LOS ANGELES: Tim Dang has announced that he will vacate his post as producing artistic director at East West Players (EWP) in June of next year.

“I thought that June 2016 would be the appropriate time to pass the torch to only the fourth artistic director in our 50-year history,” said Dang in a statement. “It is the culmination of our 50th Anniversary and five-year strategic plan—it is the start of a new strategic planning process and the beginning of a new and exciting chapter for EWP. It will be an incredible opportunity for the next leader to boldly take the theatre to new heights.”

Dang joined EWP first as an actor in 1980, and has been involved with the theatre in various capacities as a director and producer. He then went on to serve as the producing artistic director in 1993. In his 22-year tenure, he moved the company from a 99-seat Equity Waiver black box theatre into the 240-seat David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts with an AEA contract. The performance space in the Little Tokyo district serves more than 10,000 people each year with productions focused on the Asian Pacific experience.

Dang’s final season will conclude with La Cage Aux Folles, a choice he called “quite appropriate, with the signature song ‘The Best of Times,’ a fitting description of my tenure here at EWP. From the time I joined EWP in October 1980 as an actor, until my departure in June 2016, these were indeed, the best of times.”