La Jolla Playhouse Appoints New Director of Development, Begins Duties 9/7

La Jolla Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg are pleased to announce the appointment of Deborah Ann Trimble as The Playhouse's new Director of Development. Ms. Trimble will begin full time duties on September 7, 2010.

For the past five years, Ms. Trimble served as Development Director at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, where she increased the company's public and private support by more than $1 million and initiated several notable development and planned giving projects, including a new return-on-investment report for corporate sponsors. Prior to working at Asolo Rep, Ms. Trimble was Executive Director of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. While there, she mounted a $21 million capital campaign and created a partnership with the Central Park Conservancy in New York City that transformed the organization into the governance entity controlling Buffalo's 1,200 acre park system. Ms. Trimble's experience also includes serving as Director of Development and Marketing at Buffalo's Pick of the Crop modern dance company and as Co-President of Silent Partners, Inc., a tour company specializing in festival entertainment tours and destination management services.

"We are delighted to welcome Deborah Ann Trimble to the La Jolla Playhouse family," said Rosenberg. "Debbie's extensive experience creating corporate and community partnerships, launching endowment and capital campaigns, as well as her stellar fundraising track record, make her the ideal candidate to lead The Playhouse's Development team, and we look forward to benefitting from her innovative strategies to help expand our fundraising efforts."

The nationally acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including Big River, The Who's Tommy, Thoroughly Modern Millie, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Dracula, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Jersey Boys, The Farnsworth Invention, 33 Variations and the 2010 Tony Award-winning musical Memphis. Located on the UC San Diego campus, La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-Art Theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. La Jolla Playhouse is led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg.