NEW HAVEN, CONN.: Long Wharf Theatre has announced that artistic director Jacob G. Padrón will conclude his role at the end of the current season. He has led the company since February 2019, when he succeeded Gordon Edelstein, and will remain in his role through the 2025-26 season to support the leadership transition and continuity of the theatre’s artistic programming. Padrón guided Long Wharf through a transition and reinvention of its producing model, leaving its longtime theatre venue and expanding its reach to serve New Haven’s diverse communities as an itinerant company, presenting work across 26 venues in seven cities. Long Wharf received a $1 million Mellon Foundation grant to advance equity and artistic programming, and Padrón was named the Person of the Year by the National Theatre Conference. In the past seven years, Padrón directed a multiracial production of She Loves Me; launched Black Trans Women at the Center, the first national festival dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black trans women; created the Lab to incubate new work; produced productions and partnerships with NAATCO, Woolly Mammoth, Alliance Theatre; guided the pandemic-era One City, Many Stages initiative that brought theatre into parks and virtual spaces; and launched the Artistic Congress with the Yale Schwarzman Center, featuring Anna Deavere Smith, Luis Alfaro, and Dominique Morisseau.
SAN FRANCISCO: After 45 years, New Conservatory Theatre Center’s (NCTC) founding artistic director Ed Decker will step down and pass the torch to longtime collaborator and current artistic associate Ben Villegas Randle, with an official transition in January 2026. Decker founded NCTC in 1981 as a progressive arts education program for young people; it has since become a home for queer and allied art, producing hundreds of productions (including over 40 world premieres) and providing education and career opportunities for Bay Area artists and educators. Randle has worked at NCTC as a director, press manager, and the company’s first artistic associate in 2013. At NCTC, he directed the 2015 world premiere of Salome, Dance for Me, the 2016 Bay Area premiere of Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet, and the West Coast premiere of JC Lee’s To My Girls. When Randle earned a Drama League Leo Shull new musicals directing fellowship, he moved to New York, where he lived for seven years and was a directing fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club. In 2024, when the search for a new artistic director was launched, Randle was preparing to return to San Francisco.
ST. LOUIS: The St. Louis Shakespeare Festival has announced Kate Tichelkamp as its first executive director. In this new role for the company, she joins in co-leadership with producing artistic director Tom Ridgely. She previously served as the festival’s director of development, where she forged partnerships with local and national funders and increased contributed revenue by more than 75 percent in two years. In both those years, she set festival records for total fundraising. The festival has more than doubled in size since Ridgely’s arrival in 2018. The move to co-leadership comes at a moment of growth for the festival, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary season with expanded programming and new community partnerships designed to invest in new artistic voices and continue its mission to present free, world-class theatre that unites and inspires the St. Louis region and beyond.
SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.VA.: The Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF), a nationally recognized incubator for new plays, has announced that Amy Wratchford will step into the full-time role of managing director, after serving as CATF’s interim managing director since November 2024. She succeeds Jeff Griffin, who departed in February 2024 to join Theaterworks Hartford in Connecticut. Wratchford brings two decades of nonprofit theatre leadership experience with organizations throughout the East Coast, including the last five years as president of the Wratchford Group, a consulting group that aims to transform nonprofit arts organizations to create a more stable, thriving, empowering, and equitable industry. Her consulting work focused on interim leadership, board training, and financial stabilization plans. Between 2021 and 2025 she served in interim leadership capacities for Virginia Stage Company, Barter Theatre, and Virginia Repertory Theatre, among others. Wratchford previously served as managing director of the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia, for over 10 years, helping the organization grow from a budget of $2.7 million to $4.2 million and eliminate $1 million in debt. She also served as managing director of Synchronicity Theater in Atlanta and spent over a decade in New York City as a producer, director, and actor.
PHOENIX: Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) has named Ana Rose O’Halloran as its new executive director. She will begin her tenure on Dec. 1 and succeeds previous executive director Geri Wright, who departed in April 2025. Since 2015, O’Halloran served as executive director, then as producing executive director, of Antaeus Theatre Company in Los Angeles. For Antaeus, she produced more than 25 productions, guided the organization through significant growth, including a $3-million capital campaign, record fundraising, expanded audiences, and launched programming such as the Zip Code Plays: Los Angeles, a live event and video tour promoting local culture that reached more than 100,000 listeners worldwide. Previously, O’Halloran held senior leadership roles and oversaw the expansion of national programs at the Pablove Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles dedicated to improving the lives of children with cancer through arts programming and research grants. Her fundraising career began at Center Theatre Group, where she contributed to a $10 million annual fundraising goal, and managed corporate sponsors, individual donors, and donor communications. O’Halloran holds an MFA in theatre management from California State University, Long Beach, and dual BFA degrees in theatre management and performance from Ohio University.
Wright, who had served as executive director alongside artistic director Matt August, stepped down on June 1 to focus on personal family priorities, taking a position as chief development and marketing officer at Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center. Since joining ATC, Wright has played a vital role in shaping the company’s strategic direction, reducing its deficit, and reinforcing its standing as Arizona’s premier professional theatre. She was instrumental in ATC’s transition to Tempe Center for the Arts (TCA), expanding the theatre’s presence in the Phoenix metro area, and securing a home that aims to foster artistic collaboration and audience engagement.
PHILADELPHIA: After an extensive national search, Theatre Philadelphia has announced Darnelle Radford as the organization’s new executive director. Radford, who officially started on Nov. 3, succeeds Sabriaya Shipley, who departed earlier this year. A longtime advocate for the city’s arts scene, Radford brings nearly two decades of experience as a theatre producer, media entrepreneur, and arts administrator to the role. Radford is best known as the founder of Represented Theatre Company and Em3ry, a media company producing podcasts including Rep Radio, The Business of Theater, Broad Street Review Podcast, and A Working Title. His work has consistently centered on amplifying the voices of Philadelphia’s artists and fostering conversations around the future of theatre. Most recently, Radford served as director of operations at Theatre Exile, where he oversaw day-to-day operations and technical systems. He also previously worked with the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia Art Museum, Freedom Theatre, Historic Philadelphia, Inc., the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and the City of Philadelphia’s COVID Containment Division. Radford holds degrees in multimedia and web design from the Art Institute of Philadelphia and arts administration from New York University.
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y.: Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC) has announced that Emily Glinick has been promoted to the position of managing director. This position was previously held by Sarah Clare Corporandy, who departed the organization in 2022. Glinick has served as CTC’s general manager since 2022 and will lead the company in partnership with producing artistic director Jade King Carroll. Glinick brings her background in stage management, producing, and organizational leadership to the role. As CTC’s general manager, she co-led the planning for a new $11 million Roe Green Theater Center, CTC’s first purpose-built home. She has worked with Carroll and Chautauqua to expand programming, improve operational sustainability, and elevate the company’s visibility in western New York and beyond. Prior to CTC, Glinick was a freelance stage manager for nearly 20 years, working at the Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Lincoln Center Theater, and more. Working with emerging playwrights and directors fueled her passion for developing inclusive and artist-centered creative environments.
