CINCINNATI: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park has announced that Joanie Schultz will be its new associate artistic director. Schultz will begin the position in late November.
Schultz will collaborate with producing artistic director Blake Robison to oversee the artistic department, lead the Playhouse’s new play development work, conduct season planning, direct mainstage productions, and represent the theatre at the local and national levels.
“Joanie brings talent, creativity and strong leadership skills to the Playhouse,” said Robison in a statement. “She’s a nationally renowned arts leader, and I’m thrilled to welcome her to Cincinnati. We are entering a period of tremendous growth as we emerge from the pandemic and open our new facility to the community. Joanie will help us chart a path forward that is artistically ambitious, inclusive and forward-thinking.”
Schultz was previously artistic director of WaterTower Theatre in Dallas-Fort Worth. From 2014-16, she served as associate artistic producer at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago as part of the Leadership U One-on-One Fellowship, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group (TCG). She has directed throughout Chicago and nationwide including the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, the Cleveland Play House, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Schultz’s notable directing work includes Hand to God (Studio Theatre & WaterTower Theatre); her own adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (WaterTower Theatre); the world premiere of Frida…A Self Portrait (Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage); the world premieres of Sarah Gubbins’s Cocked (Victory Gardens Theater,) fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life (Steppenwolf Theatre,) and The Kid Thing (About Face Theatre/Chicago Dramatists); The Whale and Rest by Samuel D. Hunter (Victory Gardens Theater); the Jeff Award winning productions of In Arabia We’d All be Kings and The Brief History of Helen of Troy (Steep Theatre); the operas Acis and Galatea (Chicago Cultural Center) and Bluebeard’s Castle (New Millennium Orchestra). She also co-created and directed a 6-hour theatrical adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle (the Building Stage).
