Alabama Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Rick Dildine stepping down
Rick Dildine – Photo from Alabama Shakespeare Festival
The Alabama Shakespeare Festival has announced that Rick Dildine is stepping down as artistic director after six years.
ASF says Dildine has accepted the artistic director position at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He will continue with ASF through June 30.
Dildine directed the recent productions of A Christmas Carol, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cabaret as well as many others. He also expanded ASF’s educational partnership with Montgomery Public Schools, leading to productions of Four Little Girls and Ruby: The Ruby Bridges Story, as well as developing the Fall Festival of Shakespeare.
ASF Board Chair Vanzetta McPherson said in a statement, “The ASF family, theater lovers, and the entire community have greatly benefitted from Rick’s artistic expertise and his skillful management of ASF seasons and performances including during the pandemic. As a highly respected director and theater professional, Rick has attracted new and amazing actors, as well as other prominent directors, playwrights, and production experts, to ASF’s stages. We are also grateful for his always cheerful, sensitive management of ASF staff, a trait that has made him a genuine partner in ASF governance. For all these reasons, we will miss him, but we wish him every success in the future.”
Dildine said, “ASF gave me the opportunity to create some marvelous pieces of theatre, and I am incredibly grateful for my time in Alabama. The staff and Board of ASF are exceptional. Together we produced the largest season in ASF’s history, grew subscriptions, survived a global pandemic, launched the largest commissioning program in the southeast, and developed groundbreaking partnerships with the Montgomery Public Schools, Alabama State University, and the Equal Justice Initiative. My life is richer because of my time in Montgomery.”
ASF’s Board of Directors is conducting a national search for its next artistic director.
