Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

Jimmy Moore could not be happier to be back in San Antonio.

A native son, whose family still lives here, he has returned to lead the Classic Theatre of San Antonio as the new artistic/executive director.

“I have been wanting to get back to San Antonio pretty much from the day that I left,” said Moore Tuesday during a phone interview. “For one thing, my family is here and I am very close to my family. I have two grandparents in their 90s, and my mother here. I have four siblings, too. And I want to be a bigger part of my family’s life. Also, I have always had this dream to bring what I have learned in other arts cities back to San Antonio… When the Classic’s position came up, it felt really meaningful to me as an opportunity to contribute to the community here.”

He is no stranger to the Classic Theatre since he was cast in a production of “12^th Night” in 2009, directed by Diane Malone, one of the co-founders of the company. A few other roles followed that same year. Later, while pursuing other projects elsewhere, he followed developments at the local company, feeling that the Classic would be one of the “best organizations to be involved with in San Antonio.”

Moore’s formal thespian education began at Texas State University where he received his undergraduate degree in performance in 2007 and where he returned for his master’s in directing, in 2016. His resume lists multiple other workshops and programs where he refined his skills in a range of disciplines.

In his career so far, he’s been a performer, director, choreographer, dance captain, costume & set designer, and more, in professional productions by a number of companies, including Madison Square Garden, the ZACH Theater in Austin – the oldest professional theater in Texas, and the Lyric Theater of Oklahoma City. Along the way, Moore has also collected his share of award nominations, and awards, including the Alamo Theater Arts Council Award (ATAC Globe Award) for directing in 2016.

In a speech to supporters, actors and board members on Tuesday night, Moore summarized his career humorously this way: “I have performed everywhere, from actual barns to regional theaters, to Madison Square Garden. I have taught for theater companies and universities. I have danced, I have sung, I have appeared on stage as a man, I have played a woman…and…I have played a racoon.”

What appealed to the board members who selected him for the dual role of both artistic and executive director was also his administrative experience, most recently with the Zilker Theatre Productions, where he served as artist director for a year.

One of his immediate priorities in the new job will be to find a home base for the company, which gave up its small former home inside the Woodlawn Theater building when performing indoors was all but eliminated by the pandemic.

“The Classic is the only theater in town at present that doesn’t have its own performance space, and that’s certainly on my agenda,” said Moore who speaks very fast and very enthusiastically. “We need a physical space that’s unique and fulfills our needs. We are limited in the choices of plays we can present if we are only outdoors. That said, I must add that I am a big fan of all types of producing, if that means something that’s site-specific or outdoors, or on a roof of a garage. I think theater should be everywhere. I don’t think of a current situation as a limitation, I think it’s full of possibilities.” He is also contemplating moving from location to location around town to expose different neighborhoods to what the Classic has to offer. “That will give our patrons a grand new experience every single time,” he noted.

For the time being, the two shows already scheduled for the 2021-22 season will proceed as already planned: “A Doll’s House, Part 2” by Lucas Hnat (Feb/March 2022), and “Misalliance” by George Bernard Shaw in May 2022.  Exact dates will be announced later.

Moore is replacing Kelly Roush, the highly respected and hard-working former leader who led the company for about six years and helped it survive the worst of the pandemic by starting its Theater in the Rough program, meaning presenting plays outdoors, specifically at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. During her tenure, Team Classic produced a range of venerable plays, from the ancient Greeks and Shakespeare, to more modern classics, authored by Chekov, Ibsen and Lillian Hellman. But they were also willing to entertain audiences with a comedy written in 2016 by two American women – Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon – featuring characters from the English classic “Pride and Prejudice,” which became a huge success.

Moore hopes to widen further the types of plays and embrace playwrights from different walks of life.

“Like theaters across the country, I want to continue bringing new ideas into our environment,” he said in his speech. “As our industry realizes more and more how limited the Western theatrical canon is, it’s important to encourage more and more diverse artists and choices on our stages…. “On that same front, I want to continue redefining what classics are, where they come from, how old they are, what makes them great, and how they are presented.”

But he’s mindful of a bigger truth for theater artists, one he attributes to his drama teacher Marion Sweatmon whose credo was: “You can do anything you want to audiences. You can scare them, make them cry, you can even offend them, but you can never bore them.”