PROVIDENCE, R.I.: After a yearlong nationwide search, Trinity Repertory Company has announced Meredith McDonough as its next artistic director. As she will work alongside executive director Katie Liberman, this marks the first time Trinity Rep has all women on its leadership team. A director, educator, and arts administrator of over 25 years known for championing new plays and musicals, McDonough begins on Aug. 3 after Curt Columbus departs. From 2012 to 2019, McDonough served as associate artistic director under Les Waters at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she was a producer of the Humana Festival of New American Plays and directed world premieres by Colman Domingo, kimber lee, Sam Marks, Steven Dietz, Deborah Stein, and Chelsea Marcantel. McDonough was the director of new works at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California, where she developed, produced, and directed works by Rajiv Joseph, Matthew López, Bill Cain, Colman Domingo, GrooveLily, Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen, Janine Nabers, Anna Ziegler, and more. She was the associate artistic director for the Orchard Project, the new works program director for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, a Kesselring Award panelist, a Drama League fellow, a member of the Women’s Project Lab, and a board member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) for five years. Her freelance directing schedule has included world premieres of Kate Hamill’s Emma at the Guthrie, Sarah Gubbins’ Fair Use at Steppenwolf, and Lisa Loomer’s Side Effects May Include at Contemporary American Theater Festival. McDonough holds a BS in performance studies from Northwestern University and an MFA in directing from UC San Diego. She grew up in New Jersey and is based in Brooklyn.
CHICAGO: Chicago’s Raven Theatre Company has announced the departure of executive artistic director Sarah Slight, who heads to a new role as the associate artistic producer at Goodman Theatre, and named Chicago theatre veteran Jonathan Berry as incoming executive artistic director. Berry takes the reins of the Equity North Side theatre ahead of its 44th season. Since Slight stepped into leadership during its 40th season, Raven has presented two Chicago premieres, four world premieres, and several of the best-selling shows in its history, including this season’s Oak and Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. Raven has hosted, expanded, and elevated partner companies in its 6157 N. Clark complex, including its long-standing partnership with Story Theatre and new relationships with About Face Theatre, First Floor Theater, and other Chicago companies.
Berry returns to Chicago after three years of serving as artistic director of Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor, Maine. He is a proud ensemble member of Steep Theatre and Griffin Theatre, and a former artistic producer at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He directed the Steppenwolf productions of Lindiwe, The Children, You Got Older, and Constellations, and the SYA productions of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Crucible, and A Separate Peace. He directed the Chicago premiere of Ugly Lies the Bone for Shattered Globe and the remount of Andrew Hinderaker’s Obliteration, and was Anna D. Shapiro’s assistant director for Of Mice and Men and This is Our Youth on Broadway. He holds an MFA in directing from Northwestern University. He has taught acting, directing, and Viewpoints at University of Michigan, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Columbia College, Acting Studio Chicago, Bramble, Vagabond, and Black Box. He served as the director for the ensemble training program at the School at Steppenwolf.
NEW HAVEN, CT.: Evan Yionoulis has been announced as the dean of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University and artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre, effective July 1. She takes over from James Bundy, who will remain on the faculty and continue to teach at Yale. Currently the dean and director of the drama division at the Juilliard School, Yionoulis returns to Yale, where she began her career as a student, served as chair of the acting program from 1998 to 2003, and was a resident director (Yale Rep) for 20 years. She expanded the acting curriculum and the faculty, and became professor in practice for both acting and directing. At Yale Rep, she directed 14 productions, including William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and Richard II, Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder, and Guillermo Calderón’s Kiss. For more than three decades, she has taught at Yale Summer Session and recent master classes at the Yale Summer Conservatory for Actors. In returning to New Haven, Yionoulis joins her husband, Donald Holder, a David Geffen School of Drama professor in the practice of design and Tony-winning lighting designer.
Since beginning at Juilliard in 2018, Yionoulis oversaw and instituted the transition to a tuition-free MFA, the creation of a teacher development fellowship program, the establishment of an initiative to help graduating actors prepare for roles on film, and a multi-million-dollar renovation to foster greater connection within the drama community. Her directing of new and classic plays includes work at Lincoln Center Theater, the Mark Taper Forum, Dallas Theater Center, Adrienne Kennedy’s Lortel-winning Ohio State Murders and He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, and Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour on Broadway and Three Days of Rain at Manhattan Theatre Club, for which she received an Obie.
ATLANTA: True Colors Theatre Company has announced that managing director Chandra Stephens-Albright will retire at the conclusion of the fiscal year on July 31, after nine years of leadership. Stephens-Albright joined True Colors following a career at Coca-Cola and Bristol-Myers Squibb. What began as a second career in the nonprofit arts sector became a transformative chapter for the organization, as she helped strengthen the theatre’s operations, staff culture, and institutional funding during a period of significant growth and change. During her tenure, Stephens-Albright played a key role in guiding the organization through some of the most challenging years faced by performing arts institutions nationwide, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Her leadership helped stabilize the organization during that period while continuing to advance True Colors’ mission of celebrating the rich tradition of Black storytelling. She also helped steward the development of numerous productions, while cultivating and supporting a talented team of board and staff members committed to the company’s vision. The board and Evolution Management Consultants will launch a national search for the next managing director.
CHICAGO: The National Arts Policy Alliance (NAPA)—a research and organizing coalition working to advance economic rights and justice for creative and cultural workers established in 2024 by United States Artists—has announced three co-directors: Althea Erickson as director of advocacy and policy; Helena Huang as director of stewardship, and Lolan B. Sevilla as director of organizing. With these new appointments, the organization moves from its founding co-design phase into full implementation. Together the three directors bring decades of combined expertise in labor policy, philanthropy, civic engagement, and community organizing to the initiative’s mission of reshaping economic conditions and equity for creative and cultural workers across the nation.
