The three long-time artistic directors at the Weston Playhouse Theatre have announced they will step down after next year’s season.
Steve Stettler, Tim Fort and Malcolm Ewen are celebrating their 30th season this year. Stettler says they felt it was a good time for the Weston's Board of Directors to begin the search for new leadership.
“We came into this position as an unusual entity, a triumvirate running a theatre,” says Stettler. “And it’s unusual to have a 30-year reign of terror to begin with, much less three people who’ve been able to work together and build a vision for 30 years.”
He says they’re proud that this summer has been record-breaking at the box office, that they’ve been able to expand their educational programs, and that on September 23, they’ll celebrate the public opening of Walker Farm, their new year-round second performance space.
Stettler says it will be the culmination of a more than $13 million capital campaign that should be completed next year.
"We took a look at the future which is so bright and promising and said this, to us, feels like the right time to think about a transition to the next generation of artistic leadership." — Steve Stettler, artistic director of Weston Playhouse Theatre
“We took a look at the future which is so bright and promising and said this, to us, feels like the right time to think about a transition to the next generation of artistic leadership," Stettler says, "to take the very strong foundation that we, our board and our staff have built and carry it forward to even greater future promise.”
Stettler says Weston, which produced its first summer stock theater in 1937, is one of the 20 oldest theaters in the United States. “We’re very proud that a place that my two partners and I discovered as young college actors, back in the 1970s, had a Brigadoon-like magic and still has that.”
Stettler, Ewen and Fort will stay on through the 2018 season.
Weston’s Board of Directors announced they will select a national search firm to find an Artistic Director to partner with Managing Director Lesley Koenig to forge the company’s future.
