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With a life devoted to theater, Tener Wade knows the virtues of bringing people together. As the first-ever executive director of Your Theatre and the Steeple Playhouse, the 32-year-old brings a resume of theater experience that the New Bedford-based acting company was looking for to take it to the next level. Their focus will be on greater engagement with the community, improvements to the facility, and growing its financial status.
Wade is tending not only to the production of performances, but also to the management responsibilities for the 79-year-old theater troupe and the playhouse. A nonprofit, the organization saw the need for an executive director when it moved into the Steeple Playhouse in November 2023. This year, Wade will be working with a budget of $300,000.
“Tener was hired because they’re uniquely qualified,” says Eric Paradis of Fairhaven, a board member for Your Theatre, as well as an actor and director who has been with the company for more than 20 years. “Not only do they have an extensive background in theater, but also running a theater. And they also have development experience in bringing in the money required to run an organization. They’re raising the money to make the operation work, and they are modernizing a lot of our processes from financial to volunteers.”
“They definitely see what we need and what changes we need to make,” says James Sanguinetti, a New Bedford resident who has been an actor and director with Your Theatre for eight years.
“This allows us to do what we want to do, which is create art and put on shows in the community, and make sure that we can do it in a sustainable manner.”
Born and raised in central Virginia, with a magna cum laude degree in theater from Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, Wade has also lived and worked in Texas, Florida and Washington state. They moved to New Bedford in June of last year and officially began their duties with Your Theatre on July 1 of last year.
The skills Wade brings to the position include strategic planning, budget analysis, community relations, project management, marketing communications, and arts management.
After graduation, Wade worked as a technical director at Bryan College. A year later, they took a job as a technician and trainer at Walt Disney World in Orlando. After a year in that role, they took a position as a technician and event liaison at Encore Event Technologies at Amelia Island, Florida. From 2016 to 2021, Wade worked at Amelia Community Theatre in Florida, in the roles of production manager, associate director and executive director, before becoming a development manager and operations director at Northwind Art in Port Townsend, Washington, from 2022 to 2024.
Wade is a non-commercial photographer and frequently journals.
Your Theatre, founded by Mary A. Smith in 1946, purchased the Steeple Playhouse in conjunction with WHALE in 2017, and in the last three years has made $3 million in renovations. Located at 159 William St. downtown, the building is the former site of the First Baptist Church, a structure that is nearly 200 years old. The facility’s iconic steeple is the last remaining steeple that appears on the city’s historic seal.
The renovations made to the playhouse will enable the building to be used for more than Your Theatre productions. New Bedford Festival Theatre and Stellar Studios Theater have staged performances, and the playhouse hosted the New Bedford Film Festival and other community events and meetings.
Last year they welcomed more than 8,000 guests and they expect to surpass that number this season.
Half of Your Theatre’s funding comes from donors and supporters. The other half comes from ticket revenues.
Wade talked with The Light about their roles and responsibilities, their first year in New Bedford, the progress that has taken place at the Steeple Playhouse, growing their audience, their vision, their career in theater and more.
New Bedford Light: As executive director of Your Theatre, what are your roles and responsibilities?
Tener Wade: My biggest roles and responsibilities revolve around community relations and development. So that includes fundraising, grant writing and management. It also includes continuing to build the operational capacity of the organization. Now that we’ve been in the space for a year-and-a-half, with me there for just this last year, we’ve come a long way in making the organization able to be a home not just to Your Theatre, but also, for more groups in the community to create in an excellent professional space.
NBL: What attracted you to this position?
TW: The biggest thing was getting back into community theater and getting to be part of an organization that was in the process of not necessarily reinventing itself but turning to a new chapter. So that’s the thing that really drew me to Your Theatre. There’s a big difference between being a theater producer that comes with a lot of challenges, turmoil and blood, sweat and tears, but then there’s kind of an additional layer when you start not just creating theater, but also being a theater. Especially when that change comes with the responsibilities and commitment to a larger community to create a home and a safe place for them. And that’s something that really excited me about the position.
NBL: How has your first year gone, and what are some of your accomplishments?
TW: The first year has gone very well. It’s been a lot of learning. I’ve gotten to meet some wonderful folks, and so a big part of this first year was meeting people, getting to know them, and finding out their unique creative insights and passions, both within the theater and the community. I’m so pleased to be welcomed by the arts community here in New Bedford and I’ve been excited to be a part of helping others in creating theater, film and dance and music.
