New Year Brings Changes

Kat and Val celebrate the changing of the guard…

The new year is bringing some changes to the Pier One Theatre office!

Val Sheppard, who has been holding down the office for us over the last three and a half years, has recently begun a new position at the Porcupine Theater, where she will be sharing her talents in ticket sales, social media outreach, and popcorn slinging! We will miss her greatly, but are excited for her next adventure.

In the office, we welcome Kat Brennan, who will be taking on the role of “Community Engagement Manager.” Kat will be focused primarily on strengthening our volunteer programs and policies, serving as a touchstone for all our community participants. Please join us in welcoming her to the team!

A note from Val:

“It's been among the greatest privileges of my life to do what I do for Pier One Theatre, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to have been their office assistant for the past three and a half years. I'd like to thank Jennifer Norton and Laura Norton for all they've done not just for myself in taking me on, but for this community in helping keep Pier One alive and relevant in this ever-changing world of ours. I also want to extend the warmest of welcomes possible to Kat Brennan, who is a magnificent addition to the team and someone I have had the exceptional delight of sharing space with this past month as I've helped train her in the various ins and outs of life in the Pier One office. I'm grateful to be leaving my post in her hands, and while I might not be in the office anymore you can still expect to be seeing me involved in as many Pier One activities as I can reasonably fit into my schedule, as well as selling you either tickets or popcorn at The Porcupine Theater. Many thanks yet again, and Happy Holidays!”

Kat Brennan as a Pier One Youth Theatre Camper in 1995

An introduction from Kat:

“Kat Brennan grew up in Homer, Alaska and has always been a bit dramatic. (You should really listen to her one-woman(child) improv pieces recorded on cassette tapes from when she was in kindergarten.) Always drawn towards the Arts, and avoiding a debilitating fear of performative basic math, (”curse you timetables!”) Kat pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Motion Pictures and Television, with an emphasis in Cinematography, graduating in 2011 from The Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She cried her way through stints in Los Angeles and Atlanta, finding that her bread & butter was primarily reality television based. This...was not really what she had envisioned for herself. So, thanks to a little push from COVID, she ended up back home in Alaska. She did what a lot of Alaskan kids (by kids she means thirty-something-year-olds) do and she bought into a fishing charter business. The Arts was a dream left behind...until Pier One Theatre's “Cannibal: The Musical” came along. Turns out, she's pretty funny as a salty old man. With roots growing again in Homer, Kat found her way into the theatre community. She now co-owns North Country Charters and gets the pleasure of taking on a role at Pier One Theatre, because, as it turns out, she can have it all.”

We wish to extend our deep gratitude to Val for her time with us, and to welcome Kat warmly to the heart of Pier One.

— Jennifer Norton, Executive Director