Rep Theatre picks new artistic director
John Miller-Stephany, who from 1996 to 2015 was the artistic administrator and associate artistic director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, will take over in mid-October as the new producing artistic director of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.
Miller-Stephany will be the third artistic chief in the Rep’s 40-year history. He will replace Bob Hupp, who left the theater July 1 to take over as artistic director at Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, N.Y.
Hupp had been the artistic director since 1999, replacing Cliff Baker, who founded the Rep in 1976. Baker agreed to step back in as interim producing artistic director while the search for Hupp’s replacement was in progress. Baker also directed one production a year under Hupp’s regime.
A change in artistic administration at the Guthrie in July 2015 — Joseph Haj replaced Joe Dowling as artistic director and named Jeff Meanza as associate artistic director — left Miller-Stephany at liberty after 19 years.
Before taking the Guthrie job, Miller-Stephany was associate producer of The Acting Company in New York City from 1989-96.
Miller-Stephany said Tuesday that the Rep’s eclectic programming was one of the things that attracted him most. The mix of classics, musicals and contemporary plays “is right up my alley,” he added.
“I also love that it’s a really good size,” he said. “I’ve worked for many years for a smaller company based in New York. I loved that company because of its mission, but it was a touring company; it didn’t have its own theater.
“And then I worked for this very large company, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, which is an amazing facility, very large budget and all that, but to get anything done at that theater is like turning the Queen Mary around; it’s huge. You have to be sort of corporate when you’re that size.
“The Rep is great because it’s large enough to do really distinguished work, [and] small enough that there’s a family feeling to it.”
Moreover, “I was so impressed by the people I met when I was in Little Rock,” Miller-Stephany said. “I was there twice — the board members, the staff members, the community leaders were all so warm and intelligent and committed to the idea of having a high-quality, professional theater in their community, it just felt like the perfect fit.”
Rep Board of Directors Chairman Brian Bush said the appointment ends an extensive, eight-month national search, conducted by David Mallette of Management Consultants for the Arts, that started when Hupp announced his pending departure in January.
The search committee included members of the Rep board — some of whom, Bush said, were on the search committee that found Hupp — as well as longtime Rep patrons and Rep Managing Director Michael McCurdy.
Bush said the consultant initially received contacts from approximately 100 candidates from around the country and even one from the United Kingdom, winnowing them down to 11 candidates they recommended for interviews. The search committee conducted faceto-face interviews with eight.
What impressed the committee about Miller-Stephany, Bush said, is that “he is steeped in the American theater.”
Bush also cited his 30 years’ experience with “two of the most significant theaters in the country,” not on- ly as a director and producer but as an administrator. “The depth and breadth of his experience is remarkable,” he said. “He is without a doubt the right leader for our organization at this point in our history.”
Bush also said Miller-Stephany’s decision to take the job was an affirmation of the Rep’s national reputation, built up over 40 years, and the theater’s stability — 40 years with only two artistic directors is rare in the business, he added.
He would not divulge Miller-Stephany’s salary but said the pay-benefits package was “competitive with theaters our size.”
Bush praised Baker’s interim administration, saluting Baker’s continuing enthusiasm for the theater he founded. Bush said he expects Baker to continue to be involved with the Rep in some capacity.
The 2016-17 Rep season is in place, so Miller-Stephany said he’ll have time to get to know the community before he has to plan a season on his own. He plans to continue programming in the same eclectic mold as his predecessors.
He also pledged to focus on casting locally where possible. The Rep operates under a letter of agreement with actors union Actors Equity, which has certain requirements for the number of Equity actors and stage management personnel in each production.
However, Miller-Stephany said, “If a local actor can play the part, a local actor should play the part. It’s a judgment call; casting is always a judgment call. But if the director and I agree that a local actor could do the part well, why go out of town?”