Some of the biggest accomplishments are hitting a new milestone for great producers in the space. We had 12 different community producers in the space in the last year. We’ve been welcoming so many people into the space. Some other really big achievements are operational things internally to help bring us into the 21st century. Online ticketing is something that we didn’t have the capacity for before and we do now, so that rolled out at the top of the new season. I helped with that. I have a background in some technical expertise, so with some of the wonderful volunteers for the organization, we’ve also finished rolling out our audio package for the facility, projection as well as 4K streaming and recording capability, which is just getting wrapped up and put into place now. That’s the close-out of one of the grants that the organization received before I arrived which I’ve carried over the finish line very well. And it’s allowed the organization to, again, really up its capacity and what it can do and provide to the community.
Those are some of the biggest things. But by far, the greatest thing is getting to work with and meet exciting, unique creatives.
NBL: You mentioned the audio package and the projection package. Could you expand on what you mean by that? What are those?
TW: So the facility, even though the renovations finished in 2023, and a significant portion of our stage lighting was installed with some ARPA funding, some of the items that we just didn’t have the capacity to finish with the grant right away were having an audio system in the space and having any capacity for high-quality streaming, recording and projection. So essentially what that means now is we have a house audio system. That means if there’s a small band or a musical, we don’t have to hire a production company to come in and bring a sound board and speakers and cables and everything. It’s more of a question of needing a few extra wireless microphones for this production, and that’s the element that gets rented in. So we are raising the capacity for what we can do in the space.
The same thing applies with the projection. Anybody can get a projector, but the one we’ve got in place now is a wonderful, high-quality projector and it has a 27-foot diagonal screen that goes up on the stage. These are some of the things that we are able to offer. So a great example of that is last year we hosted New Bedford Film Festival shortly before I came on board. And this year we hosted them again, but also hosted their opening and closing ceremonies. We have the capacity to do that now.
NBL: Going forward, what are your challenges and what is your vision for Your Theatre and Steeple Playhouse?
TW: The biggest challenges are continuing to grow our audience and hit a sustainable fiscal level. So part of the growth of the organization — becoming the full owners of the facility and having all of its responsibilities, as well as having my wonderful self (laughs) — have put an additional cost burden on the organization that it hasn’t had before. … The board of directors raised funds initially to be able to make these big changes, so now we’re in the process of utilizing these investments really well, both earning and raising funds to support the building, staffing, and getting ourselves into a new position of sustainability financially.
This ties closely, actually, with some of my big goals for the organization, which is being able to have almost twice that capacity of audience. One of the big goals for this upcoming year and season is bringing more people into the space to see great theater and be involved and get folks to know it’s here.
NBL: How can you grow your audience?
TW: The biggest way we’re doing that is by partnering with other groups and organizations to help support what they’re doing. I think that the city and especially the arts community thrives on collaboration and partnerships, working together to create something new. That’s what theater is on a small scale. So a lot of our focus and efforts this year are going into new marketing channels. We’re trying to make sure that we’re reaching out to a broad audience and broad aspects of our community. Then also partnering with really great organizations to bring people through the space. Because at the end of the day, everyone who comes through and sees a Your Theatre production and everybody who comes through to see other groups or productions or rent the space, all feed together to support each other.
NBL: In your cover letter posted on your website, you use the words “community,” “communications,” “relationships,” and “together.” Why is it important to bring people together, and what have you seen from bringing people together in your theater experience?
TW: Bringing people together in the theater brings out the best in them. When you break something down, at the end of the day, all the things we care about are people. Theater is the stories of people and how they tell it to other people and how people hear it. So for me, what I’ve come to experience from the theater and from the creative community, is that we highlight the best in each other to be able to be our best.
NBL: In what ways does a community theater contribute to a region? And specifically, how does Your Theatre contribute to the South Coast?
TW: It contributes to the city and the South Coast in a couple of big ways. One, it contributes by establishing a home for people to create, especially community theater, where we aren’t necessarily always the home for a professional performer, though we do get some throughout the year, which is exciting. But a lot of what we do is create a space for the lawyer who works during the day and wants to be able to get on stage and create something in a different environment. Or the website developer who loves to do lighting. For example, with Eric [Paradis], the financial adviser who loves to invest his skills in creating successful paths forward for our community to grow.
A big part of community theater and what it is to the community is that it creates these connection points between people who otherwise wouldn’t have them. Every single show I’ve ever directed or produced or been a part of in community theater, has always been the most interesting collection of people from all different backgrounds, different roles, different histories, different perspectives. And together they join with a collaborative purpose, and in 8 to 10 weeks they create a work of art, and they share that with other people in the community. And the sharing is really what I think creates the conversation and gets people talking to each other, and that’s something every community needs.
NBL: What attracted you to the theater and why have you devoted so much of your life to it?
