For new director of Wilmington theater company, it's all about community
Opera House Theatre Company's new executive director is not new to Opera House Theatre Company.
In 1987, just two years after the Wilmington theater group was formed by Broadway actor Lou Criscuolo and his wife, Mary James Criscuolo, Ray Kennedy did his first show with Opera House, playing David in the Stephen Sondheim musical "Company."
Now, Kennedy is taking the reins of the company he's helped shape, first as a performer and now a director and choreographer of dozens of musicals.
"I'm happy about it," Kennedy said. "I feel like the timing is right. I realize that I have a lot of responsibility to continue this path that we're on and to produce first-class shows."
Since its founding, Opera House has become one of Wilmington's key cultural institutions, staging a half-dozen musicals each year on the main stage of Thalian Hall. In 2019, attendance at Opera House shows topped 25,000 for the first time and continues to grow, hitting over 30,000 last year.
Kennedy said Lou Criscuolo, who died in 2014, first asked him about taking over the company in 2008. But Kennedy was living in New York City at the time working for the USO, and "it just wasn't the right time to make a full-time move back to Wilmington," he said.
Criscuolo's stepdaughter, Alice Sherwood, ran Opera House from 2014 to 2019, when Justin Smith took over as director. After guiding the company through the pandemic by staging some shows outdoors and bringing in talent for others, Smith, who's also a partner in several bars and restaurants downtown, said he wanted less of a day-to-day role.
Smith is now on Opera House's board of directors, with Kennedy taking over as executive and artistic director, and Coleman Cox, who's appeared in OHTC shows as an actress, helping with marketing and development as an associate producer.
For years, Kennedy ran a company providing entertainment on cruise ships, sometimes employing Opera House actors. Even then, and when he was in New York, he would come back to Wilmington for "vacation" to direct one or two musicals a year for Opera House.
Part of the reason for his long assocation with the company, Kennedy said, is that it has helped him grow as an artist and director.
"The other thing, too, is the community," he said. "The words 'theater family' are used a lot, but there really is a theater family here."
In his new role, Kennedy will continue to direct musicals, including Mel Brooks comedy "The Producers," which opened Dec. 30 and runs through Jan. 14.
But, with budgets that can't be recouped by ticket sales alone, fundraising is constant and a given.
"Luckily we have some very, very supportive donors in this town," Kennedy said. "And, of course, you want to find more. So that's part of my job, too."
His main gig, though, is managing Opera House's season of shows, not only the main stage musicals but also original work, smaller shows in the company's "Playhouse" series, and productions by an "apprentice" troupe, ages 14 to 24.
The company will also continue to mix local talent with guest artists, Kennedy said. In February, Opera House opens Arthur Miller's classic "Death of a Salesman" with an all-Black cast, starring Wilmington actor Fracaswell Hyman.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: New director of Opera House Theatre in Wilmington Ray Kennedy
