Catching up with Paper Mill

I'm a little late in posting this but since I didn't get the exclusive, I guess there was no hurry.
Congrats to Mark S. Hoebee on his elevation from interim to permanent artistic director at Paper Mill Playhouse. He's certainly earned it, staying on the sinking ship while others bailed. Hard to blame many of them, given the circumstances, but the ship didn't sink, so Hoebee appropriately gets to keep steering.

He still faces daunting challenges--and must adjust to a new managing administration--so the future is anything but certain. But we'll be rooting for him and Paper Mill.

The complete release follows.

Hoebee Takes Top Artistic Leadership Post
at Paper Mill Playhouse

(Millburn, NJ) January 17, 2008 – The Paper Mill Playhouse Board of Trustees is proud to announce that Mark S. Hoebee, Paper Mill’s Acting Artistic Director since March of 2007 has been promoted to Artistic Director effective immediately. Mr. Hoebee joined Paper Mill Playhouse in June of 2000 as Associate Artistic Director. Most recently Mr. Hoebee directed the critically acclaimed production of Meet Me in St. Louis at the New Jersey theatre.

Mark S. Hoebee is a director and choreographer whose work has been seen at theaters all over North America. In the fall of 2006, Mark directed the Actors Fund Benefit Concert of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the August Wilson Theatre which starred Emily Skinner, Terry Mann and Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson as well as Songs For NU York, a benefit for Northwestern University at The Promenade Theatre which starred Tony Roberts, Penny Fuller and Patricia Neal. In recent years he has directed five companies of Victor/Victoria including the first national tour starring Grammy® Award winner Toni Tennille, Almost Like Being In Love: An Evening With Lerner and Loewe which toured the United States and Canada starring Diahann Carroll and regional tours of Company and Dreamgirls. He directed Paper Mill’s highly lauded productions of Meet Me in St. Louis, Hello, Dolly! starring Tovah Feldshuh, The King & I starring Kevin Gray and Carolee Carmello, Dreamgirls, and in 2002 was granted special permission from Sir Cameron Macintosh to direct an all-new production of Miss Saigon for Paper Mill's stage.

In spring of 2005, Mark worked along side Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire as he directed and choreographed the new version of their 1983 Broadway show Baby and the following winter he directed and choreographed the world premiere of Tom Jones and Joseph Thalken’s Harold and Maude: The Musical starring Estelle Parsons.

“Mark has been an essential leader during the ‘Save the Paper Mill’ campaign,” says Kenneth Thorn, Paper Mill’s Board Chair. “Mark’s artistic excellence has a national reputation and we are proud to call him our Artistic Director.”

“Mark Hoebee and I have developed a terrific working relationship over the past several months,” says Mark W. Jones, Paper Mill’s Executive Director, “he has a true artistic vision for the theatre that our audiences can relate to.”

“I hope to continue, as well as deepen, Paper Mill’s historic role of providing a stage for excellence in American musical theatre,” says Mark S. Hoebee. “Paper Mill is my home, I understand what our patrons are looking for and I know Mark Jones and I can revitalize this flagship theatre.”

Mark S. Hoebee has over forty shows to his credit as a director and/or choreographer including such standards as 42nd Street, Gypsy, Brigadoon, Singin’ In the Rain, West Side Story and Sweet Charity (for which he was awarded Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award as Best Choreographer), as well as rarely produced shows like Grand Hotel (the American Stock Premiere), Baby (starring Liz Callaway), 70 Girls 70, The First, Romance/Romance and Windy City. Mark made his Network television debut as choreographer for the highly rated CBS show Touched by an Angel. The episode guest starred Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Carol Channing and Tim Conway.

His performance credits include the Broadway companies of Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, Nick & Nora, Beauty and the Beast, the Menken/Ahrens A Christmas Carol, as well as working alongside Blake Edwards and Rob Marshall in Victor/Victoria starring Julie Andrews. He has also appeared in national touring companies of Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line – The Broadway Tour of America, Sweet Charity directed by Bob Fosse, Camelot with Richard Harris, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Coming up next at Paper Mill Playhouse is the heart-warming mainstage production of The Miracle Worker. Before Helen Keller became a world famous speaker, author, and advocate, she was a blind, deaf, and mostly mute child living in Alabama in the 1880's. Misunderstood, pitied, and consequently spoiled by her family, at the age of six she terrorized the household with her tantrums and tricks. Then, Anne Sullivan arrived. She was merely twenty years old herself, but Anne held the key that would unlock the door between Helen and the world. William Gibson's Tony Award-winning play (adapted into the Academy Award-winning film) unfolds the trials and tribulations Anne and Helen encountered as they forged what would become a 49-year-long friendship. From their isolation in the family cottage house to the watershed moment when Helen finally understood the concept of language and communication, The Miracle Worker is a profoundly moving retelling of the groundbreaking work of two pioneers, as well as the volatile relationship between them. The Miracle Worker will run at the Millburn theatre from January 23, 2008 through February 24, 2008. There are three added student matinee performances on February 6, 13 and 14 at 11:00am. The Miracle Worker is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Miracle Worker will play the following performance schedule: Wednesdays at 7:30PM, Thursdays at 2:00PM & 7:30PM, Fridays at 8:00PM, Saturdays at 2:00PM & 8:00PM and Sundays at 2:00PM & 7:30PM. Single tickets are now on sale and range in price from $25 to $92. Student rush tickets are $20 and are available the day of performance in person with current student ID. Tickets may be purchased by calling 973-376-4343, or at the Paper Mill Box Office on Brookside Drive in Millburn, or online at www.papermill.org. Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express accepted. Groups of ten or more can receive up to a 25% discount on tickets and student groups can attend any performance for only $20 per ticket. For more information regarding group purchases please call 973-379-3636 ext. 2438. For all performances from Wednesday, January 23rd through Sunday, January 27th, buy an adult ticket and receive a children’s ticket for half price (some restrictions may apply).

Rounding out the season is the enduring comedy Steel Magnolias (March 5-April 6), the classic Cole Porter Masterpiece Kiss Me, Kate (April 16-May18) and the “freakishly funny” musical Little Shop of Horrors (June 4-July 6). Visit Paper Mill’s website for a complete list of programming at www.papermill.org.

PAPER MILL PLAYHOUSE, a not-for-profit arts organization, is one of the country's leading regional theatres and is supported in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, A Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, in addition to contributions from many corporations, foundations, and individuals. Paper Mill Playhouse is a member of Theatre Communications Group, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the Council of Stock Theatres, and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.