It’ll be no easy task to fill the shoes of Kevin Hauge, who is retiring as CMT San Jose’s artistic director this season after 30 years. But the award-winning youth theater company believes they’ve got the right person in Kikau Alvaro, a San Jose native who’ll be returning to CMT and the Bay Area after several years on the East Coast.
CMT landed on Alvaro after a nationwide search that took nearly a year.
“Ultimately, Kikau won our hearts because of his well-rounded experience as a multifaceted artist and educator, connections to the broader theater community in the Bay Area and beyond, his vision for endless possibilities of what CMT can become, and his inherent passion for this organization,” CMT San Jose Managing Director Dana Zell said.
Alvaro served as the associate artistic director of the Virginia Repertory Theatre, and most recently was an associate professor of musical theater at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In the Bay Area, he directed and choreographed three shows at CMT, including “Avenue Q” and “The Drowsy Chaperone,” as well as working on several other shows for CMT, TheatreWorks and the Diablo Theatre Center in Walnut Creek.
Hauge, who is directing next month’s production of “Waitress” for CMT, said he was confident Zell and Alvaro would be a great team to lead the company into the next chapter of its 57-year history.
“Nothing is more important to me than the future of CMT,” Hague said. “I have had the unique opportunity to witness Kikau’s growth from a performer in his youth to his blossoming career as an arts educator, teacher, and director.”
ART AND ABOUT: If you’ve been to the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara this year, you might have noticed something new: The John and Eve Mathias Gallery, which was named in January — the same time the three newest exhibitions opened featuring work by artists Nathan Oliveira, Marc D’Estout and Laurus Myth.
An artist and poet, John Mathias serves as president of the Triton’s board of trustees, and his wife, Eve Page Mathias, is a professor emeritus of drawing and painting at San Jose City College. John Mathias said their donation that prompted the gallery naming was to ensure that future generations learn how the arts enrich where we live and, in fact, make it more livable.
There is more excitement coming for the Triton, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a gala on May 3. Get more information at www.tritonmuseum.org/events.