Bolton President and CEO Steve Brockmeyer and Bolton Board Chairman Ronald Wanglin, with ANW's Co-Producing Artistic Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott (center) at Granting Holiday Wishes in December. Photo courtesy of Bolton Foundation

A Noise Within (ANW) is announcing news including a Spring 2015 Gala on Wednesday, March 11; this event will take place on the stunning set of The Threepenny Opera, the first of three spring offerings. The company is also advising that it has begun a partnership with the Bolton Foundation, that Artistic Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott has been named a finalist in the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2015 Latino Business Awards, and that there are three new board members – Christopher Burt, vice president and senior counsel at Capital Group, Mark Rabinowitz, who recently retired after 30 years as most recently as corporate vice president and treasurer of Northrop Grumman Corporation, and William S. Woods II who is a partner in the National Tax Department of Ernst & Young.

General Manager Michael Bateman said, “Forty months after inaugurating our new building, we are feeling tremendous growth in the community on many levels. We have an exciting gala planned on the unusual set for The Threepenny Opera, which was designed so that that production and Julius Caesar, two plays that are thematically linked, can be performed and experienced on the same day as REVOLUTIONRep.”

Bateman continued, “We began a partnership with the Pasadena-based Bolton Foundation and we are looking forward to a long association with them. We have three new Board Members from the community, and we are proud that Julia Rodriguez-Elliott has been recognized as one of the leading, not-for-profit Latino Los Angeles area business leaders. All of these speak to our continued and deepening engagement with our community.”

ANW Spring Gala set for March 11

A Noise Within’s Spring Gala will take place on the evening of Wednesday, March 11. The Company’s Producing Artistic Directors and Resident Artists will join patrons on the Redmond Stage for an intimate dinner on the stunning set of The Threepenny Opera.

For a Gala invitation, please contact Libby Dye at [email protected] or (626) 356-3103. Proceeds from the Gala will fund ANW’s Classics Live! program, which will serve over 12,000 students in 2015 through live theatre performance and education.

ANW Granted Holiday Wishes in Partnership with Bolton Foundation

On Saturday December 20, 2014 at 2PM, A Noise Within hosted the Bolton Foundation’s inaugural event: a special performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for an audience of over 280 underprivileged children and their families from the local community. Entitled Granting Holiday Wishes, the event included a luncheon, the performance, and a holiday toy giveaway for children and families from Bienvenidos, Hillsides, Foothill Family Service, LA Inner City Arts, and Five Acres.

“The Bolton Foundation expresses its deepest thanks for A Noise Within’s willingness to accommodate our Pour Your Heart Out and Granting Holiday Wishes events. We appreciate the theater’s generosity and its commitment to helping us make a difference in the lives of many children and families in our local community.”

Bolton Foundation, launched in 2014, is a 501c (3) nonprofit organization, operating as a component fund of the Pasadena Community Foundation. It is the philanthropic arm of Bolton & Company, one of the nation’s largest employee-owned insurance brokers, who has a long history of partnering with nonprofit organizations in Southern California and currently supports more than 200 nonprofit organizations. Bolton Foundation exists to empower those who serve others, providing annual grants to local nonprofit organizations that address community development, education, youth services, and multiculturalism.

ANW Producing Artistic Director Named Finalist for Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2015 Latino Business Awards

ANW Producing AD has been selected as a finalist in the nonprofit category for The Los Angeles Business Journal 2015 Latino Business Awards. At the 6th annual awards ceremony on Tuesday, January 20 in Downtown Los Angeles, Julia Rodriguez-Elliott will attend a banquet with representatives of other businesses and organizations that have been chosen for setting an example for excellence in their fields.

ANW Welcomes New Board Members

As of the September 2014 membership meeting, The ANW Board of Directors elected Christopher Burt, Mark Rabinowitz, and Bill Woods to join their ranks.

Christopher Burt is a vice president and senior counsel at Capital Group, where he focuses on legal and regulatory matters affecting the investment management business. He and his wife Tieu-My have been supporters and patrons of ANW since 2012.

Chris also serves on the Los Angeles Regional Board of Directors of Read to a Child, a non-profit that matches mentors to elementary school students for weekly one-on-one reading sessions. He holds both a juris doctor degree and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago. His children have yet to develop an interest in Shakespeare.

Mark Rabinowitz retired from Northrop Grumman Corporation in 2011 after a 30-year career, serving as corporate vice president and treasurer from 2007 through 2011. He presently studies Shakespeare and other early modern literature through UCLA Concurrent Enrollment and is an investor in and advisor to startup companies in Southern California. Mark serves on the Board of Directors of Northrop Grumman Federal Credit Union, where he is vice chair, and Playwrights’ Arena, which produces new works for the stage written by Los Angeles playwrights. Mark has been an ANW patron and supporter of the “Classics Live!” education program since the 2011-12 season. Mark earned his B.A. in Economics and Government from Cornell University, and completed the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School.

William S. Woods, II, is a partner in the Partnerships & Joint Ventures Group of the National Tax Department of Ernst & Young, LLP. Bill’s transactionally based practice has emphasized acquisitions and dispositions of businesses and significant assets, usually involving the use of partnership structures. Bill organized and was the first chair of the Pass-Through Entities Committees of the Taxation Sections of the California State Bar Association and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. Bill is a frequent speaker and author, most recently including the NYU Tax Institute, the USC Tax Institute, the National Institute of Tax Professionals, the Portland Tax Forum, and the Seattle Tax Forum. Bill received a B.A. degree in political science from Claremont McKenna College, his J.D. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his LL.M. (in taxation) from New York University.

About A Noise Within

A Noise Within, founded in 1991, is among the country’s pre-eminent presenters of classical theatre and is the leading presenter of these plays in Southern California. The company’s mission is to produce world-class performances of the great works of drama in rotating repertory with a resident company; to educate and inspire the public through programs that foster an understanding and appreciation of history’s great plays and playwrights; and to train the next generation of classical theatre artists.

Originally based in a former Masonic Temple in Glendale, the company moved to its present home—a building of architectural distinction designed by Edward Durrell Stone of Kennedy Center fame—in 2011. Helmed by Producing Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, who hold MFAs from San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre, A Noise Within delivers a seven-show repertory season and a wide range of educational programs to diverse audiences from Los Angeles County and well beyond. Voted “Best Theatre” by readers of both Time Out Los Angeles and Pasadena Weekly, A Noise Within is indeed “California’s Home for the Classics.”