When Prima Theatre launched a fundraiser to support out-of-work artists in early April, Executive Artistic Producer Mitch Nugent decided to put a fun twist on the campaign: he promised to shave his head once the fundraiser reached its goal. Within a matter of minutes, the money was pledged. Mitch soon appeared in a promotional video, both revealing the promised haircut and expressing his excitement at seeing the Lancaster community come together to support local performers. But he didn’t stop there. In another effort to raise spirits during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mitch visited quarantined members of the Prima community and, accompanied by a guitarist, personally sang for each person from a safe distance. (This effort earned him a One-In-A-Million Award from the Multiplying Good Foundation.)
These are just small examples of Mitch’s approach to leading Prima. His goal for the theatre has always been twofold: first, to create fresh experiences that make people come alive, and second, to create an environment that feels like an artistic home to both artists and patrons.
From an early age, Mitch knew that the performing arts were a way to make life beautiful and bring people together. He recalls that as a child, he loved going out to his driveway with a boombox and performing for the neighbors.
“Early on, we lived next door to a restaurant drive-through, and so the cars would get backed up and I thought, well, I'll just entertain these people while they wait for their order,” he recalls. “I loved to make them smile. It was always entertaining for me and, I imagine, probably embarrassing for my parents.”
His parents may have been a little bewildered by Mitch’s artistic tendencies, but they instilled in him a work ethic and perseverance that has served him well in the theatre industry. He recalls as a child going to work with his father, an electrician at the time, in the hundred-degree heat of other people’s attics. Mitch soon fled and went outside to wait in the car with the equipment. Exasperated by his son’s complete disinterest in the family business, his father told him “Well, whatever you do, you’d better be good at it.”
“And I’ve never forgotten that sense of, if I’m going to do this art thing, I’m going to need to put everything into it,” says Mitch. He would go on to start his own sort of family business (a non-profit organization) in Prima, which, at its heart, began as a partnership between Mitch and his wife Diana. The two of them first met during a regional production of the musical Cats. Always more of a singer and actor than a dancer, Mitch was sent to “cat camp” to get his choreography up to par, where he met Diana, a dancer and costumer.
“She was not impressed by this guy that they brought in to be the rock vocalist who couldn’t do a pirouette,” Mitch recalls, laughing. But eventually the two started dating, and when Diana had to return to Philadelphia for college, it wasn’t long before Mitch left behind his job in arts administration and followed her. He found an acting job the closest he could get to Philadelphia, which happened to be in Lancaster, PA.
While the city already had a robust performing arts scene when they began to settle there, Mitch and Diana saw the space for something new as well. Through their work at various Lancaster theatres, they began to connect with others who shared their passion for off-Broadway style work, like rock musicals and pop-inspired cabarets-- the type of shows that otherwise might not make it to Lancaster.
“The intention at first wasn’t necessarily to start a theatre,” says Mitch. “We just wanted an outlet to do the work that we were passionate about.”
His commitment to bold, fresh work is one of the reasons Prima has thrived, and one of the reasons it matters. Willonda McCloud, the President and CEO of Bright Side Opportunities Center, identifies Prima’s commitment to diversity as something that sets it apart. “I’ve seen a lot of diversity in their cast, musicians included,” she says, recalling Prima productions such as Motown Legends and Godspell, which featured Tayler Harris as a Black female Jesus. “I think it’s been a great impact.”
Unfortunately, putting on shows that contradict audience preconceptions always comes with risk, and staying true to that vision can sometimes result in financial strain. Particularly in their early years, amidst the previous recession, Prima had to walk that tightrope carefully, balancing their passion for fresh work with the need to make ends meet. It was his partnership with Diana, Mitch suggests, that helped get them through those rough patches.
“She was the brains and I was the passion and the drive,” he says. “And she helped commit us to being frugal and authentic. We were going to be resourceful in order to do the work we felt this community deserved to experience.” In those early days, Diana often acted as the one-person box office, stapling playbills and taking all the calls for the theatre on her cell phone.
Now, more than ten years later, Prima has grown into something far beyond what either of them imagined at the beginning: a fully-fledged theatre with its own permanent space and a community of loyal patrons. Prima’s guest artists have included Tony and Grammy winners (Stephen Schwartz, Billy Porter, Jason Robert Brown, Adam Pascal, Shoshana Bean), and they’ve welcomed tens of thousands of patrons. But regardless of the growth Prima has experienced, the personal touches of those early days still linger in the organization. One small example: the phone number you now call to reach Prima’s box office was once Diana’s personal phone number, a holdover from the days when she single-handedly managed tickets and playbills.
Moreover, Mitch’s vision for Prima has remained steadfast. “We continue to be focused on creating experiences to invigorate lives, and curating every detail we can,” he says. “That’s something we’d die on the stake of.”
Mihika Miranda, a Franklin & Marshall alumnus who interned at Prima as a student, believes that Prima is an organization that truly values and prioritizes its mission-- to invigorate lives through fresh theatrical experiences-- with every action. “Mitch is constantly thinking outside the box and pushing others to do the same,” she says, adding that one of the most valuable lessons she learned from Mitch is that “there are never just two options”. As in many aspects of life, in theatre you often have to find that third option, an often unseen alternative path that serves a greater vision.
Moreover, though theatre work can be exhausting, with many long days and late nights, Mihika looks back on her time at Prima with great fondness. “One thing that really struck me is how much Mitch and everyone else at Prima care about people,” she says. She recalls scheduling a meeting with Mitch, seeking advice on directing her own show. They were meant to meet for twenty minutes, but wound up talking for two hours. It was the sense of tightly-knit community, and the constant learning opportunities, that made her time with Prima so valuable, and so enjoyable. “I loved coming into the office,” she says. “There was such joy to it every day.”
Joyful is certainly the right word to describe the way Mitch talks about Prima. Though he’s no longer a kid out in the driveway with a boombox, he approaches his work with that same passion and dedication. From a recession to a global pandemic to a show that didn’t find its audience, no setback can shake his fundamental belief in the power of art.
“Whatever we do, whatever the programming looks like, whatever challenges come our way, it is worth it if we have created something beautiful,” he says. If he can someday look back on his life and know that he did that much-- for the audiences, for Prima’s interns, for the community, for his children-- that would be enough.