Your Ticket to The Virginia Sutton Theatre at Well-Spring

“Look at this stuff. Isn’t it neat?”

This question may ring a bell. In her four-and-a-half-octave vocal range, Jodi Benson voiced the character Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid and sang Part of Your World a song that asked the viewer to look at her things and the world answered that, yes, they thought it was pretty neat.

Benson will sing and talk about her gadgets and gizmos of plenty, at Well-Spring this fall. Jodi is one of the slated performers in the upcoming season at Well-Spring’s Virginia Sutton Theatre.

The doors of the theatre opened in 2019, and the 340-seat-state-of-the-art theatre hosts Broadway stars, lecturers, theater groups, symphony and opera companies, plus original programing.

Lenore Teer, Director of Theatre Programming & Operations, has been in the director’s chair for the last seven years. She has a long-standing love of theatre, after watching her own daughter find a way to the stage.

“The theatre was shut down, almost right after we opened, so we began to do a weekly broadcast from the stage,” she recalls, “We called it Well-Spring Live, and we would have the performers come onstage, with our crew in the booth filming. It allowed us to pay our talent and keep our community engaged during a challenging time.”

The show must go on. And when the masks came off, the theatre bounced back to life with a rich range of audience-filled performances. Well-Spring residents and public patrons have since enjoyed productions by the N.C. Chamber Orchestra, Joy of Dance by Dance Expressions, the 100th Anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin, the Jewish Film Festival: Menashe and The 2024-2025 season is offering another stellar lineup of programming.

“The performers are thrilled to have access to our space. We have top-of-the-the-line equipment,” Lenore says. The Green Room, a space in the theatre where actors get ready, is a warm and peaceful place for prepping to walk on stage. The Events team has also designed make-shift vanity tables for the actors that also fit neatly into a storage space when they are not in use.

Not only are the performers excited to take the stage, but the Well-Spring community has also been just as enthusiastic to host an array of talent. Sue Irvin, a resident at Well-Spring and her late husband, John, started a series in 2021 named Broadway to Greensboro. The series, which is now in its fifth season, is an entertaining and educational partnership between Well-Spring and the musical theatre departments of UNCG, UNCSA, Greensboro College, Elon University, and Weaver Academy.

“We got through two seasons, and it really put us on the map for theatre people,” Lenore says. “Our first guest was Jessica Vosk, who played the role of Elphaba in Wicked the Musical.” Ryan Silverman, a praised bari-tenor, and actor in theatre shows including Side Show, The Phantom of the Opera and CHICAGO, will be a part of the upcoming season when he performs on September 21.

Well-Spring also boasts its very own performers. Bitten by the theatre bug, the term used to describe a person who fell in love with the stage, residents can join The Well-Spring Players. This group performs several times a year. The program is run by residents, directed by residents, and the occasional guest director. Practicing on stage and learning the structure of performances, residents put on stellar performances.