FEATURE
Curtain Call:
How SJSU’s Hammer Theatre is Elevating the Arts
By Brandon Roos
Get to know
On your walk to campus from the light rail, you may have noticed a boxy blue building situated between Second and Third Streets. Did you know it’s actually run by San José State?
The Susan and Phil Hammer Theatre Center opened in 1997 as a state-of-the-art performance venue that housed the former San Jose Repertory Theatre Company. In fall 2015, SJSU assumed control of the building after bankruptcy had left the facility dormant for a year.
Though the Hammer’s primary purpose is to assist the university in presenting a variety of performing arts events, it also maintains a civic duty to help the city’s arts organizations stage events, with legacy clients like Cinequest and San Jose Jazz entering the space annually. Through its Hammer Presents series, the theater offers shows to the general public that speak to the cultural diversity of the region.
The facility, which operates year-round, is run by 11 full-time employees and 60 part-time staff who help with concessions, ushering and stage work. The Hammer presented 190 events during their 2018–2019 season, the last time a full season hadn’t been limited or hindered by the effects of COVID-19.
In addition to their deep involvement with supporting the city’s arts organizations, the Hammer maintains a robust commitment to student workforce development. Offering roles to students of all disciplines, Hammer staff train burgeoning front of house and technical staff by allowing them to assist on projects and productions that come with the pressure – and payoff – one would encounter working in the field. For some students, their involvement with the Hammer has provided a launch pad for them to become performing arts professionals; for others, the work has granted them a chance to maintain a connection with the performing arts, even if their career choice has taken them elsewhere.
“We really love using [the Hammer] for our productions. Our audience appreciates that there isn’t a bad seat in the house! As a San José based company, we want to use theaters in downtown San José. We [enjoy] the intimacy and ease of access of the Hammer Theatre for our performances.”
— Elizabeth Sweeney, Executive Director, San Jose Dance Theatre
Chris Burrill
Executive Managing Director
As San José State began to actualize their goal of taking over the Hammer Theatre, they needed someone with the insight to handle the intricacies of running an arts space meant to serve both the university and the city. Chris Burrill, who has been at the helm since June 2016, proved the perfect candidate.
Before re-opening the Hammer under the guidance of SJSU, Burrill had a hand in opening two other performing arts facilities. He graduated from UC Irvine and became production manager at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (now Segerstrom Center for the Arts), where he opened a 3,000-seat theater in 1986. He returned to his alma mater in 1990 to open the Irvine Barclay Theatre, a joint city/university venture. He oversaw the facility for 26 years.
But after a quarter century at one facility, he yearned for a new opportunity. The Hammer needed someone to trailblaze its transition to a university facility with commitments to the community. With a wealth of experience doing just that, Burrill became the venue’s executive director.
“I was always put into these management positions,” he shares of his history helping empower the arts. “That’s what I felt like my calling was more than being a lighting designer. It was really [to be] the person who gives the organization the character, the mission and the vision of what it should be doing.”
Under his guidance, he and his staff outlined the Hammer’s new operating agreement, modeling their programming priorities and procedures after similar theaters on other college campuses. He and his staff also caught a lucky break: in 2016, after years of deferring capital improvements, state legislation opened funding to improve technology across CSU and UC campuses.
“We tapped into that in a big way by adding ethernet connectivity to the whole building,” notes Burrill. These changes helped Burrill and staff retrofit the facility from a specialized spoken-word theater into a more mutable, mixed-use space.
“That was really terrific,” he recalls of the timing of the funds. “Had that not been available, that would’ve really limited the kinds of things that we could do here, because we wouldn’t have [had] the right tools to make it look right, sound right, and feel right.”
He explains that the Hammer’s dual agreement with San José State and the city of San Jose benefits both parties. San José has ensured that a downtown landmark continues to celebrate the performing arts; San José State has upgraded their theater and made greater in-roads into the community by running a space two blocks off campus.
The venue’s Black Cab Jazz series, which presents live jazz shows for the local community, further fuels this cross pollination. Before these shows, artists spend time with the Department of Music’s Jazz Studies students for a master class. It’s these “win wins” that Burrill is quite proud of.
