Sara K. Dean’s theatrical career might best be described as encompassing a little bit of everything.
Related Articles
Review: ‘Enemy of the People’ pulls no punches at San Jose Stage
Bay Area arts: 10 shows and concerts to catch this weekend
The flavor enhancer MSG inspires a San Francisco play
How Berkeley Rep turned classic ‘Thing About Jellyfish’ into stage show
Review: ‘Jellyfish’ at Berkeley Rep is really 2 plays that eventually connect
Schooling at New York University led to a stage management internship on Disney’s “The Lion King” in 1997, one of the toughest tickets to score on Broadway at the time. Two years later, the Foster City native made it back to the Bay Area, embarking on an arts administration career that has led to her recent appointment as artistic director of Mountain View’s Pear Theatre, taking over for Sinjin Jones.
They (Dean identifies as nonbinary and uses she/they pronouns interchangeably) are no stranger to arts organizations, especially in the South Bay, where Dean’s most formative experience was as the company manager of the now defunct American Musical Theatre of San Jose. Stints were also had at San Jose Repertory Theatre, South Bay Musical Theatre and Children’s Musical Theatre San Jose.
On stage, Dean’s latest challenge is readying to perform in “The Prom” at Foothill Music Theatre at the end of February. They found time to chat about both their administrative and performing roles, and how they make art as a female-presenting, nonbinary leader.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q Your predecessor Sinjin Jones led The Pear through the pandemic, which was something you also had to do when you were executive artistic director for South Bay Musical Theatre. What were some things you learned in your post when theaters were reopened for business later in 2021?
A I have this distinct memory of that first show post-pandemic, and normally you would be at 60 or 70 percent of ticket sales 10 days before opening. We as administrators were like, the doors are open and people will flock back. But when I checked the tickets, it was at 30 percent of sales. So having watched the landscape shifting, we now have to lead with best intentions and reach out to really engage with our audiences in the hopes of bringing them in and enlightening their worlds.
Q How would you like to see the company continue to capitalize on Jones’ work, especially the initiatives that expanded many equitable initiatives in the last five years?
A Sinjin really led with a wide lens that really pushed the envelope with our audiences, which is wonderful. And so, we are in a theater reinvention which is exciting and scary at the same time. I wish I had the secret magic bullet, but I don’t know that there is one.
Q We know theater is facing quite a crisis, with companies closing and budgets facing real shortfalls. On the flip side, creative people don’t stop being creative, and that’s going to have to go beyond artistry. What are some things within these challenges you think about when you arrive at work?
A We need to really make sure we are hearing from voices that might not be heard over the next several years. Despite the news coming out of the White House about the silencing of trans and nonbinary voices, and elimination of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts, art is still one place we can continue to uplift and raise up those voices. Where it gets so challenging within the arts world is that arts workers are workers too, and one of my biggest challenges I’ve faced over the years is how to balance that living wage and making sure artists are compensated for their work.
As for The Pear in particular, our donors have been a lifeline, but at the county, state and federal level, funding has really dried up. So there has to be another solution, especially in a world like the Bay Area, which has these tech giants who could sneeze and have enough money to float a small theater company for years. I don’t know how we can get on that radar to say the arts are valuable.
Q How does being a nonbinary individual inform the way you interact with and disperse art?
A I am very female-presenting, and that is my life. I officially came out as nonbinary within the past four years. I am comfortable playing both male and female roles, and I want to be considered for both. I have a female form and I love my female form, and that was where I was pigeonholed. Now as I’m talking with directors or working on my own project, it’s really sitting down and asking, “Is gender integral to this story and to this character?” Sometimes it’s yes and sometimes it’s no. Can we broaden our horizons as far as making characters genderless or gender-neutral, or swapping? What does that do to change the stories so they are more open and mindful?
The Pear is located at 1110 La Avenida in Mountain View. Their next show is “The Gods of Comedy” by Ken Ludwig, running Feb. 21-March 16. Tickets are $40-$42 at thepear.org.
“The Prom” runs Feb. 28-March 16 at the Lohman Theatre, Foothill College, Los Altos Hills. Tickets are $22-$44 at https://foothill.edu/theatre/The_Prom.html.
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23).
