Kathy and Marie Ertel, project director for the city of Vista and supervisor of the construction of the new Moonlight Amphitheatre stage house, which was completed in 2009. Photo by Pam Kragen. |
Shifting
gears a bit, how did you meet your husband, Robert C. Brombacher, DDS?
I was living in Oceanside and one of my friends was
a dental hygienist. She and I would go
jogging and then we ended up having potlucks and things with our friends and colleagues,
and that’s how I met my husband - through her - because she worked with him as
a dentist.
My husband is originally from LA, went to San
Francisco Dental School, and he and his partner started their dental practice
here in Vista because of his cousin who lived in Encinitas at the time. His cousin had said this is a beautiful area,
you should think about it, come down and drive around, see where all the golf
courses are (my husband was a golfer from when he was age 13), etc. And so he came down because of family and
relocated here to start his business.
Is
he involved in the Moonlight business at all?
At one time, he was the treasurer of the Vista
Foundation (which was the original nonprofit that built the theatre and they
are now known as the Moonlight Cultural Foundation). He actually acted in the first show we ever
did up here: “Oliver!” He was convinced
to do the role of Dr. Grimwig, which is a tiny role. When Oliver passes out and gets sick, he is
taken in by a wealthy man who brings the doctor in to see how Oliver is
doing. And that was a role that my
husband took on because I was completely out of men who would volunteer to do
the role! [laughs] So, he did that one role
and he said “I’ve had enough. I now know
what it takes and I appreciate it, but I do not need to be onstage ever again!” [laughs]
And from then on, he supported us from backstage, as a corporate sponsor,
as a patron, and on our Board.
As
the founder and artistic director of Moonlight, what achievement or production
during your 32 year tenure are you most proud of?
Wow…that’s a hard one. It’s a tie for “Les Miserables” and “Ragtime.” Both of them were acquired as productions
that had not been produced by regional musical theatre in our area before. With “Les Miserables” we went in on it with
another theatre company in northern California to co-build … they actually
built the set and sent it down and we rented the turntable to make everything
work.
Moonlight's "Les Miz" in 2008. Photo courtesy of Ken Jacques. |
So
“Les Miz” you would say is more of a technical achievement…
Yes, it was a technical achievement. And then “Ragtime” was just a remarkable show
to be able to produce. Again,
collaboration has been something that I’m really proud of. For that show, we collaborated with Musical
Theatre of Wichita to get a touring set brought through.
What
was particularly special about “Ragtime”?
Would you say it’s the biggest artistic achievement of all the shows
that you’ve done?
I think it was one of the big ones for us. In terms of recognition of the work and we
had an incredible artistic team. Our
choreographer, Paul David Bryant, had done the show on Broadway with the
original artistic cast and sat through all the sessions with Graciela Daniele
about the origins of the music and the dance.
And it is just a beautiful piece of theatre. So to have the chance to do that with an
incredible artistic and technical team … it was a glorious time of creation.
Where
do you hope to see Moonlight in 10 years from now?
I hope in ten years that Moonlight is very healthy: that
it is continuing to produce the size musicals that we’ve been able to
produce. And hopefully doing a
combination of beloved classics and premieres of new work. I think every theatre has to keep bringing in
new work, new titles, and new thinking to the forefront in order to
evolve. Theatre needs to evolve with the
society. What we were doing 10 and 15
years ago and what our audiences most wanted to see was not what they’re
wanting to see right now. Our audiences
want to see the new titles, but they also want to see beloved favorites like
“Fiddler on the Roof” and “Anything Goes.”
To get a younger audience in, we need to do our “Legally Blonde's", we
need to do a very different, younger version of “Sweeney Todd.” I very much believe that the company needs to
stay flexible. And sometimes that means
doing – as we did last year – a couple of very small shows in order to make
your budget work. It is part of being in
these economic times and if you call it recession or just a bump in the road … it’s
just what everyone goes through. So I
hope that Moonlight will be the theatre that is not closing because we weren’t
thinking ahead and because we weren’t budget conscious. And that is not to say that any theatre wants
to be in that position. It’s just that
smart choices have to be made everywhere.
I also hope there will be more youth theatre that is
healthy in this community and that Moonlight will continue to support
that. Kids are both our audience members
and our performers of tomorrow. And for
that, you have to have arts education, you have to have young people in fine
programs in dance and voice and such. I
hope that will continue to grow and flourish and feed what Moonlight is.
Where
do you hope to see yourself in 10 years from now?
I hope to continue to be engaged in the action of
producing theatre. It may not be at this
theatre, but I have some titles that I have my eye on that I’d like to be
engaged with. I also want to support Moonlight
in any way I can, whether that means serving on the Board of the Moonlight
Cultural Foundation or fundraising or speaking in the community … I want to be
an advocate for Moonlight. And possibly
for other arts organizations in our County.
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