Long-term, Burrill hopes the Hammer will continue its efforts to present diverse programming in a variety of formats.
“We want to have a more robust presentational program that reflects the huge, diverse cultures that you find in Silicon Valley,” he says.
Maria Bones
Director of Operations
Much like Chris Burrill, Maria Bones stepped into her role at the Hammer believing the position was meant for her.
The Oregon native caught the theater bug while at Beaverton High School, which is known regionally for its musicals. She first helped in concessions, then integrated into productions wherever needed, spending time as an actress, stage manager and costume designer.
“I loved [acting], but I knew that was a hobby. It wasn’t like costuming. Costuming and dressing drew me [in],” she explains. After high school, she followed her passion down to the Bay Area, where she attended Santa Clara University.
Bones found theater gigs right out of college. In the fall of 1990, working as a dresser for American Musical Theatre’s production of “Evita” in downtown San José, she met her future husband, who was stage managing.
“We’ve been married 30 years, and I think the reason is we both understand there’s a give and take with the lifestyle. You give up a lot working in the arts, but we understand that,” she says. The couple’s deep appreciation for the arts has even been passed down to their two children, a 26-year-old acrobat and a 24-year-old visual artist.
After moving into an arts administration role, Bones became a stay-at-home mom in 1998. She got involved with her local church, assisting with children’s ministry and running their volunteer program. While contemplating her next career move, a friend sent her a description for a job at the Hammer, which was reopening under the control of San José State. She was shocked by how well her experience fit.
“[It] was everything I had been doing my whole career – it was front of house, it was box office, and it was mentoring students,” she recalls. “I stepped onto this moving walkway, and we started having to run to keep up. It was an amazing, exciting time.”
Once hired in November 2016, she dove in head-first. Despite the grueling workload at times, she was completely energized by the sense of purpose and camaraderie she felt around her.
“It was exactly what I wanted to be doing, and I was doing it with people who felt the same way,” she explains. “This is how we serve our public: doing what we do really well so that the people who want to tell their stories on stage can focus on that and not have to worry so much about the lighting plot or the security at the front door.”
The Hammer’s full-time staff may be removed from the everyday academia of their professor colleagues, but they’re still finding ways to add value on campus. Recently, Bones’ staff has been providing ticketing assistance for the music and theater departments. She highlights these win-wins, which help Hammer’s student workers gain real-world experience and allow performing artists to not get lost in the minutiae.
Throughout her tenure at the Hammer, Bones has focused on empowering the facility’s student workforce to grow into their own as workplace professionals.
“I see people go from being super unsure of themselves to stepping out into the world and finding their way. I’m so proud of that,” she says. Bones eagerly shares about a new professional win she heard about that day: a former student and current employee mentioned that they were hired to help with welding at the Beyoncé load-in at Levi’s Stadium.
“It’s super important to us that we’re able to mentor these students because the lessons they learn here aren’t just for their career – they’re for life, too,” adds Bones. “[It’s also important] to put that into the community, and to build the next generation of theater technicians, theater artists, and arts administrators.”
“I see people go from being super unsure of themselves to stepping out into the world and finding their way. I’m so proud of that.” — Maria Bones
Anthony Sutton
Director of Production
The Hammer Theatre’s director of production is a technical theater lifer. But don’t assume he couldn’t take the stage if he needed to.
Anthony Sutton learned piano from his mother (he’s classically trained) and served as an accompanist for a voice teacher while in high school. He has extensive voice training, and appeared on stage for multiple musical theater productions while attending Lincoln High School in San José.
“I’ve done it, and I can do it. I’m not afraid of public speaking. I’m afraid of memorizing lines,” he says, ending his thought with a hearty laugh. Sutton attended Lincoln specifically to take part in their performing arts program. But it wasn’t just the performance side that drew him in. “I really wanted to be a technician.”
Sutton’s association with the university stretches back to 2012, when he was hired as the film and theater department’s master electrician and sound technician. He remembers hearing the initial whispers of a San José State takeover of the Hammer; when those talks turned to reality, Sutton was one of the first people on-site to survey the building’s suitability for live performance.
