Trinity Repertory Company to Welcome Kate Liberman as New Executive Director
Liberman, a Needham, Massachusetts native, will come to Trinity Rep from the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, where she has served as Managing Director since 2015.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Apr. 26, 2022
Trinity Repertory Company announces today that Kate E. Liberman will join its leadership team as Executive Director in September 2022. Liberman is a proven leader whose work has focused on strong financial management, organizational growth and transformation, and a continued commitment to building community focused on belonging, inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism. The national executive search process was guided by Arts Consulting Group.
Liberman, a Needham, Massachusetts native, will come to Trinity Rep from the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF), where she has served as Managing Director since 2015. There, she helped expand the institution with increased contributed revenue and buttressed operations. She supported the development of numerous commissions, world premieres, and Off-Broadway transfers; helped navigate the preservation of the organization through pandemic closures; and led a strategic reopening as the first theater in New York State to restart in-person performances. She stewarded the company through transformation as it will receive 98 acres of property to serve as its permanent home this year. In her time at HVSF, Kate was named a Westchester Business Council 40 under 40 Rising Star and she served as President of the Cold Spring Area Chamber of Commerce.
Prior to her work at HVSF, Liberman served as the General Manager of the Laguna Playhouse and Associate Managing Director at Yale Repertory Theater. She also has experience serving in various capacities for both Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Liberman holds an MFA in theater management from Yale School of Drama and an MBA from Yale School of Management. She is a Truman Scholar and previously served in a volunteer capacity as President of the Truman Scholars Association.
Liberman will co-lead Trinity Rep in partnership with Curt Columbus, the theater's Artistic Director. Director of Development Jennifer Canole will continue to serve as Trinity Rep's Interim Executive Director until Liberman begins full-time in September.
Vice Chair of Trinity Rep's Board of Trustees Kibbe Reilly led the executive search committee, comprised of 12 trustees, staff, and artists. Reilly said, "From the beginning of the search process, we made a commitment to select the best person for the Executive Director position and that is exactly what happened. Kate Liberman is a rising star in this field and we're fortunate to have her join our excellent team at Trinity Rep. I look forward to her leadership."
"Kate Liberman represents a remarkable new generation of theater leaders in America," said Curt Columbus, Arthur P. Solomon and Sally E. Lapides Artistic Director. "She brings an enviable range of skills to her work as a theatrical producer and an institutional thinker, which are vital to the health and longevity of any cultural organization. She shares our vision for how the theater's work can reach beyond the limits of stage, even the building, to have a profound and lasting impact as a public square on Rhode Island and throughout Southeastern New England. I cannot imagine finding a better partner to co-lead Trinity into its next, bold phase."
"Kate Liberman is an inspirational leader with a passion for the arts and a commitment to changing lives through theater," said Board Chair Lou Giancola. "The Board was unanimous in its feeling that she is the right person to help guide Trinity Rep's future. We are grateful to Jen Canole for the great leadership that she has and will continue to provide until Kate arrives."
"It has been an extraordinary privilege to lead the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival for seven years in partnership with Davis McCallum," said Liberman "HVSF is in an outstanding position for the opportunities that lie ahead." She continued: "At this moment, I could not be more thrilled and honored to begin a new collaboration with Curt Columbus, the committed Board, and the dynamic staff at Trinity Repertory Company. As a New England native, I have long admired Trinity Rep and its impact in building local community and influencing the American regional theater field. I cannot wait to bring my own energy and expertise to support Trinity Rep's mission to reinvent the public square at a time when it is necessary to expand our approach to equity and sustainability while expanding access to our work. As our industry continues to reemerge, reinvention will be essential in ensuring that we can achieve this aspiration. I am overjoyed to join Trinity Rep in a transformational future".
Trinity Repertory Company
Rhode Island's Tony Award-winning theater, Trinity Rep has created unparalleled professional theater for and with its community since its founding in 1963. Trinity Rep strives to facilitate human connection and has been a driving force behind the creativity that fuels and defines the region for more than 50 years. Trinity Rep's mission is to reinvent the public square with dramatic art that stimulates, educates, and engages its diverse community in a continuing dialogue. Committed to equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism, Trinity Rep believes in the power of theater to create change.
Today, as Rhode Island's largest arts organization, Trinity Rep has a significant impact on the community, and is a cornerstone of Providence's arts and entertainment district. With an annual budget of $10 million, the theater employs over 100 artistic and administrative staff, and generates more than $13 million in economic activity each year. Trinity Rep's educational initiatives continue to provide instruction and enrichment to people of all ages and abilities, and in a typical season its Project Discovery program introduces over 16,000 children to live theater. The tuition-free Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program has become a leader in graduate training for actors and directors by offering in-depth training in conjunction with a professional theater, and is widely regarded as one of the best in the country.
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