{"id":34661,"date":"2025-11-02T14:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T14:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/34661\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T14:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T14:23:09","slug":"theater-loving-couple-help-cygnet-theatre-get-new-plays-to-the-finish-line-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/34661\/","title":{"rendered":"Theater-loving couple help Cygnet Theatre get new plays to The Finish Line \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Later this month, Cygnet Theatre will open its annual\u00a0 The Finish Line<\/a> new play festival in its permanent new home: The Dottie Studio Theater at The Joan theater complex in San Diego\u2019s Arts District Liberty Station.<\/p>\n

Yet while The Joan and the festival\u2019s three play scripts being presented Nov. 14 and 15 are new, there\u2019s one thing that hasn\u2019t changed in the 14 years since the festival was born: Its underwriters \u2014 Bill and Judy Garrett.<\/p>\n

\"BillBill and Judy Garrett are local theater lovers who underwrite Cygnet Theatre and the UCSD MFA Playwriting Program\u2019s The Finish Line new play series. It\u2019s a weeklong new play festival held each Nov. where selected playwrights can develop and present readings of their work. They\u2019re seen here Oct. 24 in Cygnet\u2019s Joseph Clayes III theater at The Joan at Arts District Liberty Station in San Diego. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

The longtime San Diego couple, who have been loyal Cygnet theater-goers since the company\u2019s very first season in 2003, have funded the weeklong play development program from day one because they share a passion for cutting-edge new work presented in intimate settings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of equate it to SeaWorld, where you sit up front and get splashed,\u201d Judy Garrett said, in an interview with her husband at Cygnet\u2019s The Joan on Oct. 24.\u00a0 \u201cIn a small theater, you sit up close and you really feel like you\u2019re part of the action. You get to know the actors and see the facial expressions and all the things you can\u2019t do in a 1,000-seat balcony space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Garretts are true theaterphiles. They\u2019re season subscribers at six San Diego theater companies and they travel every year to see the latest shows on Broadway and in London\u2019s West End, sometimes seeing up to 10 shows a week. While they do attend shows at the county\u2019s two biggest theaters, The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse, they\u2019re just as enthusiastic about the small theaters they support, including Diversionary Theatre, Chalk Circle Collective and Loud Fridge Theatre Group.<\/p>\n

Bill Garrett said one of the things he enjoys most about attending theater is being among the first audience members to ever experience the birth of\u00a0 new script.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew plays have always fascinated me because they were trying things. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what I realized was that there are so many playwrights out there that never get any of their plays produced. That\u2019s what got us interested in doing something here with The Finish Line. We wanted to support playwrights and give them the opportunity to get a play they were really very interested in but hadn\u2019t been able to push it over the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crossing The Finish Line<\/p>\n

Sean Murray, Cygnet\u2019s founding artistic director, said that when he and Bill Schmidt, Cygnet\u2019s executive director, decided to launch their own new play festival years ago, they wanted to make it unique from the play festivals at other local theaters.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we came up with this idea that playwrights sometimes have a script that they stopped working on and they moved on,\u201d Murray said. \u201cThe Finish Line gives them a chance to go back and look at the script, and we can give them the resources to try to finish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the support of the Garretts and a county grant, Cygnet\u2019s new play festival, originally named Playwrights in Process, launched in November 2012, featuring four new plays by San Diego playwrights. A couple years later, San Diego\u2019s Playwrights Project came on board as a co-producer.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the festival was renamed in honor of its sole sponsors as The Finish Line: A Bill and Judy Garrett Commission. Directed by Cygnet\u2019s then-associate artistic director Rob Lutfy, The Finish Line began inviting both San Diego and national playwrights.<\/p>\n

Then in 2021, Cygnet partnered with UC San Diego\u2019s just-launched MFA Playwriting Program, headed by Naomi Iizuka. Today, The Finish Line program \u2014 now produced by Cygnet artistic associate and casting director Kian Kline-Chilton \u2014 commissions up to two plays by UCSD second-year MFA candidates each year,\u00a0 as well as one play by a San Diego playwright.<\/p>\n

Bill Garrett said he and his wife feel it\u2019s very important that the festival keep its focus on emerging San Diego voices.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only do we have this criteria for who the playwrights would be, but we also say that everybody working on it are San Diego people,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are huge supporters of the San Diego theater community and recognize the huge amount of talent that this community has. It has to be one of the best theater cities in the United States. In our minds, there\u2019s no question about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Garretts declined to quantify the amount of their annual grant for The Finish Line, they did say they cover 100 percent of the festival\u2019s expenses, which have doubled over the years. This includes financial support for the playwrights, actors, director and dramaturge; scenic and costume designers who create a \u201cdream design\u201d for a future production; rehearsal space; public readings; public forums, and more.<\/p>\n

Murray said that besides helping playwrights develop new scripts, The Finish Line has also become a training ground for helping playwrights understand the current financial realities of the theater business. With rising production costs and a decline in federal grants and philanthropic giving, the large-cast, multi-scene plays from years past are no longer affordable for most theaters to produce.<\/p>\n

