About Face Theatre has named Bonnie Metzgar as artistic director, concluding a six-month national search for a successor to Eric Rosen. A producer, director, playwright and dramaturg with broad national credentials and experience, Metzgar’s first order of business will be to assemble About Face’s 2008-2009 season. She’s expected to announce a three-play season in June as About Face enters a second year as a resident company at the Center on Halsted’s Hoover-Leppen Theatre.
Metzgar leaves her post as director of the graduate playwriting program at Brown University, where she also was artistic director of Brown’s New Plays Festival for the past three years with Paula Vogel. Previous to that, Metzgar was associate artistic director of Denver’s Curious Theatre Company (2004-2007) and associate producer of the Joseph Papp Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival (1995-2003). She also served as producer and co-creator, with playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, of the year-long 365 Festival that was based on Parks’ play cycle 365 Days/365 Plays, produced internationally from November 2006 until November 2007.
Metzgar was educated at Brown University and the University of Iowa. She succeeds Eric Rosen, who has become artistic director of Missouri’s Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Metzgar is the third About Face artistic director, following Rosen and Kyle Hall, who served as co-artistic directors until Hall’s move to New York City. Rosen and Hall founded About Face in 1995 to produce works—many of them self-developed new works—exploring LGBTQ issues. Like Rosen and Hall, Metzgar herself is a member of the LGBTQ community. Her appointment is effective immediately.