Asolo Rep names managing director to work with new artistic leader
Ross Egan, who helped to keep the historic Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia operating with outdoor productions during the pandemic, has been named the new managing director of Asolo Repertory Theatre.
Egan, the managing director at the 90-year-old Barter since 2019, will succeed Linda DiGabriele, who is stepping down after 50 years at the theater, the last 35 of them as managing director.
His appointment was announced by the theater’s board of directors and incoming Producing Artistic Director Peter Rothstein, who will take over from Michael Donald Edwards on July 1, the same date Egan will start.
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“I am thrilled to craft the future of Asolo Rep in collaboration with Ross Egan, who brings a depth of business acumen and a palpable passion for the art form,” Rothstein said in a statement. “He understands the complexities of leading a nonprofit theater in these challenging times and is driven by a spirit of creativity and innovation.”
One of those innovations was producing “Barter at the Moonlite Drive-In,” a series of productions staged safely for artists and audiences outdoors at a drive-in movie theater. Asolo Rep created its own outdoor stage on the front steps of its theater building for the 2020-21 season to present small-cast musicals and revues with audiences seated in the driveway at safe distances.
Prior to joining Barter, Egan spent more than a year at Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and six years as executive director of the Refuge Theatre Project in Chicago, which produced music theater in unique spaces around the city. Refuge won a Joseph Jefferson Award, a Chicago area theater honor, for its work.
In a telephone interview, Egan said it is an “extremely exciting opportunity” to join Asolo Rep. “As theater has come out of the pandemic, theater has naturally faced significant challenges, being forced to innovate and come up with new ideas on how to produce, and I felt that my experience at Barter, and based on my conversations with Peter, I felt I would be a good fit to assist in executing his vision and moving the Asolo into the next chapter of whatever that might be.”
He met with Rothstein virtually during the interview process. “The way Peter speaks about theater and communicated his vision resonated very well with me. When I got off the call, I couldn’t stop talking to my wife about it. I was so excited.”
Egan will be moving to Sarasota with his wife, Morgan Egan, a teaching artist, and their two daughters, ages 4 and 6. He was selected through a national search process overseen by the same consulting company that led the board to hire Rothstein as Edwards’ successor.
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Virginia theater leader named managing director of Asolo Rep
