Into the Pressure Cooker
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Alpaugh’s skills as an arts administrator should come in handy. For six years he was managing director of the Arizona Theatre Co., where he helped retire a $680,000 deficit and set up a $1 million reserve fund. Most recently Alpaugh served a short stint as associate director of the arts education group Urban Gateways. Though his predecessor at the Joffrey, Arnold Breman, is officially stepping down to complete a book of show business anecdotes, it appears the company’s board has been searching for a director with some experience running a troubled arts organization. “What Robert Alpaugh does well is strategic planning and fund-raising,” says Joffrey board president David Kipper.
The first of this season’s shows will include such familiar Joffrey works as Light Rain and Suite Saint-Saens. But the center-piece of the run is the world premiere of a new work, Kali Ma, choreographed by Joffrey associate director Ann Marie DeAngelo. Descriptions of the new piece have been hard to come by. A Joffrey spokeswoman would only say that the work features “singers, artists, and street performers” and has an original score by Mitch Hennes and Lauren Weinger that will be performed by the Oriana Singers. A preview planned earlier this week for members of the Joffrey’s governing board and other invited guests was abruptly canceled when the response fell below expectations.
Carlucci’s move into the House of Blues Hotel won’t be the restaurateur’s first hotel experience. Early next month, he and partner Mike Ditka will open Iron Mike’s, a new restaurant at the Tremont Hotel that they describe as cross between a saloon and a steakhouse.