Under his guidance, contractors updated the PA system, installed new lighting and built a digital concert shell to properly host symphony performances. These updates were critical to shift the Hammer into a modern mixed-use venue able to accommodate a variety of multimedia needs.
“I kind of made a sandbox for myself, and then they finally asked me ‘Do you want to come over and be the full-time technician over here?’” explains Sutton about getting involved with the Hammer, where he’s worked since 2016. “While the theater department was sad to lose me, they knew they were gaining a resource in a place that they would be [using].”
Sutton is a critical cog in helping the facility develop new industry professionals.
“[I explain to students] ‘I’m here to be your safety net. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you. We’re going to learn this together, and we’re going to do this together. Then the next time, you’ll do it on your own,’” he says, adding that he believes the Hammer’s consistent production turnover — and continuous pressure of new deadlines — creates a fertile hands-on work environment.
It's that same turnover that gives students the chance to regularly come into contact with performing arts professionals. This cross-pollination highlights the distinct opportunity the Hammer offers its student employees: what starts as a friendly connection may turn into an employment opportunity.
He takes great pride in watching his student assistants begin to follow the same path he once took. “I have a lot of students right now that are seniors or recently graduated that are starting to take calls [for work opportunities]. Amazing! I’m too old for that, but you guys [can] go push boxes until five a.m.”
Sutton says his work at the Hammer has deepened his appreciation for the performing arts — even if he rarely sees shows outside of his home building. But that doesn’t mean he still doesn’t find opportunities to continue building his craft.
“I’m still seeing things I’ve never seen before [and] I’m doing things in different ways that I wouldn’t have thought to do before,” he says. “I feel very blessed to be able to play in a sandbox I get to share with other people. I hardly think of it as teaching.”
“The Hammer has been a critical part of our Summer and Winter Fest programs for many years and is well loved by our patrons and performers. We in San José are very fortunate to have the Hammer right here in our downtown.”
— Brendan Rawson, Executive Director, San Jose Jazz
Max Crisp, ’17 Theatre Arts
Patron Services Supervisor
“It was word of mouth, really,” responds Max Crisp, ’17 Theatre Arts, when asked about how he first got involved with the Hammer. An old classmate had been assisting the venue with outreach and Crisp was seeking part-time work with a consistent schedule. After a brief stint as a stagehand, he “flourished and found a nice stride,” eventually landing a full-time role in the box office.
Since 2019, Crisp has served as the Hammer’s Patron Services Supervisor, where he oversees guest satisfaction with ticket purchasing, on-site experience and the Hammer website. “Most of the people that I work with on a day-to-day basis are students,” he says, noting that while the full-time staff function as the day-to-day skeleton crew that oversees the Hammer’s facility and schedule, “the students are really the muscle that gets things moving around.” As an arts administrator, he’s driven by Hammer’s unique ability to help level the playing field for presenting organizations of various experience levels.
Crisp has a history with the performing arts, though he labels himself a late bloomer.
“I took some music courses, but I was absolutely atrocious at playing instruments,” he playfully shares of his formative years. During that time, instead of taking the stage, “I was the person that was developing the flyers, doing more behind the scenes production stuff.”
He got the basics under his belt at American River College in his native Sacramento, and even began teaching improv classes as a professor’s assistant. After transferring to San José State, he rounded out his skillset with courses in stagecraft, playwriting and acting for stage and screen.
Reflecting on his Theatre Arts journey, Crisp explains that the Hammer’s hands-on workplace mentality helps students gain valuable experience in the performing arts that a classroom can’t replicate.
“[In] academic environments where you’re learning your craft, you might be surrounded by other students that are learning with you, but you rarely get the opportunity to work with the public on a wider scale,” he says.
As for what he’s gained during his tenure at the Hammer, Crisp says, “I have a certain level of appreciation for performing arts, but in a wider sense, I think it has given me a wider appreciation for the human condition. I’ve developed a lot more patience in this position, and that’s given me the capacity to really engage in perspectives that I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to appreciate.”
