After nearly four decades of training aspiring performers–many of whom have gone on to Broadway, TV and film – and producing hundreds of shows, Bucks County will be saying goodbye to the Theatre Arts Center (TAC) and its founder and Artistic Director Kristine Lewis.
TAC will perform “Chicago” as its farewell show at the Stephen Buck Theatre, at New Hope-Solebury High School from Aug. 17 to 19.
TAC may be closing its doors, but it is not the final act for Lewis. With entertainment in her DNA, her varied career in the arts will now take her to Bennington, Vt., where she’ll serve as the executive director of Monument Arts and Cultural Center (MACC), a new and unique eclectic consortium of visual and performing arts. MACC houses a 311-seat theater where Lewis will offer the area both equity and community theater productions, as well as bands, cabarets and a broad range of programming.
Lewis first stepped on the stage herself as a dancer with American Ballet Theatre, then toured as an actress with the stars of the day, before landing as a choreographer and director at the Bucks County Playhouse in the late ’70s. That’s when she realized there was a need to train young performers to stage a show in the brief couple of weeks customary for summer stock. Since then, TAC has been the “go-to” center for young people serious about a professional career in the arts – as well as those who simply appreciate exploring dance, acting and singing.
TAC’s shows have entertained thousands of children at the Bucks County Playhouse, Sellersville Theatre, Bristol Riverside Theatre and many more venues, including New York.
Over the years, Lewis has directed off-Broadway and regional shows too numerous to mention. Among the names she has directed are: Matt Bomer, Andrea McCardle, Liz Larsen and John Heard. As a partner in her own casting company, Lewis & Fox Casting, TAC students had the opportunity to get cast in various productions, including a staged reading with Timothy Hutton, and a chance to meet Stephen Sondheim when a student was cast in his never-before- staged show, “Evening Primrose,” with Candice Bergen.
Lewis was an investor in the Broadway production of “Spring Awakening,” which won a Tony for Best Musical 2007. Additionally, she was an associate producer on Broadway’s Tony-nominated, “Enchanted April” and managing producer (and casting director) of off-Broadway’s “Burleigh Grime$” with Wendie Malick.
A member of the Casting Society of America, Lewis has cast many projects for stage and screen, and in that capacity was fortunate to work with notable luminaries like Jack Hofsiss, Tony-winning director of the “The Elephant Man”; Richard Maltby, Tony-winning director of “Aint Misbehavin’” and “Fosse”; and Richard Sherman, composer (along with his brother Robert) of many Disney classics including “Mary Poppins,” which Lewis notes was a particularly fun and rewarding collaboration.
One of the more unusual projects Lewis cast was” MindGame,” with Keith Carradine. It marked the first time legendary British film director Ken Russell directed a full-length play. “The story was written by ‘Foyle’s War’ writer Anthony Horowitz and seemed to be a serious thriller when I read it,” Lewis said. “But Ken Russell was known for being somewhat eccentric, and his vision was campy, even dressing the lead actress (Kathleen McNenny) in a sexy rubber nurse’s outfit. It turned out to be a lot of fun,” she said, adding, “It goes to show how a director shapes a concept.”
In 2005, Lewis cast her first feature film, “Love Ludlow” with Alicia (Lecy Goranson from ABC’s sitcom “The Connors”) which was sold to the Sundance channel and Starz and called, “another Sundance treasure” by Roger Ebert. Her last feature, “Free Dead or Alive,” was released last year. In between, she has cast numerous film and video projects.
Although Lewis will be relocating to Vermont, she will still keep ties to Bucks County. She is the only founding board member still on the board of the Oscar Hammerstein Music and Theatre Education Center (OHMEC), which recently secured the funds to purchase Highland Farm, the Hammerstein home.
“Saying goodbye to TAC is emotional for me,” said Lewis, adding “I love teaching and the kids I’ve worked with all these years. I hope they will visit me at MACC!”
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