In two theaters, transformation at the top
By late fall, for the first time in 18 seasons, there will be a new artistic director at Pittsburgh Public Theater. It may take another full season before City Theatre undergoes a similar seismic shift at the top, but change is on the way there, too.
Ted Pappas, a hands-on leader with an eclectic approach to programming, announced in March that he would leave the Public at the end of the current season. Tracy Brigden exited City abruptly in June after 16 seasons of heading the strictly new-play theater on the South Side, leaving voids at Pittsburgh’s No. 1 and No. 2 largest producing companies that offer mostly plays.
Just as the Public and City are in need of new artistic directors, so too are at least a dozen performing arts centers and theater companies around the country of every shape, size and mission.
It may take a couple of years for the dust to settle, but when it does, we will look back on this moment as transformative for theaters everywhere outside the Broadway cocoon.
Pittsburgh represents a microcosm of this transformation — times two.
Pittsburgh is unusual in that it has had two leaders with the longevity of Mr. Pappas and Ms. Brigden. Mr. Pappas announced his exit months in advance and will help smooth the transition to his successor.
The big change at the Public Theater is likely to be a 2-for-1 changeover. Mr.
Pappas has, during most of his tenure, been producing artistic director — that is, he oversees almost every inch of what you see onstage, including directing three of the six shows each season, and has performed the job of managing director since Stephen Klein departed in 2004. He also has been an ardent fundraiser and cheerleader.
In late September, the Public had narrowed its search to nine applicants for artistic director and were conducting first-round interviews. The next season will likely be announced in early 2018, and the hope is to have a successor in place who can contribute to the programming. There are no plans yet to search for a managing director.
“That’s a very rare combination, and Ted’s a very rare individual,” board president Michael Ginsberg said. “We thought it would enhance our success of finding the right match for us if we narrowed it to an artistic director.”
Having more than 18 months notice that Mr. Pappas was leaving helped the Public start its search before many of the other theaters around the country were in the same boat. That gave the local company a head start with the very busy headhunting firm Management Consultants for the Arts.
The current scramble going on nationally “does force us to get it done,” Mr. Ginsberg said. “We are talking to incredibly strong candidates, and those folks are going to have other opportunities.”
In looking over the talent pool, the Public’s search committee asked MCA to follow the Rooney Rule on diversity: the NFL policy that requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operation jobs.
Initially, when MCA arrived at a list that it thought met the Public’s criteria, “I asked them to be a little more expansive in order to make sure we had representative diversity and more options within that group,” Mr. Ginsberg said.
“We have asked them to be very thoughtful about identifying women and minority candidates. And we’ve succeeded in getting those candidates.”
City Theatre will not be a part of the current scramble, which includes a vacancy left by its founder, Marc Masterson, who recently gave notice at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif. A week ago, it was announced that Kwame KweiArmah would leave Baltimore Center Stage for London’s Young Vic. And the list goes on.
The current leaders of City’s two-theater campus on the South Side will plan the 2018-19 season while helping the board of directors undergo a reassessment — not of its mission to produce and develop new plays, but of how to sustain funding in addition to audience and community engagement.
“We are taking this summer and probably a good part of the fall to take a step back and look at what our mission and vision are, and then examining the various possible leadership models that we could put in place, and that process, we are maybe a third to a halfway through.” said City Theatre’s board president, Beth Newbold.
The team in place at City all arrived around the same time — James McNeel as managing director in 2014 and the following year, Reginald Douglas from New York as artistic producer and Clare Drobot, a Carnegie Mellon grad, as director of new play development.
MCA representatives were at a City Theatre retreat last month to start the process.
Mr. McNeel said they left with three assignments. “Let’s talk about core values — who are we as an organization and who do we want to be? Visioning: Where do we see the organization going?”
The third was learning from watching what is going on in the rest of the country, to inform “the types of people being looked at in terms of artistic leadership,” Mr. McNeel said.
The Public and City are coming from very different places in their searches.
Pittsburgh Public Theater has a relatively modern venue in the heart of the city’s Cultural District, with a steadfast subscriber base, strong endowment and the benefit of financialy stability throughout Mr. Pappas’ tenure.
“It is one of the most desirable and popular positions in the country — that’s what our consultants are telling us,” said board president Ginsberg.
Under Mr. Pappas’ leadership, the Public has offered an eclectic mix of programming, from ancient Greek to Shakespeare to the most recent prize-winning plays, with the occasional original work. There usually has been at least one musical on the schedule, reflecting Mr. Pappas’ past as a directorchoreographer.
Mr. Ginsberg doesn’t expect there to be wholesale changes when he is gone.
“I don’t think we are going to see a massive departure, but we see ourselves in a traditional theater box and we don’t mind moving around within that box,” Mr. Ginsberg said. “Quantum Theatre is a theater that I think of as outside the box, doing edgier things. I don’t think that would appeal to our subscriber base, and frankly we don’t want to compete with City or Quantum in terms of the types of shows we are doing. We want to stay true to our historic mission, but a new artistic director may want to do some new things, and we are going to be open to and supportive of that.”
No theater in the country is immune from the struggle to find new and sustainable funding while attracting a more youthful, diverse and technology-loving audience away from its big- and small-screens entertainmentoptions.
The Shakespeare Monologue contest for middle- and high-school students is one way the Public reaches into the community.
City Theatre counts the EQT Young Playwrights Festival and Momentum Festival of new plays in various stages of development among its educational and outreach programs.
Ms. Newbold said the aim is to take that mission a step further, where Pittsburghers are eager to know, “‘ I wonder what is going on at City Theatre tonight? Or this weekend? Let me check.’ “
The idea would be to make City a destination not just for plays on the Mainstage or in the Hamburg black box theater, but perhaps for exhibitions in the lobby.
“I think there are so many possibilities and so much creativity on the staff,” Ms. Newbold said. “It’s a unique opportunity to take a step back and look at all the kinds of things we could be.”