“I think it’s important that our students are able to experience the sense of community that theater provides,” he adds. “When it runs correctly, it’s this well-oiled, well-timed machine that puts on magic. Being able to insert yourself into an experience like that is humbling and rewarding.”
“I think it’s important that our students are able to experience the sense of community that theater provides. When it runs correctly, it’s this well-oiled, well-timed machine that puts on magic. Being able to insert yourself into an experience like that is humbling and rewarding.”
— Max Crisp
Hannah Hudgins, ’16 Music
Former Patron Services Associate, Client Services Assistant Associate Production Manager, and Director of Client Services (2016–2022)
When Hannah Hudgins began hearing about a possible San José State takeover of the Hammer Theatre, she knew that she had to be involved. Well before then, she was soaking up all the musicals she could get her hands on at the local video store.
The high school theater kid shifted her focus to opera when she began attending San José State in 2013. During her senior year, professors in her department urged her and her classmates to attend a county hearing about the university potentially taking over the Hammer.
“I sent the director of the School of Music and Dance an email and said, ‘I would love to be involved in this process.’” As the lone student representative, she assisted San José State’s former Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities Lisa Vollendorf through the acquisition process as part of the Hammer Theatre’s advisory group. Due to her early inclusion in the process, she jokes with Executive Managing Director Chris Burrill that she had been at the Hammer longer than him.
Hudgins initially started in patron services, but she soon started telling Maria Bones, her manager at the time, that she wanted to do more. When Burrill needed help in his office, she gladly stepped up.
“I came in and I organized all of his files,” she says. “Shortly after that, he offered me 20 hours a week. Not too long after that, I got 40 hours a week.”
Once she was in, she was all-in. After starting front of house, Hudgins shifted into a role as client services assistant, handling contracts, insurance and estimates. She later transitioned into a more technical role, serving as associate production manager for more than two years. Surprisingly, her final three months at the Hammer, when she stepped back into client services, became a critical addition to her arts administration skill set.
“It was so invaluable to being a director,” points out Hudgins.
That’s right, a director. Less than six months after leaving the Hammer, Hudgins departed San José to take on a role as managing director for the Mother Lode Theatre in Butte, Montana. The 100-year-old building, retrofitted from a former Mason ceremonial space, seats over a thousand. Despite its much larger capacity, the Mother Lode’s stage is a similar size to the Hammer’s, something Hudgins believes made her a great candidate for the position. It’s also a space that offers a similarly diverse schedule of performances.
While she leads her own venue now, looking back at life post-graduation, she remembers being unsure of her next step. Was it becoming a director, returning to performance or transitioning to a supporting role in the arts?
“In 2016, I certainly didn’t have the dream of being a director of a venue. But obviously, I already had arts administration in my head,” she says. She considered going back to school, but adds, “What I eventually thought was, why would I pay for a master’s degree in arts administration when I was getting that experience at the Hammer anyways?”
Hudgins notes the many students who worked under her tutelage and the pride and excitement she felt watching them leverage their experience into careers in the performing arts. She sometimes forgets she’s one of those same success stories.
“I was part of a lot of those students’ success stories, especially in the production department, because they worked for me and [Anthony Sutton]. “I [think] ‘Oh yeah, I am a good example of a student that came out of San José State and worked at the Hammer – and I’m killing it because of the Hammer!’”
“In school, I was a STEM person. I took on a theater job for fun [because] it was something totally out of my wheelhouse.”
— Veronica Bi
Veronica Bi, ’20 Ecology and Evolution
Former Patron Services Associate, House Manager, and Client Services Associate, Hammer Theatre Center (2017–2020; 2022–2023)
Veronica Bi’s journey at the Hammer started with a visit to the box office and ended with three years of fond memories.
