NEW ULM – Sometimes all it takes is a note from your mother with a tip on a job opportunity to bring you back home.

So it was for Lorie Jewell, State Street Theater’s Executive Director, who returned to New Ulm just over a year ago to take on that position after living over 30 years in Aurora, Co.

The lure of not only returning to her hometown and getting the chance to reconnect with family and friends but also of returning to the stage where it all began for her as a middle schooler was too great to pass up.

“I’m a fourth generation from New Ulm. This was my junior high school and my dad’s high school. I starred in a lot of shows on this stage, choir rehearsals, gym class, volleyball, lots of déjà vu,” Jewell said.

What took Jewell out of New Ulm originally was the opportunity to tour with Up With People in 1990 soon after graduating from New Ulm High School. “Up With People,” an international educational performing arts program, cultivated her love of music and performance and also “kickstarted her love of travel,” she said.

“‘In Up With People’, my cast was a large group of young people who were all empowered to make a change in the world,” Jewell said. “A lot of young people don’t feel that they have that and to be in a group where that is the norm was pretty empowering. We also had over 25 different nations represented so it was very diverse and unique and I still think of the folks – the world became much smaller from that experience and those friendships.”

Jewell is putting her experience and talents together to help develop the new State Street Theater tagline: “World-class entertainment, local historic charm.”

“We want to be the place where people know that there is going to be something cool going on,” she said. “They will hopefully, as we grow our programming, check our website first. ‘Oh, let’s check State Street, they always have something cool.'”

She said the idea is “to have your finger on the pulse of what’s happening and always have something unique to look forward to.”

To that end, State Street Theater offers a special subscription package with multiple events, including two plays that are produced in-house with local community actors, and then also a musical in July.

“Those can be a part of one of the subscriptions if you choose. and then we also add on to that subscription five concerts, so they can purchase eight events in a subscription year all for one low price, that’s a cool opportunity,” Jewell said. “You’ve got your date nights all scheduled.”

“With our new seating system now you can choose your seats in advance and then you’ve got your seat for the whole season,” she said. “You pick your favorite spot and you know where you’re going, where you’re headed all the time, so that’s part of the bigger picture of always having something going on, and then in addition to those shows add several other concerts that we just kind of fill as we go – we’re offering two sometimes three performances a month depending on the month.”

The larger vision for State Street is “that we would be a collaboration hub for all of the arts programming in New Ulm,” Jewell said. “We are already collaborating with agencies like The Grand, with Park and Rec for summer drama camps for kids and with the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. We’ve hosted a program and they’ve hosted a welcome party at their space – a Prince show. You could go there first and check out their huge display of Prince memorabilia and then come here and enjoy the tribute show. We had a small display front that they loaned us, just fun collaborations, so that would be a goal.”

As for getting back on the stage herself, Jewell said she hasn’t been able to yet, “but maybe in the future,” after she has settled in a bit more with her executive director role.

She did add that as a hobby she likes to write scripts.

“For now I’m just writing for myself. Mostly it’s the romcoms, the hallmark channel stuff. I’m working on one that will feature New Ulm vs Hanska, it’s fun, so I’m playing it up.”