PITTSBURGH: James McNeel, the current managing director at Contemporary American Theatre Festival in West Virginia, will move from his longtime home to City Theatre in Pittsburgh, where he will serve as managing director, effective Jan. 5. He will oversee City Theatre with longtime artistic director Tracy Brigden.

McNeel succeeds Mark R. Power, who was in the position for four years. Power plans to resume his management and marketing consulting practice in Pittsburgh. Coincidentally, McNeel also spent four years as managing director at CATF, which recently mounted its first Off-Broadway production. To mark that occasion, McNeel was interviewed in a recent episode of American Theatre‘s OffScript podcast.

“I am honored to join City Theatre at this very exciting time,” McNeel said in a statement. “The development and production of new plays resides at my core; I believe they serve as the lifeblood for a vibrant and relevant theatre art form, and I have spent my career committed to contemporary storytellers—the truth-seekers and risk-takers of our collective cultural conversation. I cannot wait to work with Tracy, one of the field’s leading crusaders on this front, and City Theatre’s terrific staff, to build on the organization’s tradition as a national center for new work and one of Pittsburgh’s most important creative beacons for audiences and artists alike.”

City Theatre turns 40 this season. It was founded in 1991 and specializes in commissioning and producing new plays.