NEWARK, DE: After 32 years as producing artistic director of the Resident Ensemble Players (REP), Sanford Robbins announced he will step down on Aug. 31, 2022. Robbins will also retire from his founding position as director of the Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP), as well as his status as Theatre Department chairperson at the University of Delaware. 

Steve Tague—a founding member of REP, director, and University of Delaware theatre department faculty member—will fill in for Robbins both as interim producing artistic director of the REP and Theatre Department chairperson for the duration of the upcoming yearlong search.

Robbins led the REP for 13 seasons, through seven new adaptations of classic plays, five world premieres of plays written for the REP, and, during the pandemic, seven new audio plays and a Zoom play. He is also the founder of the Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP), once part of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee until 1989 when the program relocated to the University of Delaware.  

“Throughout my time in Delaware, I have been privileged to collaborate with extraordinarily talented, committed, and big-hearted people in our organization and in our guests,” said Robbins in a statement. “I will always deeply appreciate the gift it has been to participate with you. In the meantime, I am very much here until this time next year and very much looking forward to the upcoming theatre season and academic year.”

Robbins’s full statement is here.