PUTNEY-Natalie Dreyer, the new executive director of Next Stage Arts, brings with her a wealth of arts administration experience and her happiness at becoming a full-time member of the community.
Dreyer, 37, is the director of curriculum and collaborative learning at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
She was chosen because she was "eloquent," "insightful" and "warm," said Board Co-chair Heather Brubaker, who was part of the search committee.
"She's a terrific writer," she said. "And being a good communicator is such an important part of the executive director job at Next Stage. Then I happened to be on the first phone call with her, along with another member of the search committee. When we got off that first phone call, we turned to each other and said, 'Wow!' She had this kind of grounded warmth."
During the interview process, Dreyer came up to visit the nonprofit arts venue. She met with community members, board members, the search committee, and the staff of the theater.
"And across the board, I think everyone was really impressed with her level of preparation, with her thoughtfulness, and with how much she seemed to understand what Next Stage is as an organization and the role that it plays in our community," Brubaker said.
She added that Dreyer "really seemed able to wrap her mind around the vision of a community-based arts organization committed to really expanding cultural opportunities for everyone in our community."
"She also wants to draw in people on a more regional level," Brubaker said. "So she seemed to understand what we were up to, very quickly. She had a grasp of what was essential."
Life in the arts
A native of South Bend, Indiana, Dreyer comes from a creative background. Both her parents work in the arts: her father is a professor of theater and lighting design, and her mother is a professor of dance and choreography. So Dreyer grew up in an artistic household, first playing the cello and then switching to vocal music.
After getting a double B.A., in vocal music and Spanish, from DePauw University in Indiana, she moved into arts administration. She has more than 10 years of experience with nonprofit arts organizations, plus a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"I took a year after college to volunteer with the Robinson Community Learning Center, which is a learning center attached to the University of Notre Dame," Dreyer told The Commons. "I was looking to bridge the community and university relations."
She worked there for a year, then moved to Arkansas to work as an education intern for a professional youth theater.
"Then I came back to the Robinson Center and served for two years there through AmeriCorps," Dreyer said. "I ran their theater outreach program, and developed and extended partnerships to five different elementary schools."
Then, for seven years, she worked at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island.
"I was in their education department," Dreyer said. "I started by running their internship program as well as developing an arts integration program with the Providence public schools. We started at one school and, by the end, we had expanded to six elementary schools and 25 classrooms. We were working primarily on bringing theater and English language learning together."
Then, in 2021, Dreyer moved to New Jersey and began working at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
"I worked through three different roles pretty quickly at NJPAC," Dreyer said. "I was the faculty lead for arts integration, director of arts integration, and then director of curriculum and collaborative learning."
Although she has never lived or worked in Putney, Dreyer said she has close friends in the community.
When she moved to Providence, one of her co-workers "was lucky enough to be dating a person who was born and raised in Putney," she said.
That person is "now also one of my closest friends," Dreyer said. "So I've been visiting her family and her family home for about 10 years now. So that is where my ties come from."
Because she was interested in Putney, Dreyer kept her ears tuned for opportunities in the area. When one of her friends sent her the Next Stage job description, she thought, "What a unique opportunity, and what a unique institution to step into." So she applied.
"Then I did more research on the website and got to listen to the beautiful story of the founding of the organization, the history around it, and how it was such a community-driven project," Dreyer said.
Birth of a venue
Next Stage was founded in 2010 after a pair of devastating fires hit the Putney General Store in the town center, the second one in 2009 leveling the historic building.
The community came together to fundraise with a performance in the former Putney Federated Church, by then, owned by the Putney Historical Society (PHS) after the United Church of Putney disbanded the previous year.
With the historical society looking to find a sustainable use for an essential public community space, Next Stage was born.
As reported by The Commons in 2011, the nonprofit came together with the collaboration of Stuart Strothman of the PHS and a team of mostly local people whose expertise ranged from performing arts to the adaptive reuse of historic buildings, including architect Chip Greenberg, Eric Bass of Sandglass Theater, Barry Stockwell of Twilight Music and the Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery in Brattleboro, music producer and songwriter Billy Straus, and Lyssa Papazian, then-president of the PHS.
In 2016, Next Stage completed a $1.8 million renovation project, according to its website. "The result is a 200-seat, state-of-the-art, fully accessible performance venue, with a dance floor, green room, a commercial-grade kitchen, art gallery, and community rooms."
Next Stage's budget in 2025 was about $600,000, Brubaker said; the job, when posted, listed a salary range between $70,000 and $85,000.
Dreyer was one of 35 applicants for the job vacated by Keith Marks.
After almost five years, Marks left at the beginning of January to take the helm of the Colonial Theater in Keene, New Hampshire, which has a bigger stage, a bigger audience pool, bigger stars coming to play, and a bigger budget with which to pay them.
"We're delighted that he has the opportunity to lead a larger organization with more seats and staff and that he continues to collaborate with us here at Next Stage," Brubaker said.
Since Marks's departure, Next Stage has been run by its first executive director, Maria Basescu.
"We've been in the capable hands of Maria as interim E.D. since January," Brubaker said. "She has been working tirelessly to ensure a smooth and successful transition."
A plan for the future
Last December, the Next Stage board of directors developed a five-year strategic plan; Dreyer will be the person to implement it.
One part of that plan is "really strengthening our administrative and financial operations to ensure our future," Brubaker said.
"We've grown a lot in the last five years. We've expanded our budget. We've expanded our programming reach. And now we're taking a moment to really make sure that our organizational structures match our growth," she added.
As an experienced nonprofit administrator, Dreyer will understand how to make Next Stage an efficient, data-driven, professional organization, Brubaker said.
"We feel really confident with Natalie, given her experience," Brubaker said.
The next two parts of the five-year plan will involve deepening Next Stage's commitment to community, expanding its reach and becoming even more innovative.
"One of the things that we're really excited about is that Natalie may be able to expand our partnerships with schools and with other nonprofits," Brubaker said. For example: "artist residencies that bring artists into the community for longer periods of time."
"We really feel she has the vision and experience to carry that community-based arts organization piece forward in a really exciting way," she added.
Dreyer, who is now busy packing, starts her new job the first week of September.
Her first challenge was finding a place to live in Putney.
"I spent a few weeks looking and it was very difficult," Dreyer said, but thanks to the help of a board member, she has rented an apartment.
"I'd be very interested in investing in the community, of being able to purchase a home. But right now, I just have to get there, so we're starting with that apartment," she observed.
Dreyer said her specific plans for Next Stage are far from being fully formed.
"I'm excited to to be around and to listen," Dreyer said. "One of the things that is a stretch for me in this role is that I am not used to being the one in the spotlight. I work so diligently [behind the scenes] to help make art happen and to connect communities. So it's going to be a little bit of a transition."
But she said that a more public-facing role is "something that I'm excited to step into, and I look forward to really making those connections."
"One of the reasons that I took this role at this time is a need for community and how art can bring us together," she said.
While she loved her time in New Jersey, she said, "the deep sense of community that you get just through walking through Putney and going to these Next Stage events is something that's intangible," Dreyer said.
"You can't even really describe it," she said. "To watch how everyone takes care of each other in this time, I think we need it now more than ever. I'm very honored that I get to help lead that."
This Arts item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.