Despite the belt-tightening under way in the theater industry, Cygnet\u2019s move into The Joan has allowed the company more freedom to develop new scripts because The Joan complex has two stages \u2014 the smaller Dottie studio space and the larger Clayes proscenium theater \u2014 compared to just one stage at Cygnet\u2019s former homes in Rolando and Old Town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you only have the one space, it has to succeed in order for the business to continue,\u201d Murray said. \u201cHere, we\u2019re able to do something riskier in the studio and hopefully something in or around it at the Clayes that can help pay for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray said that Cygnet owes a great debt to the Garretts, and that gratitude is shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been there not just as supporters but as friends for a very long time,\u201d Murray said. \u201cI also know that we\u2019re not the only theater that have that affection for them. They\u2019re pretty integral to a lot of different companies, in terms of trying to promote us to get new work on the stage and support artists and writers.\u201d<\/p>\n

A shared passion<\/p>\n

Bill and Judy Garrett met at a welcoming dance in their senior year at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1965. While in college, he took an acting class and she attended many student theater performances. But their shared passion for theater wouldn\u2019t bloom until many years later.<\/p>\n

When Bill graduated from UW in 1966, the Vietnam War was raging. He joined the Army\u2019s intelligence division and they spent 18 months living abroad in Germany. When they returned to the U.S., they spent five years in Tucson, Arizona, then later relocated to Pasadena and then Anaheim.<\/p>\n

Judy, with a master\u2019s degree in urban planning, spent most of her career in grant administration and grant-writing. Bill earned masters degrees in urban planning and public administration and transitioned from serving as a planning consultant to working in city government. He spent 20 years with the city of Corona, rising from the role of senior planner to city manager. Then in 1996, they moved to El Cajon where he served as city manager for eight years until he retired in 2005.<\/p>\n

After retiring, Bill spent 16 years as a trustee for the Grossmont Community College District and Judy served for seven years on the Cuyamaca College and Grossmont College Foundations. Today she serves on La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n

The Garretts discovered Cygnet Theatre in 2003, when they read a favorable review of its very first production, \u201cHedwig and the Angry Inch,\u201d at its original 165-seat theater in the Rolando neighborhood near San Diego State University. Intrigued by the founders\u2019 risk-taking debut, the Garretts bought tickets to the company\u2019s second production, the one-man comedy \u201cFully Committed,\u201d and they were hooked.<\/p>\n

The Garretts said it has been a great joy over the years having the opportunity to go behind the scenes to watch the play development process and follow the careers of playwrights whose work has been featured in The Finish Line.<\/p>\n

One of their favorite experiences has been getting to know playwright Keiko Green, whose eerie drama \u201cSharon\u201d was developed in The Finish Line in 2021 (which was presented via Zoom due to COVID lockdown restrictions). Twoyears later, \u201cSharon\u201d made its world premiere as a Cygnet season production. The play was a big hit with Cygnet audiences and Green has gone on to many other commissions at theaters around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to say we put Keiko on the map, at least I jokingly tell her that,\u201d Bill Garrett said, with a laugh. \u201cWe\u2019re just teasing, but we think the world of her and her plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few of the Garretts\u2019 other favorite plays to emerge from the festival over the years are: Nathan Alan Davis\u2019s \u201cThe Wind and the Breeze,\u201d introduced in the 2016 festival and later produced by Cygnet in its 2018 world premiere, and San Diego playwright Christian St. Croix\u2019s \u201cWe Are the Forgotten Beasts\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n

They also enjoyed meeting nationally renowned playwright Kate Hamill, whose \u201cThe Prostitute Play\u201d debuted at The Finish Line in 2019, then made its world premiere at Cygnet in 2023 under the revised name \u201cThe Little Fellow (or \u2014 The Queen of Tarts Tells All).\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the San Diego playwrights whose work as been produced in The Finish Line over the years are Tim West, Lance Arthur Smith, Rachael VanWormer, Allan Havis, Thelma Virata de Castro, Paul-David Halem, Mike Sears, Herbert Siguenza, Blake McCarty and many others.<\/p>\n

Judy Garrett said she and her husband have also enjoyed meeting the UCSD MFA candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all very supportive of each other and genuinely appreciative of the fact that someone in the community takes an interest in what they\u2019re doing and wants to see their work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Finish Line: A Bill and Judy Garrett Commission<\/p>\n

\u201cRight Hand Left Hand\u201d by Jonah Gercke: The play takes place over a hot summer weekend in Brooklyn where non-binary journalist David is caught up in the cultural tensions that flare up between their Israeli bosses and their Palestinian friends who are getting married across town. 7 p.m. Nov. 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cMartini\u201d by Katie Do: It\u2019s about a trio of women falling in and out of friendship with each other over many decades. The play explores friendship under the tension of personal politics, the magic of platonic love, and the reckoning of self in the wake of secrets told too late. 3 p.m. Nov. 15.<\/p>\n

\u201cLos Feliz\u201d by Christopher Oscar Pe\u00f1a: When a rising Los Angeles filmmaker\u2019s project bends to studio pressure, his collaborator and closest friend challenges what success really means. Moving from a film set to a queer bar and beyond, it\u2019s a play about art, race, and the cost of being seen. 6 p.m. Nov. 15.<\/p>\n

Where: Dottie Studio Theater at Cygnet Theatre\u2019s The Joan, 2880 Roosevelt Road, San Diego<\/p>\n

Tickets: Free, but reservations required. Reception and talkback follows each reading.<\/p>\n

Phone: 619-337-1525<\/p>\n

Reservations: cygnettheatre.org\/show\/upcoming-shows\/the-finish-line<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Later this month, Cygnet Theatre will open its annual\u00a0 The Finish Line new play festival in its permanent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,967,181,74,84,76,75,1058,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-34661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-county","13":"tag-san-diego-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego-news","15":"tag-theater","16":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}