Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 10, 1995 TAG: 9504110025
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTERIDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``Yeah, it's true,'' the theater's executive and artistic director, Jere Lee Hodgin, confirmed. ``Mr. Zulia is going. His last show as an official staff member will be 'The King and I''' - which runs June 23 - July 16.
Zulia, who first worked with Hodgin at Mill Mountain Theatre some 18 years ago, and has worked with him off and on ever since, said he was leaving to pursue new projects.
The Mill Mountain Theatre associate director has adapted writer Robert Fulghum's "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" to the stage, and has since worked on productions of the play in Chicago, Phoenix and other cities. He is currently on a leave of absence from Mill Mountain to work on a production of ``Kindergarten'' in Syracuse, N.Y.
Zulia, who is not married, hopes eventually to stage Fulghum's work in Prague, in the Czech Republic - where, he said, the author has a following.
Zulia, who is of Greek ancestry, also is considering signing onto a project to revive an old amphitheater on the island of Crete.
``It's adventure time, I guess,'' he said in a telephone interview from Syracuse. ``I'm 42. I figure, what the hell. I've got a couple of adventures left in me...I sort of wanted to be available for some of the things that may come up. To pursue any of these things and try to maintain a full-time position at Mill Mountain Theatre would not be a service to anybody.''
In addition to ``Kindergarten'' - which premiered at Mill Mountain, then went on to gather mixed reviews in Chicago - Zulia is working on a Christmas production of Fulghum's works and a stage adaptation of Fulghum's newest book, ``From Beginning to End.''
Zulia will return to Roanoke later this month to begin casting for ``The King and I.'' Even after leaving the theater in July he will maintain his home in Roanoke - and Zulia almost certainly will work as a guest director for Mill Mountain in the not-so-distant future.
``We've worked together in many different capacities'' over the years, Hodgin said. ``I'm sure he'll be back.''
Zulia, who has loved the theater since he was a grade school student in Akron, Ohio, majored in theater at the State University of New York. He played Nicely Nicely in a Mill Mountain production of ``Guys and Dolls'' in 1976 - shortly before the old theater burned down.
Zulia soon turned to directing. He has worked in that capacity at the Cincinnati Playhouse, Apple Tree Theatre near Chicago and Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C.
He has been at Mill Mountain since 1988.
In his seven years here, Zulia has directed, among other plays, ``42nd Street,'' ``Kindergarten,'' ``To Kill a Mockingbird'' and ``Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.''
``It's been a pretty healthy chunk of time, and a really healthy relationship,'' Zulia said of his years at Mill Mountain. ``The kind of support I've always gotten there, I'll probably never find anywhere else. But change is good for everybody.''
by CNB