Curio Theatre Company Announces Longtime Company Member Rich Bradford As New Co-Artistic Director

Last week, Curio Theatre Company made a move toward the future of the organization. The company has announced that longtime Company Member Rich Bradford has taken on the role of Co-Artistic Director effective immediately, alongside Artistic Director and Co-Founder Paul Kuhn. For months, the leadership of the theatre had been deliberating making a change from the top down in order to better serve Curio's surrounding community with live theater and theater education- a central part of the founding principals of the company. More information about the company can be found at www.curiotheatre.org. All shows are performed at Curio's home theatre at the Calvary Center for Culture and Community, 4740 Baltimore Ave.

Bradford brings years of experience onstage as an accomplished actor with Curio and companies across Philadelphia, as well as leadership with organizations like Iron Age Theatre and Theatre in the X.

i??"I am overwhelmed with hope and joy about this change at Curio and bringing the full representation of meaningful storytelling about the joys and pains of BIPOC's, LGBTQ and Women's Rights by way of published and also new works," said Bradford. "This is very important and close to my heart. Let's begin the conversation, open up the stage and give a voice and platform of love, respect and power."

Kuhn said, "Rich always asks these vital questions, outside the box questions. He's very thoughtful and very intentional with everything he does as an actor. Every choice is discussed, he's profoundly respectful to everyone in the room, their ideas. He listens, but at the same time, he speaks and makes decisions. His vision has beginning, middle, and end and he's astounded me."

In accepting the new role, Bradford said he's looking forward to engaging local Black playwrights and other theater professionals of color, as well as telling more stories about the Black experience, putting on plays about the West Philly community, and exploring both new and old socially-conscious works with modern, relevant messages for today.

Kuhn said in reckoning with the company's all-white leadership, he thought about what Curio should be willing to recognize and concede, like who has been excluded from past decision-making processes and hiring, who has been excluded from the room entirely, and whose presence in the room was under constant threat of erasure?

"When I approached Rich, I said, 'I am reaching out to you, I'm being transparent: I want Black leadership in this company. If we had all the resources in the world to do a nationwide search, I'd still want somebody not only with great vision and more social activism, but also somebody deeply entrenched in our theatre family. It would always be you.'"

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