Arizona Theatre Company’s new director promises to bring the party
After a national search that took nearly two years, Arizona Theatre Company found its next leader a mere eight-hour drive away.
David Ivers was artistic director of the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City from 2011 until stepping down this month to accept the same title with Arizona’s leading producer of live theater. He takes over on July 1 from David Ira Goldstein, who has led the company for 25 seasons — including the current one, which was nearly canceled in the midst of a financial crisis.
Ivers, 47, will be tasked with wooing a new generation of theatergoers to keep the company relevant — and financially stable — as it enters its 51st
year.
During an introductory interview with The Republic, Ivers demonstrated fluency in the current lingo of audience development — outreach to underserved communities, collaboration with other arts organizations, even the possibility of a “texting wall” to welcome the Snapchat generation — but he also stressed the bottom-line reality that going to the theater is supposed to be about having a good time.
Asked during interviews how he would attract new audiences, “I joked a little bit and I said, ‘Bands and booze,’” Ivers said. “But I’m not kidding. I’m really not. I guarantee you that after ‘Outside Mullingar,’ at least a couple times there will be an Irish band playing, and I’m hoping that I can find a place for us to have food trucks, and we’ll just throw a party. It’s got to happen. It’s essential to the next wave of the theater. …
“ATC deserves to have a party again. I’m young, I’m bringing my young family. There needs to be a revitalization of energy. I intend to be in front of the public.”
Diversity — meaning more women and people of color onstage, behind the scenes and in the audience — is also high on the agenda. Despite the fact that women make up a majority of theatergoers, most plays produced are written and directed by men, and men dominate executive positions as well.
Indeed, Goldstein told The Republic last year that he had urged the board of trustees to strongly consider replacing him with someone other than a white male like himself. But that didn’t happen. Board chairwoman Lynne Wood Dusenberry, a retired lawyer in Tucson, said that the list of finalists, though not made public, was diverse.
“It was a close competition,” she said.
“I was an employment lawyer for 30 years, so I care very much about underrepresented groups getting a fair shot. But David was the best candidate among our finalists.”
Ivers said that his commitment to diversity should be judged by the hiring and programming decisions he makes moving forward.
“It’s a must. It will happen,” he said.
“The next step, and perhaps the more crucial step and the one that does not have a model in the United States, is putting the resources into diversifying who is watching those brilliant artists, technicians, managers and employees of color. And unfortunately that’s not been tackled to the extent of the artist issue. … I don’t have the answers to that yet, but like Rilke says, I’m going to live myself into the questions and try to find a way for us to diversify who’s witnessing these plays.”
Arizona Theatre Company was founded in Tucson in 1967 as Arizona Civic Theatre. It changed its name in 1979, the year after it expanded operation to Phoenix, where it produces six plays a year at the Herberger Theater Center.
It is Arizona’s only member of the elite-tier League of Resident Theatres, and it is the only LORT theater that serves two cities. This presents a unique challenge as the two communities don’t always share the same tastes and concerns.
Ivers said he’s committed to understanding those differences and is excited about living in the community that he will be serving artistically — a contrast to Utah Shakespeare, which primarily performs for tourists.
Ivers was born and raised in California and attended college at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, home to the prestigious Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he went on to direct multiple productions. He holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Minnesota and has worked as associate artistic director at Portland Repertory Theatre and resident artist at the Denver Center Theatre Company.
In Cedar City, Ivers helped lead a $40 million expansion that included two new theaters and launched a new-play development program, an interests that he brings with him to Arizona.
“Both myself and the rest of the soon-to-benamed executive leadership team feel very strongly about an Arizona-based initiative that’s going to be connected to programming,” he said. That means telling local stories to local audiences, much like Arizona Opera has done with its Arizona Bold initiative.
Ivers added, however, that he isn’t planning to transform the company overnight.
“While I have a lot of ideas about programming moving forward, I don’t think the audience should expect that I’m going to come in and paint the place neon,” he said. “There’s so much to learn, there’s so much to stabilize, and I think growing together is kind of a better idea.”