TW: I love stories. I love telling stories. I love hearing stories. I love how stories teach and inspire and guide us. I think part of being human is engaging with stories. It’s something that makes us unique and it’s something I’ve had a passion for since I was very young. I remember as a child, my sister was a dancer. And when I was very small I remember, it was probably her high school recital kind of thing, I was backstage after the performance, and I saw all of these people in these bright, glittering costumes. They were all tired and exhausted and exuberant, and I remember distinctly thinking there was a magic that happened for these dancers and performers. And that is what I think carried me into theater. It’s also something that’s brought me into theater more on the management side of things. Because what I really love about theater is enabling people to create and have these magical moments.
NBL: Your theater experiences are multifold. Could you talk about what you bring with you to this position and this organization?
TW: Absolutely. The biggest thing that I bring to this position is a real practical knowledge of nonprofit management, facilities management, and how to be the executive of an organization that is primarily made up of volunteers. A lot of my work in the past with theater has been in organizations that were vastly run and managed by volunteers. I remember in my position in Florida, just before the pandemic, we peaked at 382 active volunteers in a season, unique people who had been involved and volunteered as maybe an usher, or greeter, or in the box office, the bar, onstage, backstage, curtain, construction, facility maintenance, everything.
And so for me, that’s something that is a really big boon in this position with Your Theatre. It embraces the community nature of the organization, something that we don’t want to lose. So it’s really important that we have someone who has the experience to be able to guide and lead, somebody who can recognize the value not just of performing onstage but also the value of being involved in a nonprofit in all the many ways that aren’t as visible, and recognizing how much of a gift that is for the individuals and the community at large. I think that’s the biggest thing I bring to this position.
NBL: What are the rewards for people who volunteer in community theater, whether it’s onstage, behind the scenes or in the administration?
TW: Life-long friendships, the satisfaction of jobs sometimes well done, sometimes quickly done, and a sense that you are a part of something larger. I think sometimes it can be really difficult for folks to feel like they’re part of a community. I know I’ve struggled with that when I was less involved with groups or organizations. The biggest benefit that people get by being involved in community theater in any regard is getting to see how they work together to create community, and how that community gets to be a part of a larger one. So meaning and purpose and just a lot of fun. We have a lot of volunteers who manage our marketing and it takes a lot of time, energy and effort, but it’s also a chance to create beautiful things, reach out and connect with new folks and be a part of a team that honestly probably has more fun than most marketing teams that are paid to do it 40 hours a week. It’s a lot of great meaning and great fun.
NBL: What goes into a good production? Or a successful production?
TW: Many things can go into a successful production, but I think there’s one combination that has to go into a successful production — a sense of vulnerability and excitement. I think those two things together are essential to every great production. You can have lots and lots of other things as well that do a whole lot to contribute, but at the end of the day, if you don’t have that sense of excitement and you don’t have that willingness to be vulnerable then it’s not going to be a great production. It might be a very solid production, but to be a really great one you have to be a little bit excited about being vulnerable in front of other folks.
NBL: What progress has been made with the renovations to the Steeple Playhouse?
TW: Our biggest progress in the last year with the renovations has largely involved our technical capacity. So this last year, thanks to some wonderful funding through an ARPA grant managed by the city, we were able to finish our technical installation. … We’ve had wonderful support from WHALE, we continue to navigate our historical restrictions that allow us to keep this place not only open but historically accurate. We also had some wonderful support from the city through the Community Preservation funding that allowed us to finish restoration of our exterior granite wall that, one, looks wonderful to the street, but also helps keep our foundation in place, as well as our historic iron fence right across the sidewalk which got restored this year. We’re also continuing to move forward so that later this year, thanks to additional funding that we had from some local community foundations, we’re going to begin renovations on our black box theater and in our green room downstairs.
NBL: In your first year in New Bedford, what is your impression of the city?
TW: I arrived in town shortly after the top of June 2024. I moved in and I finished unloading the little U-Haul into my apartment like a day or two before the Pride Block Party, with AHA! and the Queer Arts Council. That was my introduction to the New Bedford community and what a beautiful introduction it was.
The highlight of the City of New Bedford is that it is a welcoming place and it’s also a city that’s full of creativity and growth and change. I think I’m an example of some of that change and growth. Obviously, if the city wasn’t thriving there wouldn’t be the need or the support to hire me and bring a new person into the community. I think the City of New Bedford is in a really strong place of growth and change.
NBL: You grew up in Virginia, you’ve also lived in Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Washington state. How does this area compare to the places you’ve lived as far as living as a trans person?
TW: It’s a wonderful community, especially now. [June was] especially a highlight. In Fort Port Townsend in Washington where I was before moving here, which was also a lovely community, it’s a small town. I was just chatting with a friend of mine there, an old work colleague of mine who’s also trans, but I think here — and one of the things I was looking for in a new city — was the place where I could find a larger community to be a part of where it still feels a bit like a small town. It’s a wonderful, welcoming city.
Sean McCarthy is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to The New Bedford Light.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
