Heritage Theatre Festival Announces Appointment Of Jen Rogers As Managing Director

Heritage Theatre Festival at The University of Virginia has announced the appointment of Jen Rogers as Managing Director. Rogers, a highly-successful arts management professional, comes to Heritage from PlayMakers Repertory Company, the professional theatre at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she worked as General Manager in partnership with Jenny Wales, who is now entering her second season as HTF Artistic Director.

Rogers' resume also includes working with The Public Theater and its renowned summer Shakespeare in the Park series, as well as touring the world with Shen Wei Dance Arts and working internationally at the Royal Opera House Muscat (Oman). She also worked as Production Manager for Duke University's Duke Performances. This work provided Rogers with a comprehensive understanding of the production process, which served her well in her transition to the administrative side of the business with her move to PlayMakers. It was there that she first met and teamed with Wales. "We really settled into a terrific partnership where I serve as sort of the yin to her yang. She is the artist and I am the administrative side, dealing with things like contracts. We work really well together. She gets to focus on her strengths as an artistic visionary, and I get to use my skills to help her implement those visions."

The feeling, Wales said, is mutual. "I am absolutely delighted to have Jen join the Heritage team and to continue what has been a highly successful professional partnership," she said. "I am thrilled for her to work with our extraordinary Heritage team to continue to expand our footprint on Grounds, in our community, and beyond, and to build on our rich artistic legacy as an organization."

Part of that growth, Rogers said, can come from expanding the Heritage footprint on Grounds, in the local community, and on the National Theatre scene. "Heritage has built a great reputation over its 45 years and is beloved by so many in our community. What Jenny and I would love to do is to lead a coordinated effort to bring even more people into the Heritage experience, building on what she was able to do during her successful first season."

This work, she said, will be done in concert with important and ongoing efforts to connect with communities on Grounds, in the region, and beyond. "We want to continue and expand efforts to engage with our community partners who can be our voices, and who can share and benefit from the vibrant and important work happening on our stages," Rogers said, citing the kinds of outreach efforts that surrounded last year's powerful production of The Mountaintop. "We want to do more than ask our community to come see what we have to offer; we want to learn from our community and encourage them to be invested in what we are doing in a way that can both highlight and celebrate what the arts can mean to all of us."

The 2019 Heritage Theatre Festival season begins on June 27 with the Tony Award-winning rock and roll musical Million Dollar Quartet, and will also include Kate Hammill's rollicking reimagination of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; the beloved Steel Magnolias; and The Niceties, a powerful drama of race, power, privilege, and who gets to tell our story.

Season subscriptions for Heritage Theatre Festival are currently available online at www.heritagetheatrefestival.org; by phone at 434-924-3376, or in person at the UVA Arts Box Office in the lobby of the UVA Drama Building on Culbreth Road. Single tickets will go on sale on June 5.

For more information on the upcoming 2019 Heritage Theatre Festival season and how you can support Heritage's efforts, visit www.heritagetheatrefestival.org.

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