PASADENA, CALIF.: Boston Court Pasadena (BCP) has announced that Jessica Kubzansky, a founding artistic director of the company who has served alongside co-artistic director Michael Michetti since 2003, will be the company’s sole artistic director, beginning in January of 2020. BCP has named general manager Cheryl Rizzo its managing director, effective immediately, and announced a change in the restructure of its programming calendar. 

“We are thrilled to have Jessica Kubzansky and Cheryl Rizzo bring their expertise, vision, and institutional history to their new and expanded roles,” said the chair of BCP’s board of directors, Edward Rada, in a statement. “We are very excited about our next chapter under their guidance.” 

Since its founding in 2003, BCP has used a shared artistic leadership model in which Kubzansky and Michetti served as artistic directors for theatre; Mark Saltzman joined the team as artistic director for music in 2010. In 2020 Saltzman and Michetti will continue as core collaborators, and Michetti will be named artistic director emeritus.

In another change, BCP will transition from a calendar year to a fall-to-fall performance schedule, beginning in 2020-21. “This shift in the programming calendar will bring the organization into alignment with the majority of arts organizations in Los Angeles and across the country,” said Rizzo in a statement. 

Kubzansky is an award-winning director who has worked nationally, including at Arena Stage, ACT in Seattle, Portland Center Stage, South Coast Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, the Pasadena Playhouse, and more. Directing credits include Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, A Medea in Los Angeles (the Getty Villa), and the New York and world premieres of Sheila Callaghan’s Everything You Touch (Rattlestick at the Cherry Lane). At Boston Court she’s directed world premieres of Sarah B. Mantell’s Everything that Never Happened, Stefanie Zadravec’s Colony Collapse, RII (her own three-person re-envisioning of Shakespeare’s Richard II), among many others. She’ll next direct The Father at the Pasadena Playhouse with Alfred Molina, and Mantell’s Everything That Never Happened at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Rizzo has been with BCP since 2005 and has worked on more than 50 productions at the company. She earned a Masters in Public Administration with a nonprofit concentration from California State University, Northridge, and a BFA in Theatrical Production and Design from Ithaca College. Rizzo has worked as an assistant and company on and Off-Broadway. 

“I could not be more honored to lead Boston Court Pasadena, this institution I have been so passionate about since [its] inception, into its thrilling next chapter,” Kubzansky said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to work with my longtime colleagues and friends.”