Lee Foster to Step Down as Managing Director at Theatrical Outfit

Following three successful years at Theatrical Outfit, Lee Foster will relinquish her duties as Managing Director, effective October 31, 2017.

Under Lee's stewardship and in partnership with long-time Artistic Director, Tom Key, Theatrical Outfit has seen substantial growth in revenue, ticket sales, productions and audience satisfaction.

"Lee Foster has provided stability, tenacity and vision to Theatrical Outfit during her time with us. She was just what we needed at the time we needed it. We look forward to building on this momentum as we begin our search for a new Managing Director," said Stephanie Watkins, Theatrical Outfit Board Chair.

Ms. Foster will continue in a consulting role to Theatrical Outfit until May 2018, with specific Board direction related to the Audience Building Roundtable funded by the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. A search for a new Managing Director will likely begin in January 2018.

Located at the Balzer Theater at Herren's, Theatrical Outfit is the second oldest professional theatre company in Atlanta. The T.O. vision says it all ... Stories that stir the soul.

For more information on our season programming, educational efforts, giving opportunities and tickets, visit www.TheatricalOutfit.org.

Atlanta's second-oldest continually-operating professional theatre company was founded in 1976 and has been led by Artistic Director Tom Key since fall 1995. Key led the company through the creation of its award-winning downtown home, the Balzer Theater at Herren's, the first U.S. theater to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Balzer Theater is also the historical site of Herren's, the first restaurant in Atlanta to voluntarily desegregate in 1962; its first African American patrons, Dr. Lee and Delores Shelton, remain Theatrical Outfit patrons and season ticket subscribers. Key's programming of classics, regional and world premieres and musicals tell soul-stirring stories, with themes that explore diversity, equality, ethnicity, race, and religion; and often feature the best writers of the American South, including Ernest Gaines, Lauren Gunderson, Horton Foote, Harper Lee, Flannery O'Connor, Janece Shaffer, Sherry Shephard-Massat, Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, and Tennessee Williams. After ten years of capital investment, T.O. is in new territory. Having retired its mortgage, the staff, trustees, and artists have launched a new 2018-2020 Strategic Plan designed to produce great art, diversify and grow our audience, increase revenue and reserves, develop artists who contribute to the dramatic cannon and maintain an effective organization. The plan now has the benefit of two leaders, Artistic Director Tom Key and Managing Director Lee Foster (hired in July 2014) who together have achieved Theatrical Outfit's most successful successive season of ticket sales since the 2005 opening of The Balzer Theater at Herren's and the most Suzi Bass Award nominations for several seasons ever garnered by Theatrical Outfit. Unless otherwise announced, productions are performed at The Balzer Theater at Herren's at 84 Luckie Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303.

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