“I Don”™t Know How She Does It” is the name of a new comedy starring Sarah Jessica Parker. But it might also be your reaction to the life of Allison Stockel, executive director of The Ridgefield Playhouse.
Here”™s a typical day: Get the kids ”“ a 13-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son ”“ out the door by 8 a.m. Work out from 8:30 to 10 a.m. (Stockel is a triathlete.) Then it”™s a full day of work, home to make sure the kids are fed and homework”™s done and back to The Playhouse for one of its many special events.
Did we mention that Stockel donates her salary back to this center for movies and the performing arts center?
How does she do it? The how lies in the why.
“I do it, because I love doing it. I love this town. It has more to do with having The Playhouse in this town than anything else.”
Stockel didn”™t start out looking to run the 11-year-old Playhouse. For 19 years, she was a television producer for CNN, MTV and VH1, Time Warner, ABC and the Food Network, working on such entertainment magazine shows as CNN”™s “Showbiz Today” (now “Showbiz Tonight”). In 2001, she joined the board of The Playhouse and was assigned to fundraising, booking pop-rock singer and “Ally McBeal” star Vonda Shepard for the 2002 gala.
That experience reminded her of the importance of having name performers to fill 500 seats.
“The bigger the name, the more expensive they are,” she says. “But those are the ones that sell out (the house).”
It wasn”™t long before Stockel was helping to book The Playhouse”™s entire season. When the executive director was let go, Stockel stepped in on an interim basis. That was seven years ago.
On her watch, The Playhouse ”“ which has an operating budget of $2.5 million ”“ has gone from offering about 12 acts a year (September to May) to around the same number per each of the 12 months, or more than 110 a year. This with a staff of five full-timers who work long hours and do a little bit of everything. That may be Stockel herself that you see behind the concession stand on any given night.
The versatility of the staff matches the versatility of the programming. November is a good example. The month will see performances by The Doobie Brothers (Nov. 4) and two of the surviving members of The Doors (Nov. 6), whose rock ”™n”™ roll rhythms are counterbalanced by singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams (Nov. 1) and “Broadway Backstage” (Nov. 11). Other November offerings include comedian Sandra Bernhard (Nov. 12), “Seussical the Musical” (Nov. 20) and Wagner”™s “Siegfried” (Nov. 14), part of “The Met: Live in HD,” a series of simulcasts from The Metropolitan Opera that is in its second year at The Playhouse.
The venue also embraces non-arts programming ranging from Zumba fitness to the League of Women Voters.
“It”™s a very difficult balance to run a performing arts center,” Stockel says. “You want to do artistic acts. But you can”™t run it into the ground financially.”
The year 2009 was a tough one for The Playhouse, as it was for everyone, she observes. But things are looking up.
Despite the challenges, you get the sense that Stockel thrives on her work.
“It”™s a difficult job,” she says. “But when a show goes off, it”™s very rewarding.”
For more on The Ridgefield Playhouse, call 438-5795 or visit ridgefieldplayhouse.com.
