NEW YORK CITY: Managing editor Russell M. Dembin has left American Theatre magazine as part of a strategic realignment of Theatre Communications Group, the magazine’s publisher.

Dembin began as an editorial intern in 2013, afer which he worked as a freelance copy consultant before joining the full-time staff in 2015 as production editor. He was later promoted to managing editor. Among the memorable stories he contributed as a writer was an analysis of Jewish themes onstage in a time of rising racism and hate, a report on his efforts to meet his father’s access needs on an outing to Broadway’s Oklahoma!, and an annual Halloween roundup of theatre ghost stories.

“Russ has been an essential part of American Theatre’s daily and monthly operations, and a big piece of its heart and brain,” said editor-in-chief Rob Weinert-Kendt in a statement. “We will miss his passion for detail, calm demeanor, and depth and breadth of theatrical knowledge. He is irreplaceable.”

“Being part of the team behind American Theatre magazine and AmericanTheatre.org has been a tremendous privilege,” Dembin said in a statement. “It’s been humbling and rewarding to work on the publication while it grew to take on important subjects ranging from the #MeToo movement to racism in the theatre industry, and highlighted the voices and stories of historically marginalized communities. I’m excited to see what’s next for AT.”

Dembin is a former associate editor of The Sondheim Review, and his writing has appeared in The Austin Chronicle, Musical Theatre Review, Theatre Journal, and the Journal of Beckett Studies. He recently completed his Ph.D. in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin, and holds an M.A. in theatre history and criticism from Brooklyn College. A freelance dramaturg and a steering committee member of the American Theatre Archive Project, he can be followed on Twitter at @Dramaturgs.