Stray doesn’t take credit for all the yucks in “Downstage Confessions,” because his pals improvised a lot. “It’s a bit like professional musicians getting together in a garage on a weekend and jamming,” he says.
Scott Kenison exits the Atlas
Scott Kenison has been the go-to guy at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE since 2003, three years before its grand opening. He was central to getting the state-of-the-art performance complex up and running. Most recently, he’s served as Atlas’s chief operating officer, but he’s had his hand in everything that happens there and still found time to perform as a comic baritone with the Washington Savoyards, one of the Atlas’s Arts Partners in residence.
Now Kenison, 51, and his partner, David Shapiro, have decided it’s time for a lifestyle change. They’re relocating to Palm Springs after a planned summer in Vermont. Kenison says he has no plans, but hopes to get involved in the Palm Springs arts scene in some way.
Looking back at his Atlas tenure, Kenison says, “Getting people over here was the real challenge. . . . We’re still building that audience and getting people to come across town.” This year, he says, despite some rough times, the Atlas has been booking up its performance spaces. “I feel like I am telling people, ‘Well, I’m sorry. I don’t have space for you,’ ” he says with a laugh. “It’s a very nice thing.”
Kenison has devoted himself to the mission of Atlas founder and underwriter Jane Lang, which is to make the complex an affordable venue for local professional as well as fledgling arts groups, and an artistic hub for the changing H Street corridor. This requires much fundraising and audience-building, both ongoing projects at the Atlas.
Sam Sweet, the Atlas’s executive director, says creating a job description to find Kenison’s replacement was daunting. “He just does everything,” Sweet says. “Scott cares deeply about doing whatever it takes to make sure that the artist and the audience are taken care of. And that means high-level stuff, working with the box office, getting software programs in, looking at the facility, making sure that the lighting is right, down to, as he says, ‘If a toilet stops up, you can’t say, “It’s not my job.” Somebody has to plunge the toilet.’ ”
Kenison also oversaw the launch of a stagecraft apprenticeship program to train adults from the H Street corridor in skills that can get them hired at theaters and in the hospitality industry.
On his decision to leave the Atlas now, Kenison says, “I really felt that I was leaving the Atlas in a very good place. . . . I feel a little emotional. I feel like I’m somehow going to leave part of my DNA in the building. I’m part of the walls, which is a great thing. And I will always feel very connected to the Atlas and H Street. But I felt this was the time.”
Kenison’s replacement will be Kyle Rudgers, currently production manager with the Washington Performing Arts Society. Rudgers, whose title will be director of operations, starts July 5.
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l The Artists’ Bloc collective will workshop 11 new pieces this week in Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s rehearsal hall, Wednesday through Sunday. They’re asking for a $5 donation at the door. For information, go to www.artistsbloc.org .
Horwitz is a freelance writer.
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