SEATTLE: Sound Theatre Company has announced that Shermona Mitchell will begin serving as the company’s co-artistic director beginning Jan. 1, 2023. Mitchell, the current associate artistic director at Seattle Public Theater, will serve alongside Sound Theatre’s founding artistic director, Teresa Thuman.
“As we head into the new year, I am thrilled about this extraordinary opportunity and am appreciative of the many ways Sound Theatre has continuously bolstered my artistic growth,” said Mitchell, who will step down as Sound Theatre’s chair of the board to serve in this new role, in a statement. “Serving as board chair has been an invaluable opportunity for me as I look back on my time of being in service to artistic practitioners and uplifting artistic pathways.”
Sound Theatre’s board vice president Andrea Kovich will succeed Mitchell as chair of the board.
Mitchell first came to Sound Theatre as an actor in …And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, a 2015 co-production with Brownbox Theatre. They received Gregory Awards for their performances in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot in 2016 and Citizen: An American Lyric in 2019, and served as a director for staged readings and an assistant director for productions. They have also adapted literary works for the stage with Book-It Repertory Theatre. As the first Black woman to serve as chair of the board, Mitchell established an artists’ task force and wrote Sound Theatre’s new code of conduct.
Sound Theatre adopted a collective leadership model in 2020 when Jay Woods was appointed co-artistic director. Woods is now serving as the associate artistic director of artist engagement at the 5th Avenue Theatre.
“This past year without Jay revealed shared leadership’s essential importance,” Thuman said in a statement. Returning to a shared leadership model will “formally vest Shermona with power to shape our organization’s aesthetics and culture.”
Sound Theatre Company strives to empower artists to give voice to the dignity and diversity of the human experience and to move audiences toward a more just and compassionate world. Founded in 2006, Sound Theatre has built a community of more than 400 artists. As of 2021, the theatre had a budget of approximately $427,700.
