Basin Theatre Works’ new Executive Director Jon Montgomery knows about the challenges facing the Permian Playhouse.
But he’s excited about the work ahead and to begin a new year of shows at the Permian Playhouse.
The first show for the 2023 season at Basin Theatre Works will be a Texas classic called “Greater Tuna,” which hits the stage next month.
Montgomery, who became the new executive director a few months ago, comes in from Dodge City, Kan. but is no stranger to the Lone Star State, having worked in Corpus Christi before moving to Kansas.
“I’m pretty pumped to be in places that value artistic products,” Montgomery said. “I was surprised that the art is everywhere in Odessa. I’m pumped. I’m glad to be a part of an organization where the people are pumped about the mission, bringing quality theater to West Texas. There’s so much to be excited about.”
Before coming to the Permian Basin, Montgomery served as artistic and executive director of the Depot Theater in Dodge City.
Prior to that, he spent five years as a theater teacher at the Incarnate Word Academy in Corpus Christi where he worked with the Texas Education Theatre Association.
He eagerly began his new job in Odessa back in October.
“I started a week early,” Montgomery said. “I begged to start a week early.”
While he’s new to the area, different members of his family have lived in Odessa, which Montgomery said made it easier for him to make the move to the Permian Basin.
“I have oil family that was forged and made in Odessa-Midland so I’ve never been out this way but I’ve heard all the stories about what a great place it is to live and work,” Montgomery said. “I saw an opportunity to come here and luckily, the hiring committee and the board of directors were like ‘we’d love to have you.’ So I’ve enjoyed my time here so far. I’ve had a blast.”
Montgomery talked about some of the ways his previous jobs have prepared him for his current role.
One of those ways includes communicating with other people.
“I think I’ve learned a lot from the last couple of years,” Montgomery said. “Like how to interact with people who are craving interaction with other human beings. So knowing that, I’m way more inclined to speak to people and get to know people that I have never met before. I also crave those connections so I will sit and talk with anybody. So I think in this executive director position, that’s a huge skill set, being able to speak to people.”
Like most theater organizations, Montgomery says the biggest hurdle facing Basin Theatre Works is money.
“Every nonprofit, every arts organization has that hurdle so we have to prove to the community that we’re worth supporting and I think our community knows that. But we have to offer programming and opportunities that entertain and educate at the same time. That’s what we’re working on building.”
While life has somewhat returned to normal, it’s been hard for some local theaters to recover after shows all over were canceled throughout 2020 during lockdown.
“It’s interesting,” Montgomery said. “It’s kind of not over but we’re back to normal as much as we can be. There are still people that don’t want to be in a room filled with other people yet. They’re not comfortable. That’s a challenge. That’s a financial hurdle in itself because we’re not reaching the maximum amount of people that we can. Basin Theatre Works has to think about how we can serve the people that are willing to be here in person and are there ways to serve people that are more comfortable at home. We’ll have talks about streaming or programs that are maybe less populated or more spread out. I think it’s something that we’re going to have to live with in the back of our heads in our field.”
Basin Theatre Works is coming off its biggest fundraiser of the year with Divas and Desserts which took place last month at the MCM Grande Hotel and Fundome.
“It was super successful,” Montgomery said, who is not only thinking about this season at Basin Theatre Works but next year as well. “I think it’s going to propel us into what we want to do this year and even more so for the following season. This is a rebuilding season for us and we’re looking forward to 2024 and saying ‘ok, after we rebuild and get our audiences back and are financially sound, what magic can we create in 2024?’”
“Greater Tuna” will feature two adult actors playing all 20 characters in the fictional town of Tuna, Texas.
“It’s very Texas humor,” Montgomery said. “Texans love it. It pokes fun at a lot of Texas tropes. But it does it in a way that’s not offensive and in a way that says, ‘hey, we’re all here to have a good time.’ Two people play all these men, women and children. The whole play series is one of my favorites and that’s probably because I’m a Texan.”
The show dates for “Greater Tuna” are Feb. 24-26 and March 3-5 at Permian Playhouse.
After “Greater Tuna,” the next production will be the musical “Bright Star,” written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.
Montgomery said that performance will be done in conjunction with Odessa College and Odessa Arts and will take place at the Ector Theatre.
No exact date has been locked in yet for the musical.
“After that, we’ll have our education program present a few shows,” Montgomery said. “Those are in the mix right now. We plan on bringing back our summer camp. We want to do a summer musical with that. My hope — and this isn’t solidified — but my hope is that ‘Finding Nemo’ will be on the stage this summer because its rights just got released. I’m looking into getting that.”
Montgomery also said Basin Theatre Works is looking to bring back “Las Nuevas Tamaleras” from San Antonio in the fall.
“We’re in talks with having them come back,” Montgomery said.
Divas and Desserts will return later this year in October with a Halloween-themed show.
“We’re kind of in the planning stages of that right now,” Montgomery said of this year’s Divas and Desserts. “But we’re hoping that’ll be a huge success.”
The year will close similar to how it began with “Tuna Christmas” in December which will also have two cast members.
Montgomery is hopeful that the smaller productions this year will lead to bigger productions next year.
“I think we want to do more plays and programming and I think we’ll want to do larger productions,” Montgomery said. “Right now, we’re starting off with ‘Greater Tuna’ which has two actors. We’re ending with ‘Tuna Christmas’ which also has two actors so it’s a smaller season to say that we’re back and rebuilding. But I’m looking forward to 2024 and looking at big casts and lots of people. Hopefully that comes to fruition.”
The dates for other shows are still being figured out even though “Tuna Christmas” will take place in the first couple of weeks of December.
“We’re trying to figure out what events do we need to avoid and how can we maximize our patrons so we’re working on that,” Montgomery said.
With the new season about to get underway at Basin Theatre Works, Montgomery says there are plenty of ways for people to get involved at Permian Playhouse.
“We’re really wanting people to know that if they want to volunteer with us, we would love to have them,” Montgomery said. “If they don’t know that we’re open yet, we want them to know that we are definitely open. We want them to know that they can contact us and that we have all kinds of opportunities. A lot of people think that volunteering with theater means being on the stage which is part of the volunteering but we need people to build the sets. We need people to find costumes. We need people to help sell tickets and sell concessions. Any kind of skill set a person has will fit inside this building and if they really want to be a part of Basin Theatre Works, we just want them to know that they can reach out to us at any time and we can find something for them.”
For more information about “Greater Tuna” or Basin Theatre Works, go to tinyurl.com/dvpz39wk.
