailey helped with the move in to Sammamish Valley Grange .  We created some dramantic lighting looks on each of the moments in the play.  It was very exciting.  David is a Inglemoor Theatre alum during my teaching days at Inglemoor High School.  It is so much fun to work together again.  It truly is a drama family.   You dont want to miss this outstanding production.   Hope to see you at The Catastrophist.  

September 18, 2023

We open in two weeks and have been working very hard on this one man show by Lauren Gunderson.  We have great sucess with Silent Sky by her and Dan Niven wanted to do one of her plays. I hope you get a chance to see this amazing show.  

1. It has been quite a busy summer.  I finished directing a very successful production of Angel Street for the Woodinville Repertory Theatre in June.

2. We had a very successful fundraiser in July which included a major donation from the Northshore Performing Arts Foundation.  I want to thank all of the auction items donated as well.

3. Since our fundraising we are moving forward in finishing our season of 2023 with the Catastrophist by Lauren Gunderson that will feature Dan Niven playing the part of the Virologist,  Nathan who is based on Lauren Gunderson's husband Nathan Wolfe.  

4. And we have been financed to produce our 2024 season starting with Nick Payne's Constellations in February and Agnes of God a classic Broadway hit both productions will be in Woodinville at the Sammamish Valley Grange Hall.  Agnes will be performed in April 2024 and then The Glass Menagerie to be directed by Adrian Cerrato in September 2024 at the Kenmore Community Club, Kenmore WA.  

5. Dan Nivan who was in a show for me at the Woodinville Rep a few years ago came to see our production of Silent Sky and wanted to see another show done by the popular playwright Lauren Gunderson.  He brought the Castastrophist to me in hopes I would direct him in the show and I agreed being a fan of Lauren.  So we have been in rehearsals now for two weeks with our show opening on September 8 at the Kenmore Community Club.  

6. Also I would like to reach out to anyone who is interested in helping us move forward and join our new theatre company.  We are always looking for new board members and any theatre artists who want to work on the artistic side of our company.  Send an email to heartrepertory@gmail.com attention to Hjalmer Anderson

I will be posting more news as it happens here also tickets are on sale right now for The Catastrophist.  You dont want to miss it.

March 15:

Two weeks ago I attended the Theatre of Puget Sound's 2023 Unified General Auditions in Seattle, the first one after two years because of the pandemic .  I was able to watch several hundred actors from across the Seattle area for a week.  It was a lot of fun to catch up with many of my theatre professionals from our region many of them I have known for years.  There were over 70 theatres auditing.  I represented HEART and the Woodinville Repertory Theatre. 

 In addition,  I was invited to direct the Woodinville Reps next show Angel Street which will open on June 2nd in Woodinville.  

In the meantime,  the HEART Board will meet Thursday to discuss upcoming Fundraising ideas to prepare for our next production of Glass Menagerie directed by Adrian Cerrato scheduled for September opening at the Kenmore Community Club.  

March 3: Last nights board meeting we added Tara Meyer a former alum from my program at Woodinville High School and Amber Smith a children's theatre specialist and former Ms. Washington and editor of a local magazine, Pacific Northwest Collaborative to the HEART Repertory Board.  Tara will assist with the business and Treasury duties.  She is also planning on auditioning for our upcoming season.  

Feb 19th:  Well we had an adventure at yesterdays closing.  A rental group who was in our venue the day before took one of our light dmx cables which shut down a lighting tree.  Our Venue Manager had to call the group to trace down the cable.  It took 90 minutes to get it back to us.  Whew,  that was an anxious moment since we had a sell out crowd with our wonderful show of Silent Sky.

We had a very successful run of Silent Sky.  My cast and crew were wonderful through the whole process and were rewarded with wonderful audiences.  It was sad to close such a wonderful show.  

Now we are ready to work on fundraising this summer and to develop a new Children's theatre presentation over the summer.  Before we rehearse and open our next major production of The Glass Menagerie directed by Adrian Cerrato.  

November 19, 2022:   Thank you for all who help make our Fundraiser a success!.  Thanks to the cast and crew of our staged reading of The One Act Play That Goes Wrong!  Thanks for the HEART Board, Caryn Axelrad, Adrian Cerrato and Kathy Meyer Strong.  Thank you, Lisa Arden Wright for your wonderful singing.  Thanks for the people who attended and those who won their bid on our auction items.  Thanks for AS IF Theatre, David Farkas, Dan and Elizabeth Nivan, Marsha Stueckle, Larry Bridges and Thank you Sonja Rose Usher and her family for the Kraken Tickets.  Thanks to Becky Gil and Belle Gil, Steve Cooper who helped mount our staged reading.  Thanks to Josh Butchart, Stephanie D'arcy-Penoyer, and Katharina Bömers-Muller and Woodinville High School Theatre Company team who supplied the furniture and props.

Oct 18, 2022:  I have contacted actors from around the region to perform a staged reading for The One Act Play That Goes Wrong.  We are planning on starting rehearsals on November 9.  My plan is to stage it much like a radio show with my experience during the pandemic directing those 18 old time radio shows.  

In addition, I invite any businesses in the area  to donate an auction item and attend our fund raiser on November 19th  You can contact me at the emails below or send a donation on our go fund me page tab on this website or send them to our P.O. Box 1513, Woodinville WA. 98072.  

Also,  I attended AS If Theatres The Foreigner at the Kenmore Community Club last weekend and I highly recommend you making an effort to go see their show which has their final performances this coming weekend.  And the Woodinville Repertory Theatre has opened Ghost Writer at the Sammamish Valley Grange Hall in Woodinville by the wine district.  it is their first live show since the pandemic.  

Oct 6, 2022 We are excited to plan the upcoming Gala Event on November 19th.  We are reaching out to ask for any music solos or small combos to donate their performance time for part of the entertainment for the event.  Also I am looking for 8 actors  to perform the Staged Reading for the One Act Play that Goes Wrong.  

If interested please email: heartrepertory@gmail.com  attention: Hjalmer Anderson

October 3, 2022 -  Been in contact with the Woodinville Grange Hall and it looks promising for a 2nd venue for our company so we can add more productions in our 2023 season.  The Woodinville Repertory Theatre will be performing Ghost Writer this month at the space.  

September 29, 2022 -  Meeting with the Northshore Performing Arts Foundation Board at one of the local Woodinville Wineries to network for sponsorships and potential venue leads.  Will update in a later entry. 

September 28, 2022-  We have mounted two full length plays this season and are working on fundraising to move forward into our 2023. Season,  there is much to do.   We have some new board members and we are working on delegating duties for our upcoming fundraiser on November 19 at 7 PM.  We moved Silent Sky to February due to our financial situation and hope that with grant writing, working on sponsorships we will be able to launch into next year.   Any support you can give us through our Go Fund Me Page or join us on the November 19th event it takes our community to help us reach our goals of outstanding live theatre in the Northshore Area.