Jonny Stax Joins Chicago Children's Theatre as Director of External Affairs

Chicago Children's Theatre (CCT) announced today that Jonny Stax has joined the company in a newly created full-time position, Director of External Affairs.

Stax, who recently finished serving as Interim Executive Director of Chicago's About Face Theatre, has already joined Chicago Children's Theatre's administrative staff and is charged with aligning revenue attainment strategies and mapping new areas of growth for the company.

"We are confident that Jonny Stax, who served as our acting Director of Development this winter, possesses the strategic thinking, cohesive planning and compelling salesmanship we need to fulfill this new role," said Jacqueline Russell, Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Chicago Children's Theatre. "Our board of directors, staff and artists are thrilled that Jonny is joining our team full time and bringing his unique blend of administrative and creative leadership to Chicago Children's Theatre."

Stax added, "As Chicago Children's Theatre moves into this next year and we prepare the company for growth and new opportunities, we have determined that there are great sources of untapped revenue that we need to pursue. I look forward to helping CCT continue to scale up operations and mature into the professional, world-class family and children's theatre that Chicago wants and needs, and the nationally recognized company Jacqueline and our board of directors have always envisioned."

Chicago Children's Theatre provides Stax the perfect intersection to join his passions for arts development, youth engagement, and community enrichment. He most recently served as Interim Executive Director at Chicago's About Face Theatre, where he spent eight months guiding the organization through a complete transformation of its artistic, managerial and education leadership. Stax is recognized in the Chicago arts community as the "JoJo" of The Scooty & JoJo Show, responsible for producing the popular and multi-year-running comic musical spectacles Alien Queen, Carpenters Halloween, and Diva Brunch, and as a founder of the Chicago Lab, dedicated to supporting artists engaged in new processes.

In addition to serving the arts, Stax has spent many years bringing his unique gift for initiating, managing, and evaluating transformative processes to youth-focused and community organizations. He has led national, state and local campaigns to improve adolescent health education and outreach. He also engineers and facilitates intergroup dialogue practices that lead participants to better understand how race impacts our participation in society.

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