SITI Company's Executive Director Michelle Preston To Step Down Following 10 Years of Service

Siti Company's Board of Directors announced that longtime Executive Director, Michelle Preston, will be stepping down at the end of October after 10 years of leadership. Preston began her tenure at SITI as the Deputy Director in 2012 and was named SITI's Executive Director in 2014 following the departure of Megan Wanlass. While at SITI, Preston has helped produce nine world premieres, 17 domestic and international tours, and five New York City seasons. She also helped oversee SITI's education programs which included welcoming four Conservatory cohorts and producing eight SITI Summer Intensive Workshops with Skidmore College. Her steady guidance has helped SITI weather the trials of the pandemic and tap into the unprecedented government funding opportunities available during the last two years. Her devotion to the care of the Company and its members in extraordinary times has been buoying and significant. She is a key force behind SITI's multi-year strategic planning efforts and helped to clearly articulate SITI's Legacy Plan, which envisioned an organized and celebratory transition for the organization after 30 years of robust programming and operations. Preston's departure was coordinated with the end of Siti Company's ensemble and producing operations, which will happen on December 31, 2022.

On November 1, she will start her tenure as the Executive Director of the José Limón Dance Foundation where she will work alongside Artistic Director Dante Puleio. Founded by José Limón-regarded as one of the most influential figures in American modern dance-the José Limón Dance Foundation honors and advances his cultural legacy with its globally renowned professional company, extensive training programs, and stewardship of a growing catalogue of original Limón works and new commissions.

"We are grateful for Michelle's vision and integrity in her years of service to SITI," said Board Chair Jessica Hanna. "We are excited for José Limón Dance Foundation--they have a talented, thoughtful, and determined arts leader coming on board."

"It has truly been a privilege to spend the last 10 years learning from this amazing group of artists who champion rigor and innovation in everything they do." Preston continued by saying, "I am so grateful for the opportunity to work alongside the ensemble, the board, and the staff to plot a course for the future and ensure that generations of artists will be able to access the legacy of Siti Company."

"Since becoming our Executive Director, Michelle has led Siti Company with an unequaled innovative brilliance. She maneuvered us wisely and robustly through many challenges and obstacles while keeping the momentum of growth, through effective budgeting, healthy board development, ongoing fundraising, and strategic planning," says Anne Bogart, SITI Co-Artistic Director, "In particular, during the pandemic, she kept the company afloat, the actors on salary, and the wheels turning for all of our plans, which included exciting final productions, an archive, and a structure to ensure that SITI would continue to exert a positive impact on the field into the future."

The SITI Board of Directors is confident that Megan E Carter, SITI's Producing Director, will brilliantly guide the final two months of robust producing activities.

SITI Legacy Plan

Following a two-year planning process that began in 2017, Siti Company determined that its mission was rooted in the passions of like-minded individual artists-its ensemble members-and not a larger self-sustaining institution. In early 2019, Siti Company members, board, and staff decided to conclude the ensemble and producing entity at the 30 year mark, ending with intention after decades of collaboration. In the fall of 2020, Siti Company announced the SITI Legacy Plan, which includes the finale 30th anniversary season, the creation of a robust physical and digital archive (to be unveiled in October 2022), and a new book, written by the company (also coming in October, published by Yonkers International Press). All of these activities are currently underway thanks to generous funding from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Community Trust, New York City Department of Culture Affairs in partnership with City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts.

Please visit www.siti.org for more information on Siti Company and the Legacy Plan.

About Siti Company

Siti Company was founded in 1992 by Tadashi Suzuki, Anne Bogart, and a group of like-minded artists interested in revitalizing and redefining contemporary theater in the United States through international cultural exchange, creation of new work, and the training of theater artists. Originally envisioned as the Saratoga International Theater Institute (SITI) in Saratoga Springs, NY, SITI quickly established itself in New York City and expanded to encompass a year-round season inclusive of creating new work, touring, and training programs to cultivate the next generation of independent theater artists. The Company is known nationally and internationally as a top-level artistic ensemble that generates groundbreaking theater. Siti Company is Akiko Aizawa, J.Ed Araiza, Anne Bogart, Will Bond, Gian-Murray Gianino, Leon Ingulsrud, Ellen Lauren, Ellen M. Lavaia, Kelly Maurer, Charles L. Mee, Barney O'Hanlon, Neil Patel, James Schuette, Brian H Scott, Samuel Stricklen, Stephen Duff Webber, and Darron L West. Former company members include Susan Hightower, Jefferson Mays, Elizabeth Moreau, Tom Nelis, KJ Sanchez, and Megan Wanlass.

Siti Company was built on the bedrock of ensemble. They believe that through the practice of collaboration, a group of artists committed to working together over time can have a significant impact on both contemporary theater and the world at large. Through performances, educational programs, and collaborations with other artists and thinkers, SITI continues to challenge the status quo, to train, and to achieve artistic excellence in every aspect of their work, and to offer new ways of seeing and of being as both artists and as global citizens.

SITI is deeply committed to the training and development of young and emerging artists as well as a continuing dialogue with established artists. SITI has redefined contemporary theater in the US through innovative approaches to actor training, collaboration and cultural exchange. Mary Overlie's Viewpoint work deeply influenced Anne Bogart and the Company continues to teach an evolving form of Viewpoints, inspired, informed and rooted in Overlie's work. The world renowned director Tadashi Suzuki was instrumental in the founding of Siti Company and continues to support SITI's work and teaching. The direct lineage of SITI's training with these pioneers has made Company members uniquely qualified to introduce artists to both of these essential and innovative techniques for nearly thirty years.

SITI has traveled to 27 countries on 5 continents and created nearly 50 productions, which have been presented at venues across the world. Widely known for highly innovative, physical productions that have ranged from new plays to original devised pieces to reinventions of classics, SITI has expanded the meaning of collaboration by creating work with Rachel's, the Martha Graham Dance Company, Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Ann Hamilton, Julia Wolfe and the Bang on A Can All Stars, and STREB Extreme Action.

To post a comment, you must register and login.