{"id":49411,"date":"2018-06-21T20:54:38","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T20:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/?p=49411"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:04:46","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:04:46","slug":"auggie-shines-bright-on-tony-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/2018\/06\/21\/auggie-shines-bright-on-tony-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Brett Batterson \u201980 Shines Bright on Tony Night"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-55478 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/35114640_10156423945279696_3928867822742011904_n-171x300.jpg\" alt=\"Two people in formal attire on a red carpet in front of a metallic circular sculpture with text.\" width=\"171\" height=\"300\" \/>Augsburg alumnus Brett Batterson \u201980 had big shoes to fill when he took the job as President and CEO of\u00a0Orpheum Theatre Group in Memphis, Tennessee.\u00a0Prior to his arrival,the\u00a0theatre\u00a0had\u00a0been\u00a0recognized\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0Tony Awards on three different occasions. Under Batterson\u2019s leadership,\u00a0as part of the\u00a0Independent Presenters Network, the Orpheum Theatre Group\u00a0can\u00a0now claim\u00a0a share of the\u00a02018\u00a0Tony Award for Best Musical! The Independent Presenters Network is an above-the-title producer of the 10-award winning show,\u00a0<em>The Band\u2019s Visit<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In high school, Batterson was an actor in his school\u2019s theatre productions. When he came to Augsburg, one of his theatre professors, Michael Beery, showed Batterson his potential to create the scenes on the stage itself as a set designer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had wonderful professors at Augsburg including Julie Driver and Ailene Cole, but\u00a0Michael\u00a0Beery had the most profound effect on my career.\u201d says Batterson.<\/p>\n<p>Beery helped guide Batterson onto a path where he could find great success.\u00a0He did perform in one show at Augsburg, but spent the rest of his time behind the scenes creating and designing sets<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-55477 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/ailene-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Three people working at a table with small tools and a dog on one person's lap.\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/>.<\/p>\n<p>While still a student at Augsburg, Batterson had the opportunity to work at\u00a0The Guthrie Theater, Minnesota Jazz Dance Company and\u00a0Minnesota Opera Company.\u00a0Following Augsburg, he took the skills he learned and advice from Professor Beery and obtained his M.F.A. in set design from Tulane University. For 15 years he continued his stage design career until he discovered another passion\u00a0\u2013 arts management. Batterson spent 10 years at Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit as the company\u2019s Chief Operating Officer. Then another 11 years as the Executive Director of the national historic landmark Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. He has been in his current position as President and CEO of Orpheum Theatre Group in Memphis since 2016.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Theatre education, like I had at Augsburg,\u00a0builds better people,&#8221; said Batterson, &#8220;Whether they go into theatre or not, they will go into the world better prepared\u00a0to succeed.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Augsburg alumnus Brett Batterson \u201980 had big shoes to fill when he took the job as President and CEO of\u00a0Orpheum &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[32,835,836,135,317,834],"class_list":["post-49411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlights","tag-alumni","tag-auggie-pride","tag-class-of-1980","tag-spirit-of-augsburg","tag-theater","tag-we-are-called"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49411"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51763,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49411\/revisions\/51763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}