Bartlett Sher Extends as Artistic Director of Intiman Theatre Through 2010

Intiman Theatre Board President Kim A. Anderson announces that Bartlett Sher has extended as Artistic Director through the end of the 2010 production season. Sher was appointed to the position in November 1999 and currently serves as both Intiman's Artistic Director and Resident Director at Lincoln Center Theater in New York. Sher will focus on helping to execute a multi-year succession plan for Intiman's artistic leadership, including working with his successor over the next eighteen months. Full details will be announced in June 2009.

Sher currently has two LCT productions running simultaneously on Broadway: August Wilson's Joe's Turner's Come and Gone, for which he has received a 2009 Tony Award nomination, and Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, for which he won the 2008 Tony Award.

"The entire Intiman Board celebrates Bart's Tony nomination, as well as all his success directing theatre and opera in New York and internationally," said Anderson. "For more than a year, Bart has been in conversation with our Board leadership about his ongoing role in supporting Intiman's stability and continued growth. We have developed a multi-year plan for an artistic leadership transition and are looking forward to announcing full details about this next month. Although these are challenging times for everyone, we are excited to move into the future with a team that will include Bart and his eventual successor, as well as Managing Director Brian Colburn and Associate Director Sheila Daniels."

In order for Sher to focus on Intiman's future - including the succession plan, a new long-range plan and fundraising - Intiman will bring in the Theatre for a New Audience production of Othello, directed by Arin Arbus, to run on the same dates as Sher's previously announced staging of the play. Othello will begin previews on Thursday, July 2 and have its press opening on Wednesday, July 8 at 7:30 pm.

"Not directing Othello was a difficult decision for me to make," said Sher. "Ultimately, however, the Board and I decided that it will serve Intiman most effectively for me to focus on our succession plan while giving our audiences the chance to see this production, which is one of the best-received stagings of a Shakespeare play in the last decade. Intiman has a long history of supporting younger directors and exciting new talent like Arin Arbus, and I am glad to give her this opportunity to go ever more deeply in her investigation into the play, much as we did by bringing Crime and Punishment, directed by my associate Sheila Daniels, from the Seattle fringe to Intiman earlier this season."

"Additionally," Sher continued, "I have a long and valued relationship with Jeffrey Horowitz, Theatre for a New Audience's Artistic Director. Jeffrey invited me to stage my production of Cymbeline for Theatre for a New Audience at the Royal Shakespeare Company and then in New York. This is a great opportunity for Intiman to collaborate with the company and create a model for other partnerships we might wish to pursue in the future - something that is particularly important in this economic environment."

Additional information about Othello will be announced soon.

Full details about Intiman's artistic transition will be announced in June 2009.

For more information or to request interviews, please contact Stephanie Coen, Director of Communications, at 206.204.3320 [new 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.

Intiman Theatre gratefully acknowledges the following major donors for their institutional support: The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Ameriprise Financial, ArtsFund, The Boeing Company, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, John Graham Foundation, Hafer Family Foundation, Intiman Theatre Foundation, Kreielsheimer Remainder Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, Nesholm Family Foundation, The Norcliffe Foundation, PONCHO, Safeco Insurance, The Shubert Foundation, The Seattle Foundation, U.S. Bancorp Foundation, and WaMu. Additional funding is received from Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, City of Seattle; 4Culture; Metropolitan King County Council; National Endowment for the Arts and Washington State Arts Commission.