BRATTLEBORO-New England Youth Theatre (NEYT) has come full circle with the naming of Ben Stockman as its new artistic director.
"They put out the call across the country," said Stockman, "and I just happened to be in a position in my own life where I felt like I knew the Brattleboro youth community from my work at the Boys and Girls Club," where he was working as program staff "and from hanging out with [them] since 2021."
"I felt [...] this opportunity was not going to come up again and I decided I had to go for it," he said.
A month-long process ended in Stockman getting the offer in August, after 18 candidates were considered.
Stockman knows the organization well.
"NEYT had its first production [A Midsummer Night's Dream] starting late 1998, opening spring 1999," he said. "I was 13 at the time, and I played Oberon. I stuck like glue to this organization my entire middle school and high school career until 2004, when I graduated."
Even since, "I've been a teaching artist on and off," he said.
"And back in the day there was a direct pipeline from being a student to teaching summer camps and having directing opportunities," Stockman said.
In his case, he directed two classics, Harvey and It's a Wonderful Life, among others.
Following founder Stephen Stearns, who served as both artistic and executive director from 1998 to 2014, those in positions of artistic leadership were Rebecca Waxman, Hallie Flower, and interim director Malia'Kekia Nicolini.
As a press release puts forth, Stockman "will work in collaboration with NEYT faculty to develop yearly programming; curate classes, workshops, performances, and events; and work with the managing director and board of directors to ensure that the organization realizes its goals of artistic excellence, community service, education, and audience engagement."
A lifetime in theater
Theater is second nature to Stockman. As he tells it in a 2018 Ask a Director interview on theatredirectors.tumblr.com:
"When I was 6, I was cast as Emile de Becque in a living room production of South Pacific by my 5-year-old friend who directed and also starred as Nellie Forbush. It was very well-received by her parents and dog," he said.
"I was also really fortunate to grow up in the vicinity of strong after-school youth theater programs. I made my directorial debut at 14 with Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters," Stockman continued.
Calling the experience "pure joy and foolishness," Stockman said that Stearns "basically handed me the script and the keys to the space and let me direct my friends unsupervised for two weeks one summer."
"I've basically been trying to recreate that experience for the past 20 years," he said.
Stockman's journey after graduating from Brattleboro Union High School in 2004 was one to which many youth might relate. It was, he recalls, "long and bumpy."
After almost a year at Emerson College, he left in the middle of the spring semester. He enrolled in Lesley College as an English major and earned his undergraduate degree.
"It wasn't 'til the end of that [...] that I had in mind that I wanted to return to theater in some way," Stockman said.
Soon after that, in the winter of 2010-11, Stockman returned to Brattleboro, and he spent about five years developing a directing resume, working with area companies such as Vermont Theater Company, Apron Theater Company, Main Street Arts, and Actors Theatre Playhouse.
From there, he went on to earn an master of fine arts (MFA) degree in directing at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.
From his experiences and his MFA work, Stockman brings a range of assets to his new post.
"My English degree and my approach to reading drama as literature gives me a really great foundation of understanding the canon," he said.
Moreover, he continued, "in my grad school years and immediately following, I spent a lot of time working in new play development, ushering plays from the playwright's initial impulse - the germ of an idea - into a piece ready to share with an audience.
"In addition to that, my grad program required that I gain experience and knowledge in every theatrical design area, so I already came into that, having been raised in the scene shop of the UMass Amherst theater department, where my father, Jerry Stockman, worked."
The elder Stockman is a member of the faculty of NEYT and a member of its board. He recused himself from the entire artistic director selection process.
"So I went to grad school with a solid idea of how theatrical lighting worked and then had crash courses there in sound design, costume design, set design," he said. "I really have a little bit of knowledge in most areas, and I think that gives me a great foundation to work with as artistic director."
Beyond his program development work for the Boys and Girls Club of Brattleboro, he's toured with the Vermont Suitcase Company, and he was technical director on a team of NEYT alumni - with Shannon Ward, Doran Hamm, and Cassidy Majer - that led the Leland & Gray Players at the middle/high school in Townshend last year.
"I was really impressed by the students, especially in lighting and sound," Stockman said. "They had a strong base of skill and knowledge and knew how to pass that along to younger generations. That was already in place when I got there."
Stockman noted that with his background, he can know what various NEYT staffers' positions are, what's required of them, and "how to collaborate with them efficiently in a mutually understanding way."
A familiar team
After an organizational stir-up in 2022 when "staff and faculty worked collaboratively to keep things going," according to NEYT Managing Director Monique Duffy, and after Nicolini's tenure, a nationwide search for a new artistic leader was launched.
When asked if the turnover among NEYT leaders had rendered any challenging turbulence among staff, Stockman reported "no challenges whatsoever, really - all the folks who work here are folks that I know."
"There have been some recent additions, namely Shannon Ward as outreach director as of spring 2025, and our new marketing director, Linda Flores.
"Beyond this, Monika Grist-Weiner is our costume person - she is an NEYT alumna and someone I grew up with - and David Regan is our set design person. He's somebody I collaborated with when I came back in 2019 to direct A Midsummer Night's Dream, so these are all people I'd met previously in the community or in my time before that as student at NEYT."
Duffy said that Stockman "brings an enthusiastic and creative energy to the role, and he's a genuinely kind and thoughtful person. His long history with NEYT, as first a student and later as a visiting artist, makes him the perfect person to bridge the gap between NEYT's past and future."
NEYT will stage The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Oliver this fall. For the spring, "we have an original new commedia dell'arte–style play, Gingerly Goes the Way, written by alumna Rosa Palmeri," said Stockman, noting that the play, written for the senior company, was already in the works when he was hired.
"I'm really excited about the prospect of newly written plays having a big part of NEYTs production programming," he said. "My dream would be that we have at least one [production of a new play per year] moving forward."
Stockman described enrollment for 2024-25 thus far as "fantastic," adding that openings remain for NEYT's Page to Stage, for 6- to 8-year-olds who engage in the process of adapting a children's book into a stage production.
This year, they're adapting The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.
"That's something that's been happening off and on at NEYT since I was a teaching artist there," Stockman said.
Of his new position, Stockman said, "My heart is very full right now. The welcoming into this position from the larger NEYT community, from the founders, and from my own personal mentors has been incredible - as it's been from the people I'm meeting for the first time."
"Community members who have joined the NEYT family since I've been away or doing other things have really ushered me into this job with a lot of appreciation and love and I'm incredibly grateful for that," he added.
The not-for-profit New England Youth Theatre at 100 Flat St. in Brattleboro is celebrating its 25th year of programming for youth ages 6-19. Fees for programs vary; scholarships are available. More information can be found at neyt.org.
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.