Left to Right: Jim Smith, Program Chairman, Jennifer Holcomb, lead actress for As You Like It, Cheri Maytum Krull, President-Elect; and Andrew Zorba, Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Theatre Company.
Jim Smith introduced Andrew Borba who is in his third year as Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Theatre Company. He has served 8 seasons as CTC’s Associate Artistic Director and this is his 13th summer at the Chautauqua Theatre Company.
At CTC, Andrew has directed several plays including The Taming of the Shrew, After Love, The Comedy of Errors, The Philadelphia Story, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and the list goes on. Outside of CTC he has directed several plays across the country.
On film, he has appeared in small parts in big films and big parts in small films and has had recurring roles and guest appearances on over 30 television series. Andrew is a member of The Antaeus Theatre Company, a cum laude graduate of Brown University and received his M.F.A. from New York University.
Andrew spoke about the wonderful reaction to Chautauqua’s Shakespeare in the Park presentation at Jamestown’s Allen Park Band Shell where they expected 80 people and over 250 people showed up. The company will return to Allen Park on August 15. In the meanwhile, there will be performances at Southern Tier Brewery and Lakeside Park in Mayville. Borba commented on how great it is to be involved with the community outside the gate.
Borba then introduced Jennifer Holcomb, who has the lead in As You Like It and she gave a delightful reading from the play. Jenifer is a recent graduate of Cal State Irvine with her M.F.A. She talked about the wonderful training ground the Chautauqua Theatre offers young actors and actresses.
Borba then talked about the additional theatrical offerings this summer at Chautauqua – An Octaroon, Airness, and Into the Breeches (an all female cast as men). He indicated a very special play called An Amish Project will be performed August 19-21 and should not be missed.
Chautauqua and their Theatre Company are excited about the possibilities as to how far and how much of the local population they can reach in the future.