SEATTLE— Intiman Theatre Board President Kim A. Anderson announces that Kate Whoriskey, one of the most admired directors in the American theatre today, will succeedBartlett Sher as Artistic Director in 2011, following a season in which they will share artistic leadership. The multi-year transition process will begin this month, with Whoriskey and Sher working together on artistic programming and season planning for 2010.
“Our entire Board of Directors is thrilled to welcome Kate Whoriskey back to Intiman and Seattle ,” says Anderson . “Kate is a most exceptional, and most adventurous, artist and thinker. The Board began conversations with Bart more than a year ago about creating a succession plan that would continue and further our mission to remain innovative and intimate at the very foundation of our Theatre, as well as in the way we produce our plays. Kate has an exciting vision for Intiman’s future, and we look forward to supporting it though an organic artistic transition in tandem with Bart’s last season as Artistic Director and under the leadership of Managing Director Brian Colburn .”
Widely praised throughout her career for her visual imagination and heightened sense of the possibilities of storytelling, Whoriskey has directed modern classics and new works by today’s leading writers at theatres across the country.
She is currently represented in New York with this year’s winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Ruined, written by her frequent collaborator Lynn Nottage. The play was recently extended for the seventh time at Manhattan Theatre Club, where it opened in February after a run at Chicago ’s Goodman Theatre. To develop the play, which is set in the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo, Nottage and Whoriskey traveled to Uganda to do research and conduct interviews.
Whoriskey previously worked at Intiman in 2000 when she was selected by Sher to direct The Chairs in his first season as Artistic Director. She subsequently directed Ibsen’sThe Lady from the Sea and Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange at Intiman, and held the position of Associate Artist in 2002-2003 through a grant from the New Generations Program, an initiative cooperatively designed by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Theatre Communications Group.
“Intiman is a unique place,” said Whoriskey. “It has a large, loyal and intellectually curious audience, and works with a tremendous pool of talented theatre artists. There is also an overall environment of innovation in many fields in Seattle , which I think is part of what makes it one of the most exciting cities in America to make theatre.
“I admire the work that Bart has done at Intiman very much, particularly the American Cycle programming,” Whoriskey continued. “I’m excited to think about how we can complement this with a new International Cycle, and I look forward to building relationships with different voices to promote diversity and interdisciplinary work here.”
“Kate is one of the most audacious artists I know,” said Sher. “She believes in being brave, in taking chances and in creating work that exists in relationship to the larger world. As the Board, Brian and I worked together on creating this transition process, it was very important to me to be responsible to Intiman’s audiences and supporters. I feel very fortunate to be able to work with Kate and to support her intelligence and imagination as she assumes leadership of the company.”
As a producing organization, Intiman’s central value is the telling of great stories in the belief that theatre is a place for provocative ideas, and that people come to Intiman to think, talk, participate, get involved and stay connected to each other. Intiman’s programs encourage audiences to laugh and argue, ask questions, challenge assumptions, and connect what they have witnessed on stage to our shared history, their own experiences and the very real dilemmas that we face in our lives today. Intiman is also dedicated to making theatre part of a larger conversation about how we live now, and produces free-standing events with a public benefit, designed to support curiosity and interconnectedness, beyond the work on stage.
“Conversations with several candidates were already underway when I interviewed with Intiman’s Board, and Kate clearly emerged as the unanimous choice of the Trustees and staff,” said Colburn, who was hired last summer. “The innovative nature of this plan is part of what compelled me to join the company. Intiman is a forward-thinking organization that attracts the best artists in the country. Kate’s energy and ideas are very motivating, and she is familiar with our aesthetic and attracted to the kind of work we have built over many years. All of us here are eager to start the next big adventure for our company.”
A graduate of NYU’s Experimental Theatre Wing and American Repertory Theatre’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, Whoriskey is currently an associate artist atSouth Coast Repertory and a visiting lecturer at Princeton University . She and her family will move to Seattle in early 2010.
For more information or to request interviews, please contact Stephanie Coen , Director of Communications, at 206.204.3320 [direct line] or stephanie@intiman.org.
Seasonal support for Intiman Theatre is provided by ArtsFund; Intiman Theatre Foundation; Kreielsheimer Remainder Foundation; The Leading National Theatres Program, a joint initiative of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; and Washington State Arts Commission.
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