Meet the New Exec Directors at Clear Space and Village Volunteers
Joe Gfaller and Anna Moshier are not exactly what you might call new kids on the block, but both have not long ago taken over two dynamic but different organizations in the Rehoboth/Lewes corridor. Gfaller is the executive director of the Clear Space Theater Company, and Anna Moshier, the executive director of Village Volunteers.
Prior to coming to Clear Space, he worked at several theaters across the country in roles ranging from marketing, development, community affairs, new program development, stage directing, and leadership. That experience allowed him to work for two Tony Award winning regional theaters, the American Repertory Theater, the Alliance Theater, as well as for the opera in St. Louis. Most recently, he was Managing Director for Metro Theatre Company, a theater in St. Louis dedicated exclusively to producing live professional theater for youth and families.
Before landing the executive director position at Village Volunteers, Anna Moshier was the manager for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Delaware in Kent and Sussex Counties (OLLI) for 12 years. She also had a 2-year stint selling customer relationship management software.
“While at OLLI I worked with members and volunteers to offer educational opportunities to people 50 plus,” she says. Her undergraduate degree is in recreation management or, as she says, what people do with their free time. She has her Master’s in Public Administration (non-profit administration).
Gfaller and Moshier have very different roles to play, and their respective organizations have very different goals – one is entertainment-oriented, and one is service-oriented. Only about two thirds of the Clear Space audience come from the state of Delaware each year while Village Volunteers focuses like a laser beam on the local Rehoboth, Lewes, Milton communities.
While vastly different, both organizations add loads of value to southern Delaware. Two things they do have in common is they both work to engage the community and help to give back.
Clear Space is Delaware’s second largest professional non-profit theater, surpassed only by the Delaware Theater Company in Wilmington. It was founded in 2004. “I was extremely impressed by the broad range of work that Clear Space produces each year. From working with young children, teens, and retirees through our Arts Institute, to our summer festival of blockbuster musicals, to the range of classic work and new plays that we produce throughout the entire year, there’s no question that Clear Space ‘punches above its weight class as they say. Gfaller says that Clear Space produces as much programming – and as much, variety of programming – as the Alliance Theater with a budget easily 10 times the size of Clear Space.
Moshier has set her sights on helping to make Village Volunteers a model for other potential villages and our community associations. “As a community, we need to embrace the idea of helping each other,” she says.
There are nearly 300 members and 115 volunteers at Village Volunteers. Moshier feels that the greatest need in the community is to provide transportation solutions for older adults who can no longer drive. (And for would-be volunteers, she notes, ‘Not all services require drivers.’) She urges community residents, “Get to know us before you need us.”
Village Volunteers is always on the lookout for volunteers who can provide a variety of valuable and needed services.
“Come and volunteer and get to know our members. It will do your heart some good,” she says.
So do yourself a favor and check out BOTH local gems!
- View the line up for Clear Space, and book your tickets to see a great show without the commute to a metropolitan venue. You might just fall in love and becomes one of those die-hards who even host and house the actors during their tenure in our coastal communities.
- Get to know Village Volunteers / South Coastal Villages, to see all they have to offer. Giving back as a volunteer is incredibly rewarding and offers you the chance to connect well before you need to become a member yourself! (It’s also a GREAT option to help care for your loved ones in the area.)
Mary Jo Tarallo spent much of her career in public relations with various non-profits and spent 40 years involved with the ski industry as a journalist, public relations director for a national trade association and as executive director of the Learn to Ski and Snowboard initiative. Prior to her ski industry involvement she worked for the Maryland International Center in Baltimore and United Way of Central Maryland. She won a Gold Award for TV programming for a United Way simulcast that starred Ophrah Winfrey. She has been cited for her work by numerous organizations. Mary Jo grew up in Baltimore, attended the University of Maryland and Towson University, lived in Washington, DC for 21 years and has been a full time resident of Rehoboth Beach and Milton since May 2019.
