Rick Dildine. (Picture by Wesley Legal guidelines)
MINNEAPOLIS: Kids’s Theatre Firm (CTC) has named Rick Dildine to be their new creative director. Dildine will assume the submit on July 1. He replaces Peter C. Brosius, who will depart CTC on June 30 after 27 years main the group. A director and producer, Dildine turned the fourth creative director of the Alabama Shakespeare Pageant (ASF) in August 2017.
“For a while, I’ve felt that creating artwork for younger folks is crucial activity artists can undertake as they increase the scope of American theatre,” Dildine mentioned in a press release. “Over the previous few months as I’ve gotten to know the folks and artists who shepherd CTC’s mission day by day, I really feel a robust connection to their values and imaginative and prescient to be the world’s chief in multigenerational programming…I’m honored to be following within the footsteps of Peter Brosius, one of the crucial distinguished leaders in American theatre. For almost three a long time, he has championed rigorous, empathetic, imaginative work for audiences of all ages. I’m excited and dedicated to proceed this essential work.”
Dildine at present oversees all creative programming and units the artistic imaginative and prescient for ASF, one of many largest Shakespeare festivals within the nation. In 2018, he launched ASF’s most vital commissioning endeavor so far with the “State of the South” tour and New Southern Canon Challenge. Playwrights at present below fee embody Pulitzer and Tony winner Robert Schenkkan; one of many most-produced playwrights in America, Lauren Gunderson; Whiting Award winner Donnetta Lavinia Grays, and Broadway playwright Mansa Ra. The ensuing 22-play canon will signify the biggest physique of labor concerning the South in a long time.
Since becoming a member of ASF, Dildine reinstated the repertory mannequin, which almost doubled the subscription base (and added a big variety of new subscribers); launched a coaching program for early profession theatre artists; and established partnerships with the Montgomery Public Faculties (90 p.c BIPOC college students), Alabama State College (HBCU), and the Equal Justice Initiative. Beneath his management at ASF, audiences of colour grew by greater than 40 p.c. Of his time as ASF, Dildine mentioned in a press release, “ASF gave me the chance to create some marvelous items of theatre, and I’m extremely grateful for my time in Alabama…My life is richer due to my time in Montgomery.”
Earlier than ASF, Dildine served because the creative director of the Shakespeare Pageant St. Louis. He gained the 2017 St. Louis Theatre Award for Greatest Director for his manufacturing of A Midsummer Evening’s Dream, and the St. Louis Publish-Dispatch named him “Greatest Director” for 2016-17. Dildine, acknowledged as a pacesetter in group engagement, started the corporate’s public arts packages by creating Shakespeare within the Streets and nationally replicated SHAKE 38, each of them acknowledged by this journal as nationwide fashions in group growth utilizing the performing arts. Dildine has additionally held management positions at About Face Theatre, Shakespeare & Firm, Stephen Foster Theatre (KY), and Brown College/Trinity Rep New Performs Pageant. He serves on the board of administrators for Baby Shield and on the nationwide advisory board for the Restoration Challenge. He has taught or served on workers for Brown College, Clark College, and Webster College.
Dildine is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist College and Brown College/Trinity Rep with an MFA in Appearing and is a proud member of AEA and SDC. Rick grew up in Wynne, Ark.
Kids’s Theatre Firm (CTC) is the nation’s largest theatre for younger folks and serves a multigenerational viewers. It goals to create theatre experiences that educate, problem, and encourage audiences of almost 250,000 folks yearly. As of 2022, the theatre’s finances was round $11.3 million.
Associated
