PHOENIX and TUCSON, ARIZ.: Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) has named Sean Daniels as its new artistic director. Daniels, a native of Mesa, Ariz., will succeed David Ivers and begin his new post in May. He will partner with managing director Billy Russo to lead, and his first task will be to select the final two plays for ATC’s 2019-20 season.

“We are thrilled to bring Sean Daniels back to Arizona and to Arizona audiences,” said Susan Segal, chair of the ATC board of trustees, in a statement. “His deep connections to Arizona and his impressive successes as a director and leader for leading American theatre companies blend perfectly to continue ATC’s legacy of presenting great theatre.”

Daniels currently serves as artistic director of Merrimack Repertory Theatre  in Lowell, Mass. He has also served as associate artistic director at Actors Theatre of Louisville, artist-at-large/director of artistic engagement at the Geva Theater Center in Rochester, N.Y., and associate artistic director and resident director at California Shakespeare Theater in Berkeley, Calif. He also co-founded and led Dad’s Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta. His directing credits include The Lion, which premiere Off-Broadway and won a Drama Desk Award for Best Solo performance for Benjamin Scheuer. Daniels has developed new works with Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and Jordan Harrison, among others.  He is also a playwright, and his play The Haunted Life  will open at Merrimack Rep this month, and The White Chip will be produced Off-Broadway this fall.

“One of the first shows I ever saw, Our Town, was at Arizona Theatre Company,” said Daniels in a statement. “I remember it like it was yesterday. It changed me forever, and decades later I’m making theatre around the world because of it. It’s an honor to give back to a place that has given me so much, and for every kid who walks into this building to know that they can someday be the artistic director.”