Margaret Ledford Named Artistic Director at City Theatre

City Theatre has announced the promotion of Margaret Ledford to the position of Artistic Director.

A key member of the City Theatre team for the past 11 years, Ledford was promoted to the position of Festival Artistic Director in 2015. In her new position as Artistic Director, Ledford aims to carry on City Theatre's strong traditions of 22 years of developing and producing short plays and embark on additional programming that will allow the company to expand its artistic and institutional reach.

"For years it's been wonderful to work with Margaret Ledford as one of City Theatre's festival directors," said City Theatre co-founder and literary director Susan J. Westfall. "Last season was a terrific experience when she took over as Summer Shorts Festival Artistic Director from former Producing Artistic Director John Manzelli. Now, as City Theatre's full time Artistic Director, I'm delighted that Margaret will be artistically overseeing the company's robust growth in programming and be able to strategize and plan for our 25th season. And, personally, I'm thrilled that as City Theatre's Artistic Director, Margaret will be providing female leadership again to a company originally founded by women in 1996."

"We are very excited to have Margaret take on this important role," said Bruce Leslie, City Theatre executive director. "City Theatre is embarking upon a significant growth strategy and Margaret is the perfect person to lead our artistic efforts. We will be offering more weeks of work to local actors and new opportunities for local directors and designers. Margaret's experience in the South Florida theatre community will ensure that we use the best talent for all our many productions."

Ledford comes to this new position with a strong background in arts and theatre direction. Originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, she was the Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director for The Promethean Theatre for eight years, and directed for several other South Florida theaters including Arts Garage, New Theatre, Naked Stage, Mosaic Theatre, Caldwell Theatre and Florida Stage. Ledford also served on the South Florida Theatre League Board of Directors for six years, four of which as president. She has received eight Carbonell Award nominations and multiple Silver Palm Awards for her direction. Most recently, Ledford worked at Nova Southeastern University as the Theatre Technical Manager in the Department of Performing and Visual Arts.

Ledford earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Speech from the University of Tennessee and studied Cubist-Expressionistic Scenography post WWI abroad at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. She is a proud member of Actor's Equity Association and a founding creative member of Miami's own Mangrove Creative Collective.

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