Long Wharf Theatre Names New Leadership Team Members, Board Members at Launch of 60th Anniversary Season

Long Wharf Theatre has named Briona Jenkins the new Director of Development and Eric Gershman the interim Managing Director. They began their roles on October 7. Long Wharf Theatre has also named six new members – Liana Garcia, Ruby Melton, Frances Padilla, Michael Twitty, Brendan Woo and Nancy Yao – to its Board of Directors. The new additions to the institution’s leadership and board will fortify its success as it launches its historic 60th anniversary season. 

Jenkins, who brings an expansive background in community activism and nonprofit development, is stepping into the development role at a crucial moment for the institution. As Long Wharf Theatre bolsters its new production model, Jenkins will play an integral role in collaborating with leadership and the external affairs team to strengthen the organization’s community relationships and funding streams for sustained growth and creative rigor. Jenkins was selected as Director of Development following an extensive ecosystem-building and hiring process supported by Creative Evolutions.

Gershman will work alongside Artistic Director Jacob G. Padrón on strategic initiatives, as well as short and long-term goals that position the company for sustainability and continued creative excellence. Gershman will work to strengthen Long Wharf Theatre’s new producing model as it activates venues, neighborhoods, and public spaces throughout its city and region to bring world-class theater to all.  

“I am thrilled to welcome Briona Jenkins and Eric Gershman who join the company at a momentous time of growth and possibility,” said Jacob G. Padrón, Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre. “Briona brings the strategic experience necessary to further our work for the next 60 seasons, as well as a curiosity, commitment, and a passion for the power and promise of Long Wharf Theatre. I’m excited to collaborate with both Briona and Eric as Long Wharf Theatre continues its work as a theater company that belongs to the people of Greater New Haven. I’m confident they will do transformational work for the organization.” 

Originally from Hamden, Connecticut – and most recently working across the city of Austin, Texas – Jenkins holds over a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector, previously serving a number of Austin based organizations while also running her own nonprofit consulting business. The award-winning leader has served on seven nonprofit boards: Keep Austin Fed, Austin Black Pride, Lone Star Victims Advocacy Project, New Leaders Council’s Austin Chapter Board, The Equality Alliance, and Equality Texas and currently serves on the board of Random Acts. She has spoken at the 2020 Women’s March Rally in Austin, two Future Front Texas’s Annual State of the Uterus event, Texas State University’s Business Week, on a virtual SXSWEdu panel, two GISH panels about Racial Equality & Justice, and was a SXSW 2022 Wellness Panelist. A committed and outspoken activist and podcast host, Jenkins brings the lived experience of an LGBTQIA+, BIPOC woman to spaces in order to advance radical change and inclusion in all of her work and now at Long Wharf Theatre. 

“I am honored to join the team at Long Wharf Theatre and to bring my experience not only back to my home state of Connecticut but to an organization that deeply values its surrounding community and works daily to bring accessible artistic experiences to them,” said Briona Jenkins, Director of Development. “Like the talented team at Long Wharf Theatre, I’m dedicated to radical inclusion and am uniquely experienced to position the theatre for many more years of transformative creativity, storytelling and audience building.” 

Gershman joins Long Wharf Theatre following a yearlong engagement as interim Managing Director at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where he helped design and implement a more-sustainable business model and organizational structure for the 70-year old institution. He brings extensive business strategy and development experience from across the arts, culture, and media landscape including supporting strategy exercises for the Brown Arts Institute, Newport Classical, Showtown Theatricals, and Netflix. As a team member of AEA Consulting he supported additional planning exercises for the Museum of Modern Art, the National Black Theatre, the Preservation Society of Newport County, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Rhode Island School of Design, and ProPublica. Prior to his consulting work, Eric served in strategy roles at Disney Theatrical Group and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and earlier in his career held technical production positions with Blue Man Group, the Broadway tour of Annie, and Cirque du Soleil. He is adjunct faculty at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, and he holds an MFA in Theater Management from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, an MBA from the Yale School of Management, and a BFA in Theater Design & Technology from Emerson College.

“It’s an honor to support Long Wharf Theatre during its leadership transition and as it gears up for another season of incredible innovation, community engagement and meaningful storytelling,” said Eric Gershman, Interim Managing Director. “I’m thrilled to return to New Haven and to collaborate with Jacob and the entire team as they continue to redefine what it means to be a regional arts institution and how that can manifest throughout the many dimensions of our community ”

Liana Garcia, Ruby Melton, Frances Padilla, Michael Twitty, Brendan Woo and Nancy Yao are veterans in their respective fields, adding a collective decades of experience and expertise to Long Wharf Theatre’s Board of Directors. 

“We are pleased to welcome six new outstanding individuals to Long Wharf Theatre's Board of Directors," said Nancy Alexander, Board Chair. "Liana Garcia, Ruby Melton, Frances Padilla, Michael Twitty, Brendan Woo and Nancy Yao each add unique expertise and leadership that will help us navigate this important moment in our history. They all believe so fully in the vision of the company.” 

The 60th anniversary season, Building Our Future Together, is Long Wharf Theatre’s second season under its innovative production model of presenting works across Greater New Haven to bring world-class theatre to all. Following its Artistic Congress and fifth annual festival Black Trans Women at the Center, Long Wharf Theatre will transform The Lab at ConnCorp, a learning and business innovation center, to host a reimagined production of the Golden Age musical She Loves Me, directed by Jacob G. Padrón with musical direction by Miles Plant. 

To learn more about productions and ways to get involved, visit https://longwharf.org/. 

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