Shakespeare & Company Head 'Excited' for Future
LENOX, Mass. — After a brief retreat, the new director of Shakespeare & Company is ready to move forward.
Five days after announcing the abrupt and unexplained departure of the company's artisitic director of five years, S&Co.'s recently appointed executive director and president said he is looking to the future.
And to help plan that future, Rick Dildine and about a dozen artists and administrators from the 36-year-old theater venue held a two-day staff retreat over Columbus Day weekend.
"It was a wonderful time away together," Dildine said in a telephone interview last week. "It was exciting. And it really got me excited about the future."
That immediate future likely will not include Tony Simotes, one of Shakespeare's co-founders, who returned to Lenox in 2009 to replace the company's 30-year artistic director Tina Packer.
On Friday, Oct. 10, Dildine sent out a late afternoon news release announcing "Simotes' term will end on Nov. 10."
While Dildine thanked Simotes for his service in the news release, he did not specify the reason for Simotes' departure. Subsequently, both Dildine and Simotes declined to discuss the reason when asked by the New York Times.
On Wednesday, Oct. 15, Dildine told iBerkshires.com that he is not sure whether S&Co. will hire a new artistic director, let alone when such a search may begin.
"Before I make a decision like that, I want to spend some time talking to my team members," Dildine said.
In the meantime, Dildine said work is under way planning the 2015 season at Shakespeare & Company, which in recent years has become more of a year-round venue. The comedy "Private Eyes" is on stage the second stage, weekends through Nov. 9. A staged version of the film classic "It's a Wonderful Life" runs in December.
In addition to a busy summer season featuring Shakespearean and contemporary works and autumn and holiday productions, the company has a broader reach into the community than most theater festivals of its size.
The venue offers summer camps for youngsters, workshops for teachers, a Fall Festival of Shakespeare for area high schools, a summer training institute for aspiring professional actors, a program for juvenile offenders in the Berkshire Juvenile Court program, a Northeast touring production of Shakespeare classics and more.
Dildine said he anticipates Shakespeare & Company's programs continuing to grow.
"We're going to constantly be assessing where we are and how we can do better — how we can evolve our creative practices, our business practices," he said. "And we're absolutely committed to extending the reach beyond 70 Kimble St. Shakespeare & Company's footprint is nationwide when you think of all the teachers and artists and students who have come here or we've gone to them.
"I only see that footprint getting bigger and extending around the world. I'm excited to now be a part of that."
Dildine in June was named the company's first executive director in 10 years. At that time, the chairwoman of the company's board of directors told the Berkshire Eagle that Dildine's arrival would "allow Tony's creativity to blossom."
Before coming to Lenox, Dildine was the the artistic and executive director of Shakespeare Company St. Louis. At the time of his appointment at Shakespeare & Company, the chairman of the St. Louis festival praised him in an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
"The organization's accomplishments are the result of his sound financial management and his ability to build upon incremental successes one innovative project at a time," Jessica Holzer told the Post-Dispatch. "Based on Rick's work here, this institution is strong financially and creatively."
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