National Endowment for the Arts chairman ROCCO LANDESMAN will step down from his position at the end of 2013, having held the title since 2009. NEA senior deputy chairman JOAN SHIGEKAWA will take his place as acting head of the agency.
ADRIANA BAER is the new artistic director at Profile Theatre in Portland, Ore. Baer is the former associate artistic director of San Francisco’s Cutting Ball Theater and has also directed in New York.
The Neo-Futurists in Chicago welcomes its new artistic directors, BILAL DARDAI and MEGAN MERCIER. Dardai has been a Neo-Futurist ensemble member since 2004 and Mercier has been with the company since 2008.
San Francisco Shakespeare Company announced that REBECCA J. ENNALS will be its first-ever artistic director. Ennals has been with the company for 10 years and most recently held the title of artistic director of education programs.
Soho Repertory Theatre in New York City has appointed CYNTHIA FLOWERS as executive director. She replaces TANIA CAMARGO, who left the company after four years in the position. Flowers was previously the director of development at Atlantic Theater Company.
After five seasons at About Face Theatre in Chicago, artistic director BONNIE METZGAR will be stepping down at the end of the 2012-2013 season. A search has begun for a new artistic director.
PAUL BARNES, artistic director and co-founder of Great River Shakespeare Festival in Minnesota, will be leaving his post in July. Barnes intends to continue directing productions at the theatre. His replacement, DOUG SCHOLZ-CARLSON, currently associate director, will step into the leadership role in July.
DAWN HELSING WOLTERS, managing director of Milwaukee Repertory Theater in Wisconsin, will be stepping down at the end of the current season. She has been with the theatre since 2009. A search has begun for her replacement.
Merrimack Repertory Theatre‘s executive director STEVEN LEON has left the company, citing health reasons. He joined the Massachusetts theatre in June 2011. Merrimack Rep is currently searching for a new artistic director.
LAURA CARBONELL SMITH, managing director of Working Theater in Los Angeles, has left the theatre to pursue a full-time acting career. She held the position for three years and started at the theatre as an intern.
