6th Street’s Jonathen Blue Voted Bohemian’s Person of the Year 2024
Catch a play in the wine country these days, and chances are it was touched in some way by 29-year-old Jonathen Blue— a jack of all theater trades currently making the rounds between playhouses and drama classrooms across Sonoma and Napa counties.
Blue’s day job is to run the kids* program for the 6th Street Playhouse in downtown Santa Rosa, where enrollment has surpassed pre-Covid levels to reach around 500 kids per year.
The program is now so popular that “we have waiting lists for every new show,” according to Emily Lynn Cornelius, executive director of 6th Street. Tickets for the shows that kids perform at the end of each session —like Matilda The Musical Jr. this May-have begun selling out as well.
“Theater really exposes the human condition. That’s what it boils down to. I’ve found that trying to bring other people’s stories to life has made me more empathetic to people who are not necessarily like me.”
—JONATHEN BLUE
Blue likewise has his fingers in all aspects of production for the professional adult plays at 6th Street, according to his boss. Script selection, choreography, costumes, wigs, makeup, set design, stage lights, sound — the works. He even “stays here overnight to paint the stage,” Cornelius said. She called Blue “the very reason we have had a successful season.”
Cornelius remembered one particularly epic save in winter. “I called him with an hour to spare for a performance of Fences a few months ago,” she said. “Our actor was out, our understudy’s car was broken down and we had no other option but to cancel unless he could step in. He did not hesitate to accept the challenge and save the performance-memorizing lines in the background and performing a pivotal role with grace and style.”
Blue was also in charge of hair and makeup for Fences. Now, for the run of Kinky Boots coming up at 6th Street in June, he’s overseeing hair and makeup again, plus costume design—a “huge task,” Cornelius said, “since this show has over three times the number of costumes, hair and makeup than anything else we have produced this season.” Blue stars in the play, too, as lead drag queen Lola.
At Kinky Boots rehearsals, during downtime between scenes, Blue said he can be found backstage, “sewing some costumes together or building a boot or something like that.”
In his words: “I’m just a busybody with a dream.”