CHICAGO: TimeLine Theatre Company announced that managing director Elizabeth K. Auman will transition away from day-to-day management of the company in order to focus exclusively on guiding TimeLine’s new home development in Uptown.
TimeLine’s board and company will conduct a search for a new executive leader who will co-lead the organization alongside artistic director PJ Powers, guiding TimeLine’s strategic and financial direction, board and staff development, and productions.
“When Liz first brought this idea to PJ and me, we were initially surprised, yet deeply grateful for her clear understanding of TimeLine’s current needs,” said board president John Sterling in a statement. “Our core tasks as an organization right now are significant. In addition to Liz’s focus on managing the development of our new home, we are working hard toward resuming production with a renewed commitment to equity and wellness and continuing on our path toward becoming an anti-racist organization.”
“With this leadership expansion, TimeLine will benefit from Liz’s ability to focus on opening our new home,” Sterling said in a statement. “And it provides a thrilling opportunity to welcome a new leadership voice at our organization.”
“This new building is an investment in the future of TimeLine—a home for artists, audiences, and community members that will ensure the company and its mission can endure,” Auman said in a statement. “We want to create a space and an organization where artists are supported in doing their best work, where the community can thrive, and where the next generation will see themselves.”
“I’m invigorated by the prospect of this leadership transition and sharpened focus,” Auman continued in a statement. “I believe my skills will best serve TimeLine through leading the effort to make this new home a reality and securing that meaningful future. And after 14 years of leading this organization alongside PJ, I’m inspired by the prospect of a new voice taking that role and seeing the renewed creativity that will surely ignite.”
Further details, including the timeframe and next steps for the search, will be announced soon, pending the board and company’s development of the position and search process.
“Liz has been a quintessential partner with me for 14 years, guiding TimeLine’s growth with poise, grace, and a deep investment in our mission,” Powers said in a statement. “She has also been a driving force behind establishing a new home for our future. At this critical phase for the project, I am so grateful that she wants to ensure that TimeLine’s long-held dream will become a reality. By choosing to shift her focus to this project, she is yet again providing inspiring leadership to usher in a new era for the organization. True to TimeLine’s values, the search for a new executive leader will be inclusive, collaborative, and transparent.”
Auman joined TimeLine Theatre in October 2007, and has since overseen a quadrupling of the company’s budget, extended runs of multiple shows, the expansion of TimeLine’s programming to additional venues, and multiple awards for excellence in arts management, including the 2016 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Prior to TimeLine, Auman spent 15 years at Victory Gardens Theater, 12 as general manager. She helped guide Victory Gardens through budget growth, and received the Tony Award for Regional Theatre in 2001.
