Ryan Rilette Departs MTC; Sandra Weingart Becomes Interim Managing Director

Marin Theatre Company announced today that Producing Director Ryan Rilette will depart the company at the end of the month to become the Producing Artistic Director of Round House Theatre in Bethesda and Silver Spring, Maryland. Sandra Weingart, who has served MTC over the past year as Interim Finance Director and an administrative consultant, succeeds Rilette as Interim Managing Director. The Board of Directors will conduct a national search for a permanent successor.

“As we thank Ryan for his incredible service to the company and our community while also wishing him all the best in his move to Round House, this is a very bittersweet moment for MTC and me,” Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis said. “Ryan and I had talked for years about running a company together and the resulting partnership here at MTC has been both a prosperous and joyous one. Ryan’s leadership has helped propel the theater to new levels both locally and nationally. He departs a company much stronger for his tenure. I am delighted that Sandra will continue to serve MTC as our Interim Managing Director. Her ongoing relationship with our company has laid a great foundation to begin our new partnership and I believe she will be instrumental in helping us continue our mission and our growth.”

Weingart has 19 years of marketing, finance, strategy and operations experience from technology, media and nonprofit organizations. Before consulting for MTC, she served Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley for six seasons, including more than three years as its Managing Director.

“MTC’s strong financial position owes much to Ryan’s strategic vision, including his creation of the Finance Director position – when our growth warranted – and hiring Sandra as its first occupant,” Board President Brian Haughton said. “Having been with us a year already, Sandra is known and respected by everyone in the organization, and we are delighted to have someone who knows us so well taking over the reins.”

During Rilette’s four-and-a-half-year tenure at MTC, the theater increased revenue from $1.8M in FY08 to a projected $3.2M in FY12, became a member of the League of Resident Theatres, expanded to six main stage productions each season, established an off-site scene shop, created a $500K Artistic and Operating Reserve Fund and ended every season with a profit. While at MTC, he directed the theater’s world premieres of Bellwether by Steve Yockey and Magic Forest Farm by Zayd Dohrn, the West Coast premiere of In The Red and Brown Water by Tarell Alvin McCraney and the regional premiere of Boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, as well as productions of Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire and God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, which is playing now through June 24 in MTC’s Boyer Theatre.