{"id":248105,"date":"2014-12-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/cultivating-attention\/"},"modified":"2014-12-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T08:00:00","slug":"cultivating-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/cultivating-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultivating attention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diversionary Theatre gets a new \u2018boss\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

por David Dixon<\/p>\n

Upon viewing Matt Morrow\u2019s resume on his website, mattmmorrow.com<\/a>, it is very clear that he is a multitalented artist. Morrow has directed many shows and taught numerous theatre classes in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Just as importantly, Morrow has had a broad range of experience in artistic leadership and management. He was the associate artistic director of City Theatre Company in Pittsburgh and the literary and development director of Amas Musical Theatre in New York City.<\/p>\n

\"Cultivating
Matt Morrow (Photo by Sue Ellen Fitzsimmons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new chapter of Morrow\u2019s career recently began when he was named the executive artistic director of Diversionary Theatre in San Diego in October.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Central Florida, Morrow realized he had a passion for drama at a young age.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheater kind of saved my life there,\u201d he said. \u201cAs an adolescent, I had very little direction \u2026 but I had this impulse towards theater. I went to a community theater production and saw the musical, \u2018Tom Sawyer,\u2019 and fell in love with the whole experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is a high school graduate of Lois Cowles Harrison School for the Arts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama at Carnegie Mellon University. Since then, he\u2019s had an extensive career focusing behind the scenes in the world of theatre. \u201cI worked for practically every major off-Broadway theater company in various capacities,\u201d he said. \u201cI assisted-directed, directed, worked as the company manager for \u2018Forbidden Broadway\u2019\u2026 I did pretty much everything you can do, besides be on the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, he applied to be the leader of Diversionary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really organic process coming to know the Diversionary, the board of directors and the staff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One of the main reasons that Morrow is excited for the future of the company, is because the board will be promoting world premieres of up-and-coming playwrights.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus will be developing and producing new plays and musicals,\u201d Morrow said. \u201cImmersive and site-specific theatrical experiences. That\u2019s one movement happening in the theater that\u2019s really exciting to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A potentially difficult task for any executive artistic director might be attracting theatergoers to see original pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a challenge to develop and cultivate audiences to support new work, because it\u2019s supporting the unknown,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s going to be somewhat of a [risk], but I look forward to surmounting that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the thrust might be on original stagings, there will still be revivals of plays focused on the LGBT community in Diversionary\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely space to revisit existing, popular works from the cannon with a new spin, take and perspective,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not necessarily interested in doing a straightforward revival of a piece. That\u2019s not to say I won\u2019t ever do that, because I think there\u2019s room for it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrow has high hopes for the continuing growth of the theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think Diversionary should become known as a nationally recognized home that develops and produces exciting LGBT works,\u201d he said. \u201cI want us to be known for being a very fertile ground where LGBT writers from around the world can come and work. Where they can come and find a creative home.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about increasing attendance at the Diversionary, he replied by saying \u201cby doing more of the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to increasing attendance at Diversionary, Morrow thinks the group should keep on doing what they are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel the staff has a wonderful attitude with the patrons,\u201d he said. \u201cThe attitude is once you know us, you\u2019re gonna come back. It\u2019s just getting them in the door the first time. Once people experience our work, I think they fall in love. We produce quality work in a very loving atmosphere, which I believe is contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrow had even more to add about why he thinks people should give the Diversionary a try.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s good and because it\u2019s exciting,\u201d he said. \u201cThat sort of sums up where we are with Diversionary right now. I can promise a great time that they will carry with them for the rest of the week, if not month, if not year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently being staged at Diversionary through Dec. 21 is \u201cTru,\u201d the 1989 play based on Truman Capote\u2019s words and works.<\/p>\n

For more about Diversionary, visit diversionarytheatre.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014A fan of film and theatre from a very young age, David Dixon has written reviews and features for various print and online publications and is currently a student at San Diego State. You can reach him at daviddixon0202@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diversionary Theatre gets a new \u2018boss\u2019 By David Dixon Upon viewing Matt Morrow\u2019s resume on his website, mattmmorrow.com, it is very clear that he is a multitalented artist. Morrow has directed many shows and taught numerous theatre classes in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":248106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Cultivating attention","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}