Bi, ’20 Ecology and Evolution, “wanted to find a job that respected that I’m a student full-time in the day, and had some night shifts I could work around,” she remembers. When she heard that the Hammer was hiring, she walked up to the box office window to learn how to apply. From 2017 to 2020, she served as a patron services associate before being promoted to house manager. Though Bi had to step away from the facility due to COVID-19 shutdowns in early 2020, she returned in May 2022 as a client services associate, assisting Hammer clients with contracts and other administrative needs until April 2023.
Though she had some experience with the arts growing up, Bi admits she took on a role at the Hammer precisely because it was something different. “In school, I was a STEM person,” she explains. “I took on a theater job for fun [because] it was something totally out of my wheelhouse.”
Since leaving the Hammer, Bi has stepped into a role with the City of San Jose’s Environmental Services department, where she serves as an assistant environmental inspector with the watershed protection division. The role may be a far cry from the work she did at the venue, but she explains the sharp communication skills she learned in the theater serve her well in her new role.
“Before I started that part-time job, I was not as comfortable talking to customers or strangers,” she shares. “But dealing with a new group of people every night helps you develop those communication skills. They’re really important for my current job, because I basically show up to a bunch of sites [where people] have never seen me before. I put my best customer service face forward, so they’re not disgruntled that I’m sampling their waste water.”
Recalling her connections with staff, she has a particular fondness for Maria Bones. “She’s been a great mentor to me, she says, adding, “She’s honestly kind of like a mom, and I love her a lot.”
“As a student house manager, it can be a little daunting to know that all this responsibility is on you when you’re just a 19- or 20-year old. So it was always really reassuring to know that Maria was in my wing in case anything bad happened.”
Bi speaks highly of the close connection with senior staff and fellow employees, which is likely an outgrowth of the deep trust required to make such a complex system appear seamless. In her three years of working at the Hammer, she says she never met a person she didn’t enjoy working with.
“A lot of the senior members in the Hammer [are] super supportive,” she says. “They want to form a real connection with you not just as an employee but also as a person.”
Aerik Bertulfo, ’20 Animation & Illustration
Former Patron Services Associate and House Manager, Hammer Theatre Center (2017–2020)
Aerik Bertulfo first found a sense of belonging as part of San José State’s animation program. Through his time at the Hammer, he built lasting connections, and found a way to maintain his appreciation for the performing arts.
“Working at the Hammer was great, definitely one of my highlights of my time at San José State,” shares Bertulfo, ’20 Animation & Illustration. He spotted a flier on the job board inside the art building, searching for someone to help with student patron services. Bertulfo wanted a part-time job with the flexibility to fit the shifting needs of a full-time student and ended up working front of house.
“It helped me separate school and work — finding the time where I can squeeze in some work during some weeks, while at the same time knowing when I have to focus on school,” he explains.
After a year, Bertulfo was promoted to house manager, becoming the point person responsible for coordinating timing between front of house and backstage production. The quick timing and consistent back-and-forth helped him learn how to quickly shift priorities and communicate key details.
“It definitely helped me build up my confidence to be more open and direct,” says Bertulfo. His customer service experience from the Hammer helps him in his current position, allowing him to connect easily with other animators when negotiating a smooth transition from one part of a project to the next.
He’s earned acclaim for his output, winning a Sports Emmy in 2022 for his work on “The Portal,” an animated series from Bleacher Report depicting what-if match-ups between current NBA superstars and past legends.
Bertulfo shares that he grew up with an appreciation for music and entertainment, which was further cemented by his involvement in the school band. He may no longer play bass clarinet, but he says his time at the Hammer helped him continue his association with the performing arts in an indirect way. He also found a connection among his co-workers that felt similar to the kinship he found in the encouragement and interaction in the SJSU animation department.
“I never thought that I would have the connections [I gained],” he says. “All of the people that I’ve met and worked with at the Hammer are still good friends today.”
Bertulfo likens the Hammer’s work to that of a community playground, unique and accessible for whatever creative vision a performing arts group may have inside a space that itself is a staple of downtown San José.
“There’s so many different cultures and experiences in San José [and] the Hammer really complements that side of the city,” he points out. “There’s always something new at the Hammer that you’re not expecting. Working at the Hammer was a really great opportunity to connect with the city and the culture.”
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