Jessica L. Andrews To Depart Arizona Theatre Company

Jessica L. Andrews has announced that she is stepping down from her role as Arizona Theatre Company’s Executive Director at the close of the 2008-2009 Season. Jessica Andrews will continue to work with Arizona Theatre Company on a consultant basis, contributing to ATC’s short and long-term goals. Kevin E. Moore will continue to serve as Arizona Theatre Company’s Managing Director, working closely with Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein.

As she announced her departure, Jessica Andrews said, "Arizona Theatre Company is a very special organization, and I’ve had an incredibly satisfying tenure. I am grateful for the support of all Board and staff members – past and present. The partnership I’ve had with David has been one of the best I’ve had with an artistic director during my career, and to work with Kevin as Managing Director has been a privilege. This is the final step in a transition that began nearly three years ago. I knew that Kevin was the perfect successor for me as Managing Director. At that time, we put into place a process that moved my managerial responsibilities to Kevin and allowed me to focus specifically on a special fund-raising campaign that has so far raised over $2 million to stabilize ATC, institute a cash reserve, and purchase our historic office building in Tucson. It’s not every organization that can gracefully negotiate an internal transition like we undertook. I give Kevin, David, the entire staff and our Board of Trustees full credit for making it so successful.”

“This is a time to celebrate all that has been accomplished during my tenure here and to eagerly embrace the next chapter in my life,” Ms. Andrews continued. “I look forward to continuing to represent ATC in the community, regionally and nationally, something that I have always very much enjoyed. This is a time to celebrate all that has been accomplished during my tenure here and to eagerly embrace the next chapter in my life. After working in the not-for-profit professional theatre for the past forty-two years, it is exciting to anticipate exploring a new way of contributing to ATC, the arts in Arizona and across the country.”

“Through all the day-to-day, moment-to-moment joys and struggles of running a not-for-profit theatre, Jessica has been the best partner that an artist could wish for,” says Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein. “Anyone who has ever had the good fortune to come in contact with her knows of her warmth, intelligence, good sense and joyful spirit. She has touched an astonishing constellation of artists and audiences during her decades of work in the theatre. Jessica’s compassion, taste, enthusiasm and generosity are legendary throughout the field. She is a continuing inspiration through her perpetual passion to embrace and enable the moment when the curtain goes up on any stage. Jessica grew up as the daughter of a renowned touring actor/manager who brought the great classic plays to communities all over the world. She has never lost that eagerness to share the special magic of live theatre. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with my dear friend and colleague in her new role.”

“Over the last nine years, I’ve learned everything I know about running a successful theatre company from Jessica,” said Kevin Moore, ATC’s managing director. “She has been an exemplary mentor for me and many others who have made professional theatre a career path. I’m thrilled about the trajectory she has put Arizona Theatre Company on and am honored to carry it forward. Like David, I look forward to continue work with Jessica in her new capacity.”

ATC Board President Don Nickerson added, “I have had the good luck to be on the Board for twelve of the fourteen years that Jessica has been at ATC, and I have seen, firsthand, her quite remarkable executive leadership at work

Jessica Andrews is in her fourteenth season at Arizona Theatre Company and her third year as Executive Director, having formerly served as ATC’s Managing Director. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), a national trade association with a membership of approximately 80 theatres, and was previously on the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for professional theatre. Since her arrival in Arizona, she has served on the Theatre Panel of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, was the president of Arizona Theatre Alliance, the statewide theatre service organization, and was on the Board of Directors of the Maricopa Partnership for Arts and Culture. She currently serves as president of Arizona Citizens for the Arts, the statewide advocacy organization; is a member of Women at the Top (WATT), a business women’s club in Tucson, representing the field of arts and culture, serves as chair of Nonprofit Executives Together (NET); co-chair of Nature, Arts, Culture, Heritage Organizations (NACHO) and is on the Advisory Board of Arizona Woman magazine. Last year, Ms. Andrews chaired a task force for the Pima Cultural Plan and now serves on the Livable Communities Mobilization Council of the Tucson Regional Economic Organization (TREO) Blueprint. In 2008, she received the prestigious Governor’s Arts Award as an Individual for her contribution to the arts in Arizona. In February, she was recognized as a Woman Who Moves the City by Arizona Foothills Magazine, and in March 2009 she was selected as a Woman of Influence by Inside Tucson Business.

From 1990 to 1994, Jessica Andrews served as Managing Director of The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., and as Director (January 1989-September 1990) of the Theater Program for the National Endowment for the Arts during her tenure from 1987 to 1990. From 1985 to 1987, she was Managing Director of Indiana Repertory Theatre and from 1980 to 1985 was Director of the Theatre Division of FEDAPT, a national service organization. Previously, Ms. Andrews was Managing Director of Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York and Hartford Stage Company.

She has guest lectured at The University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Yale School of Drama on arts management, and has been a reader for the Fund for New American Plays at The Kennedy Center. She served as co-chair of the Arts Committee for the 1997 UK/AZ Festival that was held in Phoenix. During the summer of 1995, as a cultural specialist with the United States Information Agency (USIA), Ms. Andrews spent three weeks in Mexico City teaching a course in theatre management at the Centro Nacional de las Artes. She has served on grants panels for the state arts agencies of Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Massachusetts and Virginia and on the Theatre Grants Panel for the U.S./Mexico Fund for Culture in Mexico City. She has served on the NEA Theater Program’s Professional Companies Challenge Review, Creation and Presentation, and Education and Access panels, and was an NEA site reporter for the Theater and Musical Theater Program. In 2002, she received a Woman on the Move Award from the YWCA in Tucson and in March of 2007 was given the Distinguished Achievement in Theatre Management Award from the United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT).

Jessica Andrews plans to continue to live in Tucson and continue in her role as President of Arizona Citizens for the Arts, consult with Arizona Theatre Company, and work as a consultant both locally and nationally.

For more information about Arizona Theatre Company, please visit www.arizonatheatre.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.