Northern Stage Moves to Dual-Headed Leadership, Hires Managing Director

Due to Northern Stage's growth over the last 12 years, the company has moved from single-headed leadership to dual-headed leadership. The company has hired Perry Allison, formerly of Eons, Inc. of Boston, to serve as Managing Director alongside Founding Artistic Director Brooke Ciardelli. "We're all thrilled about this terrific opportunity for continued growth and artistic excellence," Ciardelli says.

Most professional theaters of Northern Stage's size throughout the country utilize dual-headed leadership. In Northern Stage's case, the Artistic Director oversees the creative side of the company, including casting actors, directing, overseeing guest directors, working with designers and pursuing creative links with others. The Managing Director handles the business end; the Sales, Marketing, Development and Finance departments report directly to her. Both report directly to the Northern Stage Board of Directors.

The change will allow the Managing Director to concentrate on efficiency and effectiveness of administration, freeing the Artistic Director to pursue Northern Stage's creative vision, leading to a stronger and more vibrant future for the region's professional theater company.

Perry Allison comes to Northern Stage with a life-long passion for theater and an impressive career as an executive in the digital media and publishing industries. She has been at the forefront of several significant trends in media: the advent of the Internet, the early days of online marketing, mobile marketing, and word-of-mouth marketing. She most recently was Vice President of Marketing Innovation with Eons, Inc., a social media company in Boston. She was the first Vice President of Sales for AltaVista in the very early days of the Internet and has worked for a number of Internet and publishing companies, including Martha Stewart Omnimedia, INC Publishing, Time Inc. and Alloy Media and Marketing.

Allison recently served on the board of Young Audiences of Massachusetts for three years and has also been a very active and devoted alumna of the Aloha Camps in Fairlee, VT, having served at one time as Chairman of the Alumni Association for the camps. Her theater credentials include directing, acting and teaching for various organizations in Massachusetts, including Concord Youth Theatre, Open Door Theater, Theater iii, the Acton Public schools, and several community theater groups.

"To combine my passion for theater with my work is truly a dream come true," she says.

She received a BA in English and Theatre from Skidmore College. She subsequently spent a year studying theater in London on a Tufts program and spent a couple of years studying and auditioning in NYC. She sings with a professional a capella group called Custom Blend in the Boston area.

About Northern Stage
Northern Stage is a professional regional theater company that operates under a LORT-D Actors' Equity contract, presenting a mainstage season of seven shows and a Family Theater Series of three shows per year. The performers, designers and technicians are selected from the finest talent in New York and around the country, and many have Broadway or National Tour credits. Founded in 1997 by Artistic Director Brooke Wetzel Ciardelli, the company has produced over 80 productions, including World Premieres such as Take Two, The Shrew Tamer, The "O" Myths and A Christmas Carol: The Musical, as well as numerous regional premieres. Other highlights include a staged reading of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Patrick Stewart and Lisa Harrow and a reading of Resurrection Blues, with the playwright, Pulitzer Prize winner Arthur Miller, in attendance. The company has twice been honored with Moss Hart Awards for Excellence in Theater from the New England Theatre Conference, for productions of To Kill A Mockingbird (1999) and All My Sons (2004). The production of The Shrew Tamer picked up an Addison Award in 2004 from Theater Mirror.

The company's acclaimed production of I Am My Own Wife traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Harare (Zimbabwe) International Festival of the Arts, and numerous productions have featured actors from around the world. Northern Stage offers a fully professional Theater Arts Education Program, including school residencies and workshops, The Ensemble (a professional training program for young artists), and Project Playwright, which brings professional playwrights into elementary schools to guide students in writing their own plays.

The company sells over 30,000 tickets per year. Patrons enjoy entertaining and thought-provoking professional theater and theater education at the crossroads of northern New England.

 

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