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State of the Arts Blog
Marianne Combs

Penumbra Theatre has selected next artistic director

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This morning Penumbra Theatre put out a release explaining its decision to cut a third of its budget, lay off six staff members, and suspend all theater productions for the 2012-2013 season.

What didn't make the release was the news that Penumbra has selected a successor to Artistic Director Lou Bellamy.

I spoke with Penumbra Managing Director Chris Widdess this afternoon about the cuts; I mentioned that from a distance, it had appeared the past few years Associate Director Dominic Taylor was being groomed for leadership. Now that his position has been eliminated, I asked, what did this mean for the theater company's future?

Widdess replied that while it would have been easy to think Taylor was the heir apparent, that was never agreed upon, although he was a candidate.

Widdess says Penumbra has chosen the next Artistic Director, but is not ready to announce who that person is at this time. Instead the next few months will be spent reorganizing the company to create the best team based on the next AD's strengths.