After doing theater in the Midwest for several years, moving to San Diego to raise her family, and then entering the local theater scene, Sandy Hotchkiss Gullans is enjoying her current role.
For the last year, Gullans has been the co-director of Talent to aMuse Theatre Co. in Point Loma, which she founded with co-director Gail West-Halverson.
Part of their interest in the venture was to give the spotlight to local performers and local playwrights, Gullans said.
“There’s so many good artists out there, but it’s hard to break into theater,” she said.
Last year, Gullans and West-Halverson’s work focused on the premiere of Talent to aMuse’s Christmas play, “Emilia’s Sugarplum Nightmare,” she said. West-Halverson and George Weinberg-Harter wrote the play, which is about a little girl’s dream gone haywire, after she eats too many Christmas sweets.
“I was looking to commission a children’s production for Christmas time, and Gail and George have co-authored other scripts in the past and she said, ‘Well, let us write one for you,'” Gullans recalled. “So it kind of grew from that conversation.”
“Emilia” will have its second run this month, at Westminister Theater in Point Loma for three weekends, Dec.1-17.
Last year, the play cost $4,500 to produce, and ticket sales met the expenses, she said. This year, the play will cost the fledgling theater company $4,300.
Of ticket sales, she said, “They’re moving a little more slowly than, of course, we would ever like as is typical.” It tends to pick up closer to the opening, she said.
To market the show, Gullans uses Theater to aMuse and Westminister’s mailing lists, which together reach about 3,200 people, and does public relations, she said.
Talent to aMuse has produced one other play this year, “Love the Concept,” which was performed at a local actors festival.
The company hope to make “Emilia” an annual production, Gullans said.
“It was written with that in mind,” she said. However, she added, “There’s a sequel in the works, from what I understand.”
