SPRING GREEN, WISC.: American Players Theatre has announced that its longtime artistic director Brenda DeVita will retire at the end of the theatre’s 50th season in December 2029. DeBita has been on staff since 1995, serving as the artistic director since 2014. APT’s board of directors will begin the search for her successor this fall, who will begin in early 2028.
DeVita began her APT career as company manager before joining the leadership team as associate artistic director in 2004 and being appointed artistic director in 2014. During her tenure, DeVita was integral to developing APT’s Core Acting Company, Voice and Text Program, Acting Apprentice Program, and the addition of the Touchstone Theatre in 2009. Her leadership team played a crucial role in diversifying APT’s acting company, artistic staff, and programming selection. She also started the Language Project, a training program for early-career actors, which draws on APT’s skills to analyze and perform poetic texts. In 2017, DeVita led the $8 million renovation of the Hill Theatre.
In addition to her leadership, DeVita is an acclaimed director, responsible for a dozen productions at APT, including Uncle Vanya, Picnic, Dancing at Lughnasa, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Proof, and Mary’s Wedding, among others. Before coming to APT, she spent eight years as a professional actor with credits across the Midwest. DeVita received an honorary doctorate from Ripon College and is the recipient of the Arts Midwest Peter Capell Award for Midwestern Creativity and Entrepreneurship. Under her leadership, APT received the 2026 Regional Theatre Tony Award.
SAN FRANCISCO: The Magic Theatre has announced Perla Vanesa Barraza as managing director. She replaces Kevin Nelson, who stepped down in May. Barraza joins the new executive leadership team, which includes Sarah Nina Hayon, recently appointed artistic director; Daniel Duque-Estrada, producing director; and Joan Osato, director of sustainability and growth. This expansion into an executive leadership team comes as part of a long transition designed to sustain and extend the most recent era, led by former artistic director Sean San José and team.
Perla Vanesa Barraza is a teatrista and a formerly undocumented fronteriza originally from Tijuana, Mexico. She migrated to the United States when she was 3 years old. She calls the Bay Area her home and Tucson, Arizona, her hometown. Through theatre and community organizing, she sees the power of storytelling as a path toward healing and as a means to disrupt harmful narratives. She is committed to uplifting her immigrant and marginalized communities in all that she creates.
Barraza is a MFA candidate in theatre directing at Randolph College and holds a B.A. in Theater Arts from Mills College. She was the assistant director on Luis Alfaro’s Aztlán and The Travelers at Magic Theatre, Kat Evasco’s Be Like Water at With You Productions, and Migdalia Cruz’s translation of Macbeth at Magic Theatre. She has performed in multiple rolling world premieres, including Richard Montoya’s Nogales at Campo Santo, Hilary Bettis’s Ghost of Lote Bravo, Milta Ortiz’s Más at Borderlands Theater, and Paul Flores’ Pilgrim St/Stockton 21 at the Living Word Project.
GARRISON, N.Y.: Hudson Valley Shakespeare (HVS) has announced that managing director Kendra Ekelund will step down in spring 2027. Ekelund will be relocating to Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family to be closer to extended family. She will remain in her role at HVS through the transition period, working alongside artistic director Davis McCallum and helping with projects like artist lodging, stewarding the organization’s expanded campus, and hospitality operations.
Ekelund joined HVS in 2022. During her tenure, HVS evolved from a celebrated seasonal theatre company into a permanent cultural institution encompassing a 98-acre campus, the Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center, the Garrison, Folio restaurant, the Inn, and Artist Lodging, currently under construction. Her tenure culminated in the inaugural 2026 season at the Scripps Theater Center, featuring King Lear, As You Like It, and Les Misérables. The season welcomed more than 35,000 audience members and established the new campus as a major cultural destination for the Hudson Valley.
Following her relocation to Charlotte, Ekelund plans to take on a select portfolio of consulting and creative projects. Her future work will draw on more than two decades of experience in arts administration, organizational transformation, capital development, live theatre producing, artist support, and visitor experience.
SANTA MARIA, CALIF: Valerie Rachelle was named the new artistic director and dean of the Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA) in July. She replaces Mark Booher. Rachelle’s appointment marks a homecoming to PCPA. She previously served PCPA as an actor, casting director, resident director and choreographer, and movement instructor in the conservatory’s professional actor training program. Most recently, Rachelle was the associate artistic director for the Houston, Texas-based Stages. Previously, she served as the artistic director and executive producer of the Oregon Cabaret Theatre in Ashland, Oregon, where she led significant organizational growth and expanded artistic programming, achieving record-breaking ticket sales during her 11- year tenure.
Rachelle is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, where she earned her BFA in acting before completing an MFA in directing at the University of California, Irvine.
