SCR director to head national theater group

Young Chang

COSTA MESA -- The first play Paula Tomei ever watched was at South

Coast Repertory about 30 years ago when the theater stood on Newport

Boulevard and when composer Toni Tenille helped put on a production of

“Mother Earth.”

Tomei was in junior high school at the time. Even then, she preferred

being in the audience to acting on stage. But as she later learned, her

spotlight shined backstage.

The managing director of SCR was elected this weekend as president of

Theatre Communications Group, a national service group for not-for-profit

professional theater.

“I got more involved in drama productions in high school, as a

business manager of the production department, and I began to realize

that I felt at home being around artists,” said Tomei, 44.

The Estancia High School graduate and Laguna Beach resident first

became involved with Theatre Communications Group, whose constituency

includes SCR and more than 400 theaters in the country, when she joined

the local theater in 1979.

Her positions have included subscriptions manager, business manager

and general manager. She has served as the treasurer of the Theatre

Communications Group for the past two years and is the first SCR staff

member to even join the national group’s board, much less become

president.

“I think it’s a wonderful testament to Paula’s ability as a managing

director,” said Martin Benson, co-founder of and co-artistic director at

SCR. “That she’s been selected to head the extremely important Theater

Community Group, given that it’s the national service organization for

all theaters.”

Tomei’s experience includes being a theater panelist for the National

Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council. She is a UC

Irvine graduate with a degree in economics.

As president of the Theatre Communications Group, Tomei said her job

will be to head up their mission -- to “nurture, strengthen and promote

the not-for-profit American theater.”

The group has grown in membership from 341 to 414 in the past three

years.

“It’s just a real honor at this point in my career to be able to work

with the Theatre Communications Group -- an organization that is so

committed to serving the field that I have chosen as my profession,”

Tomei said.