Tim Bond to Depart TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Giovanna Sardelli to Step In

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has revealed that Tim Bond will depart the company, stepping down from his role as Artistic Director later this month in order to lead Oregon Shakespeare Festival as its new Artistic Director. Assuming the position of Interim Artistic Director is Giovanna Sardelli, who has been affiliated with TheatreWorks for more than fifteen years, and currently serves as the company’s Artistic Associate and Director of New Works.

 

Incoming TheatreWorks Board Chair Mark Greenstein and outgoing Board Chair Holly Ward note, “We are grateful to Tim Bond, who took the helm at TheatreWorks in March 2020, and was immediately subsumed by the pandemic. He spent the next three years keeping the company together, artistically, emotionally, spiritually. Under his leadership we presented exciting virtual productions for our audiences while our stages were dark. He navigated the complexities of scheduling and re-scheduling multiple shows while the world came to terms with COVID safety precautions. When TheatreWorks finally resumed mainstage productions, Tim wowed our audiences with a stunning array of award-winning productions, not the least of which was his brilliant staging of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. We cannot thank Tim enough for his contributions and wish him well in his next adventure.”

 

Greenstein and Ward add “We are thrilled that Giovanna will become TheatreWorks’ Interim Artistic Director. Her long association with the company, including working closely with both our founder Robert Kelley and his successor Tim Bond, makes her uniquely qualified to step in. Our audiences have already been dazzled by her vision and the wide range of exciting new voices she has brought to our stages. Our New Works Festival, now celebrating its 20th season, has been wildly popular under her direction. And our staff knows, respects, and enjoys working with Giovanna. We are confident she was destined to assume a leadership position at a major American theatre and count our lucky stars that she has chosen to bring her energy, her enthusiasm, and her extensive experience to us here at TheatreWorks.”

 

A stage director of national renown, Sardelli was spotlighted by The New York Times as one of a new generation of rising female directors sought after by both veteran playwrights and in-demand younger writers. She has closely collaborated on new works with the likes of Tony Award winner Mathew Lopez (The Inheritance) and Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph, both of whom have debuted works at TheatreWorks. She has also directed acclaimed productions at theatres in New York and across the country, including The Mark Taper Forum, Geffen Playhouse, Alley Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company, and others, as well as many hit productions at TheatreWorks. Said Sardelli, “I have loved TheatreWorks from the very first work I directed here and consider it my theatrical home. While I have enjoyed the past two decades of creating works at theatres in New York and across America, I learned during the pandemic what it is like to settle down in one place and become grounded in a community. This is the place I was hoping to stay, and having this opportunity is both exciting and gratifying.”

 

Said Bond, who assumed the helm of the Tony Award recipient theatre in 2020 following the retirement of TheatreWorks Founder Robert Kelley, “It is with a heavy heart that I leave the TheatreWorks community that I have come to know and love, that has embraced me and my work. I had hoped to serve here longer, continuing to expand the legacy of founder Robert Kelley. But my former artistic home has asked if I can return to support it during a critical period, and I am compelled to return there.” Bond holds deep ties to Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he served 11 years as Associate Artistic Director and was instrumental in creating several nationally recognized programs. Added Bond, “We raised our children in Ashland, it is a place my family thinks of as home, and I hope in returning I can help restore, heal, and reinvigorate this national treasure as it embarks on its 89th season.” Bond will return to TheatreWorks to direct his acclaimed production of August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned in the company’s 53rd season, scheduled to perform January 17– February 11, 2024.

 

Sardelli will start her tenure as Interim Artistic Director on July 14. She is already working with the company to prepare for its 20thAnniversary New Works Festival, featuring readings of new plays and a musical, to be held August 11–20, 2023 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. Under her direction, this year’s festival will kick off with a dinner and conversation with nationally acclaimed playwrights David Henry Hwang and Rajiv Joseph. The Festival celebrations will also include a special performance by actor/activist Shakina (NBC’s “Connecting,” NBC’s “Quantum Leap,” Hulu’s “Difficult People”). Sardelli is also slated to direct the West Coast Premiere of Mrs. Christie, which launches TheatreWorks’ 53rd Season, performing October 4-29, 2023 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

 

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, led by Executive Director Debbie Chinn in partnership with Interim Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli, presents a wide variety of contemporary plays and musicals, revitalizes great works of the past, and serves more than 100,000 patrons per year. Founded in 1970 by Robert Kelley, TheatreWorks has grown from an original Silicon Valley start-up to become one of the nation’s leading professional non-profit theatre companies. TheatreWorks was honored as the recipient of the 2019 Regional Theatre Tony Award. In addition to acclaimed productions of classics and contemporary plays and musicals, TheatreWorks champions new work, offering artists support and a creative home as they develop new stories for the American theatre. Offstage, TheatreWorks’ arts education programs and arts engagement programs uplift its audiences and strengthen community bonds. Onstage and off, TheatreWorks welcomes the mosaic of people that embody the Bay Area and beyond, celebrating the transformative power of theatre to ignite imagination, inspire conversation, and enliven souls.

Photo credit: Hillary Jeanne Photography

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