South Coast Repertory Names Suzanne Appel As Managing Director

South Coast Repertory and its Board of Trustees have announced that Suzanne Appel will be the theatre’s new managing director. The appointment follows a national search. Appel joins Artistic Director David Ivers as co-chief executive officer of the Tony Award-winning theatre, now celebrating its 60th season.

She succeeds Paula Tomei, who announced her departure last November, stepping down after 30 years in the position. The second managing director in SCR’s history, Appel comes to SCR from off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre, where she has been managing director for the last 7 ½ years. She begins her new role at the beginning of September.

“The search generated a pool of uniquely experienced, diverse candidates, among whom Suzanne was exceptional,” said Talya Nevo-Hacohen, President of SCR’s Board of Trustees and Chair of the Search Committee. “She brings an impressive track record of strategic leadership, fiscal responsibility and fund-raising to SCR. We sought someone who could build on SCR’s strong foundation with creativity and innovation. With Ivers and Appel leading, we are expertly positioned to embrace the future.”

Working in partnership with Ivers and reporting to the Board of Trustees, Appel is responsible for providing strategic leadership for SCR’s long-term sustainability and growth. She will oversee SCR’s business operations, including fund-raising, marketing and community relations for a theatre with an annual operating budget of $12.6 million and assets of $74.7 million.

“This is a thrilling moment for South Coast Repertory. The appointment of Suzanne Appel as managing director reinforces our place as a driving force in the landscape of the American theatre,” Ivers said. “I am honored to be in partnership with such an accomplished and invigorating leader. Suzanne brings with her a wealth of experience, accomplishments and vision. Her natural charisma and ambition are matched only by her curiosity and love of theatre. I am confident ours will be a winning partnership for SCR.”

“SCR’s Board made an excellent choice in Suzanne as our next managing director,” Tomei said. “Her experience and passion for theatre make her a great partner to David Ivers in leading SCR. She brings a wealth of talent and enthusiasm and I’m optimistic for SCR’s bright future of continued excellence and innovation under her leadership.”

“I am humbled by the opportunity to continue Paula’s incredible work providing Orange County audiences with access to theatre that has a national impact far beyond Southern California,” Appel said. “David Ivers’ commitment to supporting voices representing a broad diversity of American cultural experience, particularly through the Pacific Playwrights Festival, is simply inspiring. I am looking forward to joining David, the Board and the incredible team at SCR in welcoming audiences to share in the awe-inspiring theatre that awaits them at South Coast Repertory.

“Working with Artistic Directors Sarah Stern and Douglas Aibel and the whole team at Vineyard Theatre has been a true honor. The Vineyard’s ongoing commitment to artists and innovation, and the artistic team’s extraordinary talent in shepherding groundbreaking new work, are perennially stunning. I’m tremendously proud of our accomplishments as a team. Vineyard Theatre and SCR are both working to champion the development and production of new plays and musicals, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue that work with SCR.”

At Vineyard Theatre, Appel navigated the organization financially through the COVID pandemic, keeping the entire full-time staff employed, and establishing a four-year plan (2022-2026) to raise all arts worker wages more than 30%. Appel partnered with consultants and The Vineyard’s artistic directors to create their first strategic development and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion plans. The team launched a 40th anniversary brand refresh in partnership with London’s NB Studio and a new website with Digital Citizen. During her tenure, The Vineyard secured the largest gifts from New York City, New York State, individuals and foundations in the theatre’s history.

Over the past seven seasons, the Vineyard’s leadership team’s accomplishments include producing 12 world premieres, transferring four Tony-nominated shows to Broadway (Paula Vogel’s Indecent and How I Learned to Drive, Tina Satter’s Is This A Room and Lucas Hnath’s Dana H.), and building an industry-first partnership with Audible to launch the audiobook and podcast company’s theatre program with two Vineyard Theatre plays (Harry Clarke by David Cale in 2017 and Good Grief by Ngozi Anyanwu in 2018). International audiences have experienced Vineyard productions of Jeremy O. Harris’ Daddy at London’s Almeida Theatre, Cale’s Harry Clarke at London’s National Theatre, John J. Caswell’s Scene Partners starring Dianne Wiest via live stream in partnership with the League of Live Stream Theater, the New York Times “Top 10 Best Theater of 2020” digital series Lessons in Survival created by The Commissary, and listened to the cast album of Michael R. Jackson’s White Girl in Danger.

Before coming to Vineyard, Appel was the director of external affairs at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and managing director of The Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco. She holds an MBA from Yale University’s School of Management and an MFA from Yale School of Drama, and she received her BA from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

The search was conducted by Isaacson, Miller, a nationally recognized search and consulting firm.

SCR’s 2024-25 season includes three world premieres among its six full productions, the Pacific Playwrights Festival (an annual, three-day new-play showcase) and special offerings, including A Christmas Carol, Hershey Felder in Rachmaninoff and the Tsar and Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Along.

About Suzanne Appel

For more than two decades, Suzanne Appel has pursued a personal mission to bring people together through transformative experiences led by form-challenging artists. Her accomplishments as Managing Director of Vineyard Theatre (2017-2024) include expanding the revenue-generating capacity of the organization, bringing on seven new board members, negotiating a two-production, industry-first producing partnership with Audible (David Cale’s Harry Clarke and Ngozi Anyanwu’s Good Grief), and transferring four Tony-nominated productions to Broadway. She is perhaps most proud of working with Artistic Director Sarah Stern to keep all Vineyard Theatre full-time staff employed during the COVID pandemic and developing a 2022-2026 plan raising all arts worker wages. Suzanne joined The Vineyard after serving as director of external affairs for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Prior to her role at Hubbard Street, she served as managing director at Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco, where she nearly doubled the organization’s operating budget and built a two-plus-month operating reserve in four years. She was recently awarded the Alfred Drake Award from Brooklyn College, an annual honor given to an accomplished theatre professional who has made significant contributions to the American theatre. Her previous positions include roles with Dance Theater Workshop, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Wesleyan University. Suzanne’s volunteer work includes serving as Board Secretary of the Union Square Partnership and Chair of the Wesleyan Fund (2020-2024). She is a graduate of Wesleyan University, Yale School of Drama and Yale School of Management (MFA/MBA).

ABOUT South Coast Repertory: 

Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964, is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theatres in the United States. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern plays and musicals, SCR is renowned for its extensive new-play development program—The Lab@SCR—which includes one of the nation’s largest commissioning programs for emerging, mid-career and established writers. Of SCR’s more than 500 productions, one-quarter have been world premieres. SCR-developed works have garnered two Pulitzer Prizes and eight Pulitzer nominations, several Obie Awards and scores of major new-play awards. Located in Costa Mesa, Calif., SCR is home to the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio. www.scr.org

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