Williamstown Theatre Festival Names Artistic Director
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Gersten, 41, was associate producer from 1996 to 2004, and is currently associate producer of The Public Theater in New York.
"Since our happy days at Williamstown, Jenny has risen through the ranks of the theater industry exercising her extraordinary theater savvy and singular vision at every step along the way," said Martin in a statement. "How ideal that she is coming home after all these years.
"I have been proud to call her a collaborator and friend and now have the honor to welcome her back as artistic director."
Gersten said returning to the festival brings her "immeasurable satisfaction and joy."
"Williamstown is one of my most favorite places on Earth, and the combination of the memorable experiences I've had there, along with the future I envision for WTF, fills me with hope for what the next few years could bring," she said in a statement.
She said her years away had brought her in contact with "brilliant mentors and collaborators at Naked Angels, The Public Theater and beyond, who have given me so many good gifts and insights. I can't wait to come back and bring the fruits of that knowledge to bear on this new time."
During her nine years at the festival, the company received a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater, transferred six productions to Broadway (and others to Off-Broadway and to prominent regional theaters), and Gersten was associate producer to 103 new and revived plays.
Prior to WTF, Gersten was director of marketing and development at The 52nd Street Project, a mentoring theater organization which brings inner-city youth from the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood together with professional theater artists to create original plays.
She didn't start out in the theater — her majors were archaeology and art history at Oberlin College. While at Williamstown, she married playwright and lyricist Willie Reale and had two boys, Gus and Leo.
"When we set out to find our next leader, we wanted someone with not only impeccable taste, but also an ability to run and build an organization," said Matt Harris, festival chairman. "In Jenny, we found someone with that very rare combination."
Oskar Eustis, artistic director of The Public Theater, said, in a statement, he was so proud "I could bust," adding that her appointment to WTF was a great thing for American theater. "Congratulations to her and to the Williamstown Theater Festival!"
Gersten will be the festival's seventh artistic director (counting the troika that picked up the reins for the year following longtime director Nikos Psacharopoulos' death in 1989) and the first woman in the top spot.
Martin joined the festival in fall 2007, after former director Roger Rees was let go. He told The Boston Globe last December that he was leaving after this season because demands on his time.
