OSF Executive Director Paul Nicholson to Retire October 2012

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Executive Director Paul Nicholson has announced that he will retire in December 2012. The Board of Directors accepted his retirement plans at the board meeting today and has hired Greg Kandel of Management Consultants for the Arts, based in Stamford, Connecticut, to begin the search for a new executive director.

"The Board of Directors is deeply appreciative of Paul's exemplary servIce To OSF," Board President Rudd Johnson said. "His steady leadership and foresight have served the Festival well throughout the past 32 years of our 76-year history, and he has laid a solid foundation for continued growth and support of artistic excellence."

"I have been blessed to work for more than 30 years with an extraordinary group of professional artists, artisans and administrators at the Festival," Nicholson said. "Their fierce commitment to putting the best possible work on stage and to creating a company that ranks as one of the premiere theatres in the United States has been a constant inspiration to me. But it's now time to step back and hand the reins over to someone who can forge a new partnership with Bill, the leadership team and the Company."

Nicholson joined OSF in 1980, serving as general manager for 16 years. He then assumed the position of executive director in November 1995. His 32-year tenure has demonstrated his commitment to building a strong infrastructure to enable the best possible work onstage. Following his arrival in 1980, he ushered OSF into the computer age, developed a benefits program for the company and spear-headed a series of strategic plans throughout the years, working closely with the Board of Directors. In 1984, after collaborating with then artistic and executive directors, Jerry Turner and Bill Patton, he worked with Actors Equity Association to develop OSF's first Equity contract. As he has noted, this moved OSF from being a pre-professional theatre and a place where people could begin their careers to a professional theatre where people could have a career. He saw the Festival grow membership from 2,000 to 18,000, expand audiences from 240,000 to 410,000 and increase the budget from $2.6 million to over $30 million.

Artistic Director Bill Rauch commented, "I am so fortunate that my first five years as artistic director have been in partnership with Paul Nicholson. As one of the giants of the American theatre, Paul is hugely responsible for the stability and growth of the Festival over the last three decades. He is unflappably professional, committed to fairness, and full of good humor, and we move forward into a brighter future thanks to his leadership."

In addition to steering OSF, Nicholson has consulted with many arts organizations and has been actively involved in arts advocacy for the state of Oregon, serving for six years as president of the Oregon Cultural Advocacy Coalition. He served for seven years on the Board of the Theatre Communications Group, the service organization for professional theatre in the United States. His ties to the community are deep, and he has served on many local committees and boards and is a member and prior director of Rotary. He chaired Ashland Community Hospital's board of directors and was a member of the board of directors of the Ashland Chamber of Commerce. For a complete biography, visit the OSF website.

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