Jan Buttram, a founding member of Abingdon Theatre Company will step down from her current position as Artistic Director next year, at the end of the organization's 2015-2016 Season in June 2016. Abingdon has begun a nationwide search for a new Artistic Director.
In 1993, Ms. Buttram was one of a group of professional theatre artists eager for a greater control over their creative lives. The group met in a brownstone near New York City's Abingdon Square Park for a series of bi-weekly new play readings. After several months of informal meetings, enthusiasm swelled and the artists combined their theatrical experience to establish Abingdon Theatre Company as a place where they could collaborate, invite colleagues to join the process, and develop new plays.
"It has been an honor to be a part of Abingdon Theatre Company from its beginnings in a Manhattan brownstone to our current home on West 36th Street. The professional opportunities-as a producer, actress, playwright and director-presented to me throughout these years have been incredible," says Ms. Buttram. "I am delighted to have worked with so many amazing playwrights, actors, directors, designers, and others during my tenure as Artistic Director. I look forward to welcoming my successor and guiding Abingdon towards a bright future."
Jan Buttram became Abingdon's Artistic Director in 2007, having previously been its co-Artistic Director with Pamela Paul. Ms. Buttram began her professional theatre career as an actress with the New Orleans Repertory Theatre under the artistic direction of
June Havoc. She has acted Off-Broadway and in regional theatres. While touring nationally with The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, she began writing plays. Her plays at Abingdon include Glory Girls, Private Battles, Zona (the Ghost of Greenbrier), The Parker Family Circus, Texas Homos, The President and Her Mistress, Phantom Killer, and Lost on the
Natchez Trace. She directed last season's Hellman v. McCarthy. Her play, Backwoods, received the
Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays. Samuel French, Smith & Kraus, and Heineman Books have published her plays and monologues. She will continue to serve Abingdon as a consultant and Board member.
Abingdon Theatre Company is presently in its 22nd Season of developing and producing new plays by emerging and established playwrights. Abingdon concludes its 2014-2015 Season with the world premiere of Sheldon Bull's Mallorca, directed by
Donald Brenner, running May 29-June 21 in the company's Dorothy Strelsin Theatre. Craig J. Horsley is Managing Director. Abingdon's 2015-2016 Season is to be announced.
For more information about Abingdon Theatre Company, visit
www.abingdontheatre.org
