SAN FRANCISCO: American Conservatory Theater (ACT) has announced that after eight years, artistic director Pam MacKinnon will step down at the end of the 2025-26 season. Her last show at ACT will be Eisa Davis’ ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||, a play with music about a Berkeley’s girls music program, which runs Mar. 12-Apr. 19, 2026. MacKinnon assumed the position in 2018, taking over from Carey Perloff, and was the company’s fourth artistic director. During her tenure, ACT premiered works like Kate Attwell’s Big Data, Lydia R. Diamond’s Toni Stone, and Christopher Chen’s The Headlands, and also presented commercial titles like The Lehman Trilogy, Freestyle Love Supreme, Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and Kim’s Convenience. MacKinnon plans to return to her Tony-winning freelance directing career, which included such titles as the 2012 Broadway revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Clybourne Park, and Downstate. The company’s board of trustees will launch a national search to find a successor for MacKinnon, whose departure follows closely upon the departure of managing director Jennifer Bielstein, who accepted a job in June at Houston’s Alley Theatre.

LOS ANGELES: La Jolla Playhouse has announced that two-time Tony-nominated director Jessica Stone will be the Playhouse’s new artistic director, starting in early 2026. Stone succeeds Christopher Ashley, who has served as the Playhouse’s artistic director since 2008. Ashley announced his departure in September 2024 to take on the role of artistic director of New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company. In partnership with managing director Debby Buchholz, Stone will guide the organization’s mission and vision. Stone was nominated for a Tony for directing the Broadway musical Water for Elephants in 2024, for which she also won directing honors at the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards, and nominated for a Tony for her direction of Kimberly Akimbo. Stone worked as an actress on and Off-Broadway, in television, and in film for decades before transitioning to directing. Broadway credits included Anything Goes, Butley, The Odd Couple, The Smell of the Kill, Design for Living, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Grease. Stone’s directing career began with an all-male 2010 production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for Williamstown Theatre Festival. She has directed at ACT, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Huntington Theatre Company, the Old Globe, and Two River Theatre Company, among others. 

SAN FRANCISCO: Golden Thread Productions, which bills itself as the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East, has announced that artistic director Sahar Assaf will step down after four seasons. Assaf joined the company in 2021, relocating from Lebanon to San Francisco for the position. Over the past four years, she has engaged in what the company described as “powerful artmaking, fearless activism, global, national and local partnerships, and an impressive rebuilding of the company’s programming and audience following the Covid-19 pandemic.” Beyond March 2026, Assaf will continue her international engagement work with Golden Thread, representing the company internationally to strengthen cultural exchange and develop new artistic collaborations with artists in the Middle East. Assaf is a Lebanese theatremaker and teacher who has been active in the Lebanese theatre scene since 2003 as an actor, director, translator, and producer. She’s presented works in Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Belgium, London, Sweden, Poland, Greece, Chicago, and NYC. With her long-term collaborator, playwright Robert Myers, Assaf co-founded the Theater Initiative at the American University of Beirut.

As her replacement, Golden Thread has announced Nubian Egyptian American playwright, director, and artistic leader Nabra Nelson as its third executive artistic director. Nelson was selected after a rigorous internal search process. A founding member of Dunya Productions, HERitage emBODYment, and Heard Space Arts Collective, she leads the Nubian Foundation for Preserving a Cultural Heritage, co-hosts the Kunafa and Shay theatre podcast, and is a board member with the MENA Theater Makers Alliance. Currently based in Los Angeles, Nelson works as a teaching artist, DEI consultant, and grant writer, with past community engagement leadership roles at Seattle Rep and Milwaukee Rep. Her plays have been developed and produced across the country, including at Golden Thread. Nelson will start her tenure early 2026 and will join Golden Thread managing director Wynne Chan in a shared leadership model. 

LOWELL, MASS.: The Merrimack Repertory Theatre has announced that artistic director Courtney Sale will step down from her role on Jan. 16, 2026 and become the executive director at the 1932 Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor, Maine. As the executive and artistic leader of MRT, Sale navigated the company’s Covid-19 closure and led the company to recovery. She oversaw the creation of a new mission and strategic plan, growth of MRT’s endowment, renovations of artist housing at Bagshaw Mills, installation of a new lighting and sound grid, establishment of an artistic reserve, launch of a new website, development of partnerships with Lowell-based organizations, and artistic work with a geographic focus, including works focusing on Lowell’s Khmer community and launching the Sokhary Chau Playwriting Fellowship to serve Southeast Asian playwrights that supported plays like Katie Dỗ’s love you long time (already). Under Sale’s leadership, the theatre staged over 25 productions, produced more than a dozen readings, and placed seven commissions. Commissioned writers under her tenure include Trista Baldwin, Vichet Chum, Melinda Lopez, Dael Orlandersmith, Kevin Kling, James Still, and Kalean Ung. At Criterion, Sale will lead the revitalization efforts of the historic theatre, which focuses on programming multiple disciplines, including music, theatre, film, dance, and lectures.

AUSTIN: Penfold Theatre Company has announced that among several new hires, John Kranso has joined as its managing director. Since moving into its new home at Round Rock Plaza a year ago, Penfold has grown in its service of the Central Texas community and in its organizational infrastructure. Now with a team of eight paid plus two volunteer staff, a permanent venue, and program expansions, Penfold is aiming to engage the community more deeply. Kranso has worked in theatre, dance, film production, and education, including positions with the New York-based company Drama Department, the La Jolla Playhouse and Tim Robbins’s the Actors’ Gang. He also managed the Oklahoma City Ballet, the Parsons Dance Company, and the American Society of Cinematographers. He was an instructor at the Los Angeles Film School and has lectured at the University of Oklahoma and Brooklyn College, among others.