SAN DIEGO: San Diego Repertory Theatre has named Abigail Buell to be its new managing director as it enters its 46th anniversary season. Buell joins the downtown San Diego theatre’s leadership after an extensive national search by M/Oppenheim Executive Search. She replaces Larry Alldredge, who stepped down last month after serving for 13 years as the theatre’s managing director.

“San Diego Repertory Theatre’s mission really speaks to me both personally and as a leader in the national theatre community,” Buell said in a statement. “San Diego Rep is truly a rare jewel that not only has a progressive pursuit of celebrating diverse voices across our region, but is an organization that truly lives and breathes this both on- and offstage. I am a committed advocate for San Diego Rep and seek to ensure that the incredible work we are producing is accessible and available to communities both within and beyond San Diego.”

Buell has spent the last 16 years as a theatrical and performing arts visionary, leader, and devoted arts advocate in New York City. She has marketed hundreds of productions throughout her career, including leading multimillion dollar marketing campaigns for Broadway productions including To Kill A Mockingbird, King Lear, Hillary and Clinton, Taylor Mac’s Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, West Side Story, The Lehman Trilogy, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and the upcoming revival of The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman. 

“I am so glad that we have found Abigail, who I believe embodies the vision, ambition, savvy, and wide range of skills we need in our new managing director,” San Diego Rep artistic director Sam Woodhouse said in a statement. “I am thrilled she has joined our leadership team.”

San Diego Repertory Theatre aims to produce intimate, provocative, inclusive theatre, and to promote an interconnected community through vivid works that nourish progressive political and social values and celebrate the multiple voices of our region.