Kings Theatre Company elects new board president

Sugar Loaf — Dr. John Bakum of Warwick has just been elected as the new president of the Kings Theatre Company Board of Directors. Kings Theatre Company, founded in 1998, became the primary resident theatre company at the Lycian Centre for the Performing Arts in Sugar Loaf in 2004. In addition, Kings Theatre Company produces Children’s Theatre performances such as “Winnie the Pooh” (1999), “Narnia” (2000), “Beauty and the Beast” (2001), “Sleeping Beauty” (2002), “Cinderella” (2005), “Jack and the Beanstalk” (2005) and “Rapunzel” (2006). Dr. Bakum, a Warwick resident and former president of Middlesex County College, located in Edison, N.J., assumed the presidency of the Kings Theatre Company Board of Directors by majority vote at the organization’s June 6 board meeting. Bakum grew up in Orange County, where he earned an associate degree from Orange County Community College before transferring to the New Jersey Institute of Technology to complete his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. He subsequently earned a doctorate in education from Rutgers University. Upon retiring from Middlesex Community College in 2005, Bakum and his wife, Debra, returned to Orange County and began exploring the area. Both avid theater buffs, the Bakums found the Lycian Centre in Sugar Loaf and immediately became regular patrons n attending everything from Main Stage shows to Children’s Theatre to Play Readings. They became members of the Kings Theatre Company “Friends of the Theatre” donor program and, in 2006, Dr. Bakum accepted an invitation to join the Kings Theatre Company Board of Directors. “A little over two years ago, Debbie and I were delighted to discover Kings Theatre Company and the Lycian Centre with its outstanding and varied array of professional productions,” Bakum observes.