Newton Theatre Company (NTC) has announced that Paige Perkinson will join the company as Director of Development, a new position for the company. An actor affiliated with NTC since 2016, Perkinson is known for her roles in NTC’s productions of We’re Gonna Die and St. Joan.
When Paige Perkinson taught theatre at Newton South High School in 2014, one of her students was the daughter of Melissa Bernstein, the artistic director of NTC. Perkinson had known about NTC for a long time as an audience member, and after having a child she was looking to get back into acting after long hiatus. It was then that Bernstein reached out to her, offering Perkinson the role of Achilles in the all-female production of Iphigenia at Aulis.
While Perkinson is really excited about her new position as the Director of Development, she admits that she is also nervous about the risk of being a “drain on [NTC’s] resources.” Although the position is only part-time, it is paid, and for any small nonprofit theater company in Boston, budgets are tight. Perkinson wants to make NTC’s investment in her worthwhile, which is a lot of pressure for her and one of the many goals that she has set for herself as the Director of Development. With research and mentoring, Perkinson says that while the return on investment in development professionals can take 2-3 years, it can be huge.
Perkinson’s main goal is to increase contributed income by 30% in the next one to two years. Contributed income comes from donations – from individual donors, grants, and corporations, a source that Perkinson looks to strengthen. She hopes to introduce more donor events this year by having more weekend shows and giving donors opportunities to have access to artists and content so that they feel more engaged with NTC.
NTC is currently on summer break due to Boston being a “college town,” and Perkinson will be acting in the NTC’s season-opening show in September.
“Newton Theatre Company is an artistic beacon of the community,” she says, “It offers educational experiences for kids and high quality theater right in your own backyard with really incredible actors performing right there. The access is just incredible, and so many people don’t know about it. So taking the leap with having more personnel and growing the staff is not just for the sake of growing a company but for the sake of improving and contributing to the culture of Newton and bringing something beautiful and valuable to the table for the citizens of Newton.”
Chloe Yu is a Fig City News intern and a rising junior at Emerson College.
