Brewer, Tarleton Named Interim Leaders at NCT

Nashville Children's Theatre (NCT) today announces the appointments of longtime Nashville arts leaders Dan Brewer and Bennett Tarleton as Acting Artistic Director and Interim Managing Director, respectively. Brewer and Tarleton will steer NCT through its management transition as the theatre enters into a nation-wide search to fill the recently vacated executive management positions.

"I am extremely pleased to announce that Dan Brewer and Bennett Tarleton have agreed to step into new roles at NCT," said NCT board president Trayte Peters. "Having the top artistic and administrative positions vacant at the same time is unusual, and would be a tremendous challenge for any business. I have no doubt that Dan and Bennett, with their decades of arts knowledge and experience, will do a great job guiding NCT through this transition as the board focuses on its search for NCT's future artistic and administrative leadership."

Brewer, NCT's long-time company stage manager, will step into the role of Acting Artistic Director. He succeeds the late Scot Copeland who served NCT as Producing Artistic Director for more than 30 years before his unexpected death on February 24. Brewer and Copeland worked together at NCT for 31 years, where Brewer stage-managed over 165 productions.

"We are fortunate to have Dan, Scot's artistic partner for more than three decades, to lead NCT during the last months of this season and into the 2016-17 season," Peters added. "Our high artistic quality, and Scot's legacy, will be secure with Dan and NCT's artistic staff."

Bennett Tarleton will serve as Interim Managing Director. He succeeds Kathryn Colegrove, who served as NCT's Managing Director from 2010 to early 2016 and recently relocated back to Atlanta to work with the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts. Tarleton served as senior development officer at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, (2012-2014), audience development director for Nashville Repertory Theatre (2005-2012), the executive vice president for institutional advancement at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (1999-2005), and executive director of the Tennessee Arts Commission (1984-1999).

"I am thrilled to welcome Bennett as interim managing director for NCT," said Peters. "For NCT's next steps we needed help, and Bennett is wonderfully qualified to provide that help. His knowledge of the Nashville arts community, fundraising, and arts management, make him ideal to serve as our interim managing director. We are lucky to have his help during this transition period and look forward to the next steps for the organization."

"Joining the outstanding NCT team Scot and Kathryn put in place is a bittersweet honor," said Tarleton. "I would rather be arriving here with my grandchildren to see A Year With Frog and Toad, greeting Scot on the way in as I often did, but I am pleased to have the opportunity to use my skills at an organization dear to my own heart. I look forward to spending the months ahead serving NCT, Scot's legacy, and the millions of children who have, and will continue to, benefit from his vision."

The NCT Board of Trustees and its search committee continues to work with the Center for Nonprofit Management to hire permanent executive leadership.

About Nashville Children's Theatre Nashville Children's Theatre is a professional theatre company providing the children, families and educators of Middle Tennessee with extraordinary shared theatrical experiences that inspire imagination, develop creativity, and build community. NCT was founded in 1931 by the Junior League of Nashville and is recognized as the oldest professional children's theater in the country. A national leader in professional theater arts and education programs for young people, NCT was ranked by TIME magazine as one of the top five children's theaters in the country.

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