MARIA GOBETTI (Artistic Director) says: “there’s time in a lifetime for at least 3 careers.” She knows because she’s had them. Tom Ormeny and Maria Gobetti founded and built The Victory Theatre Center. It opened with the critically acclaimed world premiere of Beth Henley’s The Miss Firecracker Contest, which Maria directed. She has directed over 80 plays. Most recently she directed Lunch by Joanna Miles and Invaluable by Deborah Pearl for Women On Time. Maria directed Ten Cent Night at The Victory to 12 critic’s choice reviews. The musical My Old Friends which Maria directed and produced played to sold out houses for 8 weeks. She directed the Critic’s Choice world premiere productions of both Jon Klein’s Suggestibility andWishing Well. An Evening With The Egos had its world premiere at VTC and then moved to an equity production in Chicago- with Maria directing both productions. She produced Who’s Your Daddy? at the Victory and it moved to Edinburgh as well as opening off Broadway. Most recently she has produced Our Lady of 121st Street by Gurgis, at the Little Victory.
She appeared in the leading role in Sex and Education by Lissa Levin, directed by Dan Guntzelman and the show has since moved on to several Equity venues. Maria also appeared in the two-hander Taking Care which garnered unanimously rave reviews.
She also directed and produced the Critic’s Choice production of David Mamet’s Oleanna, the LA premierethe world premieres of American Iliad by Donald Freed, Lee Murphy’s Monkey Grass, Life On The Line by Tom Ormeny, and Freed’s The General & The Archbishop. Two of her critically acclaimed productions for the Bare Bones Ensemble: the Los Angeles premiere of Escape From Happiness by George F. Walker and The Hot L Baltimore by Lanford Wilson. Other world premiere directing credits include: The History of Fear by John Kostmayer, Night Shift by Nick Boretz, Talking Things Over With Chekhov by John Ford Noonan (starring David Clennon), and the Ovation Award winning Catch A Falling Star by Lee Murphy.
She is the Director of the Go-Acting Studio (Gobetti-Ormeny Acting),coaches at the various major studios, and also teaches at the New York Film Academy and The High School for the Performing Arts at Cal State LA. Maria spent two years as Director of Development for The Brillstein Company, and worked as both director and coach at Hanna-Barbera.
A member of the Directors’ Guild of America, she has directed for Disney, where she also coached The New Mickey Mouse Club Show. Maria is a member of Women In Film and Women In Theatre. She was the 1992 recipient of WIT’s Outstanding Achievement In Theatre Award. She has both a BA and an MA in Theatre. For ten years, Maria served as chair of the member/producer side of the AEA 99 Seat Review Committee. She was a founding member of the ATLAS organization. She and her life-long partner Tom Ormeny continue to press forward in support of all the vibrant theater in Los Angeles. For more information visit the Victory Theatre Center website by click here.