Berkeley Rep names an ‘inspiring’ new artistic director — with Broadway cred
She’s a theatrical visionary with Broadway cred and Berkeley roots.
And starting Sept. 1, 2019, she’ll be back in Berkeley.
Today, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre announced that Johanna Pfaelzer, 49, artistic director of the highly regarded New York Stage and Film incubator, will take the reins from the Rep’s legendary Tony Taccone, who had announced his retirement plans in early 2017.
The choice was applauded by Michael Mayer, the Tony Award-winning director whose “American Idiot” musical had its world premiere at the Rep in 2009.
“If I could invent a person to fill the big shoes left at Berkeley Rep by Tony Taccone, Johanna Pfaelzer would exceed my imaginings,” Mayer said in a statement.
“She’s a true gift to theatre-makers of all stripes,” he said. “She creates a home for pure creativity, champions new writing in a wide
range of forms, celebrates process like nobody I’ve ever known, understands storytelling in profound ways, and as she’s demonstrated during her many years at New York Stage and Film, is a charismatic, wildly articulate and inspiring leader.”
Pfaelzer’s selection fills the second of three big holes created when the artistic leaders of the Bay
Area’s most prominent theater companies all announced their retirements in 2017. On Aug. 1, Broadway director Pam MacKinnon took the reins from the American Conservatory Theatre’s Carey Perloff, who had been in the position for 25 years. A replacement is still pending for Robert Kelley, the founding artistic director of TheatreWorks, who
is stepping down after the 2019-2020 season after a half-century in the role.
For the last 11 years, Pfaelzer has served as artistic director at New York Stage and Film, where playwrights bring their new works to be workshopped in anticipation of moves to bigger stages, including Broadway. Among the shows making presentations there early in their development were Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster “Hamilton,” the Steve Martin-Edie Brickell hit musical “Bright Star” and the award-winning “The Humans.”
Prior to that, she worked as an associate artistic director at ACT.
A theater and English major at Wesleyan University, Pfaelzer originally thought she wanted to be an actor. But she changed her mind once she landed at Louisville’s Humana Festival.
“I’d be in the room with a living playwright and see their plays take shape,” she says, still with a sense of awe for the craft. “I loved producing and discovered I was much better at it.”
Although her experience has been in new-play development on the East Coast, her roots are in Berkeley. The daughter of two Cal grads who became professors (her father taught mechanical engineering at San Francisco State; her mother, American literature at Delaware), Pfaelzer spent some grade-school years in Berkeley.
As someone who has closely followed the “extraordinary” Berkeley Rep company for years, Pfaelzer offers strong praise for Taccone and for the company’s “clear and profound commitment to new works.”
And its audiences, she said, embrace a “broad range of artistry” — from “Angels in America” to “Watch on the Rhine” to the irreverent John Leguizamo.
“They have come to expect that kind of breadth in their theatrical experience,” she said.
So what will Pfaelzer bring to Addison Street audiences when she arrives next fall?
“We’ll see, won’t we?” she said with a laugh, then ticked off her priorities: Bold storytelling. A rich theatrical imagination. Intellectual rigor.
“I think it’s important for audiences to dive into stories that can transport them into a different experience.”
Taccone’s official word on the appointment: “Let the wild ride continue.”