San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Diversionary Theatre announces new leadership and 2023-24 season
On June 3, Diversionary Theatre opened “Head Over Heels,” its final production under the leadership of eight-year executive artistic director Matt M. Morrow.
Morrow is leaving the Lgbtqidentified company at the end of June to serve as the new artistic director at Center Repertory Theatre in Walnut Creek. Morrow’s husband, Skyler Sullivan, will also be leaving his position as Diversionary’s arts education director when they move to the Bay Area in July.
Jenny Case, Diversionary’s managing director since 2017, has been promoted to the position of executive director. In July, Stephen Brotebeck will step in as Diversionary’s interim artistic director while a national search is conducted for Morrow’s replacement.
Brotebeck — who co-directed “Head Over Heels” with Morrow — is a professor in San Diego State’s MFA program in musical theater. He is the former artistic director of Okoboji Summer Theatre in Okoboji, Iowa, and he has previously served as a director and choreographer at Diversionary for its productions of “Girlfriend” and the world premiere of “The Loneliest Girl in the World.” His Broadway credits include serving as a movement associate on the Tony Award-winning production of “Peter and the Starcatchers” and as assistant director on “Ghost the Musical.”
Meanwhile, last week, Morrow announced Diversionary’s 38th season, which will include four shows running September through June 2024. Subscriptions are now on sale. Here’s the lineup:
“Dragon Mama”: This play, making its San Diego premiere, is the centerpiece of playwrightperformer Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Cycle of three musicals about three generations of women in a
Filipino American gangster family. “Dragon Mama,” which debuted at American Repertory Theatre in Seattle in 2019, is a solo show about 25 years in the life of Maria, a queer woman looking for a more diverse life, so she leaves her family behind in rural Washington state for the wilds of Alaska. Andrew Russell will direct. Sept. 14-Oct. 8.
“The Glass Menagerie”: Lisa Berger directs this revival of Tennessee Williams’ acclaimed 1944 memory play about Tom, a young gay man looking back with regret on his desire to break free of his controlling mother, Amanda, and his disabled, mentally fragile younger sister, Laura. Nov. 30-Dec. 23.
“Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members”: This high-energy drag comedy by Mara Vélez Meléndez makes its West Coast premiere in a co-production with Moxie Theatre. Lolita is the office receptionist in the Wall Street office of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board. Like the infamous Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrón, this Lolita makes it her goal to decolonize places and people with glamour, glitter and a gun. All performances will take place at Moxie Theatre. May 5-June 2, 2024. “TL;DR: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix”: Ellarose Chary and Brandon Gwinn’s world premiere musical begins with T and L driving their 1966 Ford T-bird convertible off the edge of the Grand Canyon, just as the movie “Thelma & Louise” concluded. In this version, directed by Sherri Eden Barber, T and L don’t die. Instead they embark on a queer odyssey, attempt to sort out their new identities and find a gay happy ending, with the help of a Riot Grrrl band. “TL;DR” won the 2021 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre Writing. May 9-June 2, 2024.