Another Opening, Another Show!
President of the Norris Board of Directors David Tomblin. Photo photo courtesy of Clix Portrait Studios
Head of Norris Board
Sets the Stage for
A New Season
by Betty Lukas
David Tomblin is really excited about the rain.
Not any ordinary rain, mind you, but production-value moisture due to fall onstage Sept. 24, when the Norris Center for the Performing Arts launches its 28th season with “Singin’ in the Rain,” a stage adaptation of the classic Gene Kelly film.
Tomblin makes no excuses for his enthusiasm: “For the first time in Norris [Theatre] history, it will rain on stage!” And he’ll be there to feel the first drop!
Such improvements in production values, he said, are only the latest example of changes that have occurred during his two terms as president of its Board of Directors. (The Board sets policy, provides funds and vision for activities at the three-building artistic complex, Tomblin explained.)
“We’ve also extended the run of each of our own three, professionally produced plays and musicals,” he added, “and this gives theater-goers a greater opportunity to attend performances closer to home and at affordable prices.” (“The Odd Couple” and “The Andrews Brothers” will be brought to the Norris next year.)
In other Board changes, Tomblin explained during a recent interview that he has invited newcomers with special skills to join the board as more longtime members have retired. “My goal has been to bring in 12 new board members for a good balance of experience and fresh ideas,” he said, “and I’m halfway there.” His ultimate goal for new board members is 31.
“What we’ve heard from this board is that it wants more resources allocated to productions, so we’re notching up their quality,” he said. “We are in the position to do it: The Norris is financially in good shape.”
Another major development in his past five years on the board, he went on, is that the Center is now more business-oriented than volunteer-based. “We now have 11 full-time and 32 part-time employees.” This means, “We’re a full business performing art and the art-of-performing business.”
In a more recent move, the Board also appointed its Artistic Director, James W. Gruessing, Jr., as interim Executive Director following the departure earlier this year of Gary L. Ferrell after a brief stay in that role. Gruessing’s interim assignment is for six months. “We’ll make our decision then, Tomblin said, but “he’s worked out very well, and is our leading candidate.”
As for his current involvement with the Norris Center Board, Tomblin gives his close friend and mentor John Jaacks credit. “We’ve been friends since we were 17, so when he asked me to join six years ago, I accepted.” Tomblin and his wife, Ann, had been no strangers to Norris programs because their daughter, Nikke, was active in the theatre’s “Curtain’s Up” program for area youngsters.
For a person “who’s always been intrigued by acting” but never involved, Tomblin said he spent several years of his young adulthood producing events for the Boy Scouts, working with major stars such as Bob Hope and John Wayne. Tomblin recalled his parents were always active in the community. “My father was a Boy Scoutmaster, and mother was a Girl Scout leader,” he explained. “It was just natural for me to be involved [in Scout-related productions.]
“As for me,” Tomblin said, “my hobby is community service. Being involved in the community renews your faith in [what is] good. From a selfish standpoint, I like to be involved because it keeps my focus on what is good.”
His wide range of present and past activities and memberships includes his service on the Rancho Palos Verdes Planning Commission; The Palos Verdes Unified School District Board of Trustees; the Los Angeles Area Council Boy Scouts of America; Rotary; the Sheriff’s Youth Foundation, and as a member of the LAPD Police Reserves Foundation.
He’s also served on the boards of Goodwill Industries, the Salvation Army, the California Science Center, plus service with Palos Verdes Girls Softball League, the Intermediate School Booster Club and the Palos Verdes High School Booster Club.
And now that Nikke is at Santa Clara University in a biology-pre-dental program, the Tomblins will be hosting the university’s president at a dinner party in their home soon. Twenty-six area parents of Santa Clara students will be their guests, he said.
Wife Ann, he said, is involved in Las Madrecitas and also serves as executive vice president of their company, Tomblin Asset Management Group, a firm he and his father launched in 1974 when they bought their first two houses in Long Beach. The company owns and manages commercial and residential real estate in Los Angeles and Phoenix, he explained.
Tomblin noted that his architectural training at Don Bosco Technical Institute and his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Cal State Long Beach have been real assets in his current career, as well as his prior work as regional division manager for Sears in Torrance and commercial lending officer for the Bank of America. “I know a lot about property–building, remodeling and financing,” he said, with a grim nod to the present gloomy economy.
As for their personal home design preferences, “It changes,” he said, acknowledging that he and his family have lived in three different houses on the Peninsula since they moved here in 1983. And before that, there more homes in Cerritos and Redondo Beach.
Not withstanding the 20 hours a week Board President Tomblin spends “backstage” as it were, expanding and enhancing the vision of the Norris Center, he admits to getting an occasional yen for those bright footlights onstage: “I wouldn’t mind a little walk-on,” he muses.
Season tickets for any or all of the 23 productions scheduled for the new season are available online at www.norriscenter.com; by calling 310-544-0403; by Fax 310-544-2473; by visiting the box office from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, or Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. The Center is located at 27570 Crossfield Drive, Rolling Hills Estates. PEN