Laura Burgos Announced as Director of Marketing and Communications of Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Oregon Shakespeare Festival today announced that Laura Burgos is the organization's new Director of Marketing and Communications, effective immediately. Burgos will play a key role in the evolution of the 85-year-old organization under the visionary leadership of Nataki Garrett (Artistic Director) and David Schmitz (Executive Director), overseeing all aspects of audience development, institutional identity, ticket sales and box office, as well as food & beverage services at the Festival. Reporting to Schmitz, Burgos will serve as a member of OSF's senior management and will work closely with Garrett and the Board of Trustees. She will lead a sophisticated team in the creation and execution of strategies and tactics aimed at achieving OSF's institutional goals, including its ambition to be an industry leader in inclusion, diversity, equity, and access.

Burgos's new position is the latest chapter in a dynamic career spanning a diversity of performing arts disciplines, organizations, and roles. She is moving to Ashland, Oregon, in May to join OSF after four years at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she most recently served as Senior Director of Digital & Analytics. In this role, she oversaw all aspects of digital marketing and fundraising and was instrumental in modernizing Lyric through a rebranding project, a website migration and redesign, and the launch of Lyric's first digital programs. She also helmed many of Lyric's analytics projects, including implementing a post-performance survey collection and reporting process. During her time in Chicago, she also served as Board President of Broken Nose Theatre, a Pay-What-You-Can company that develops and produces new work in the city. Previous to Lyric, Burgos specialized in website analytics and digital campaigns at widely recognized arts-industry innovator Capacity Interactive, where she worked with clients such as Pacific Northwest Ballet, Opera Philadelphia, National Ballet of Canada, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. Burgos holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (Poetry, Shakespeare, and Theatre) from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Burgos said, "I'm so excited to be joining OSF at this amazing time. It's truly an honor to be able to work with Nataki Garrett and be a part of making her vision a reality at OSF. There is so much opportunity to rethink the way we invite people to our theaters, and my hope is that OSF can be a leader in imagining a new wave of arts marketing that is built on trust and community building."

David Schmitz, Executive Director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival, said, "We are proud to welcome Laura to the senior leadership team at OSF, where her wide-ranging experience, deep expertise, analytics, humanism, and history of innovation will shape the future of the organization. As she has dedicated her career to date to expanding who feels welcome to, and represented by, the performing arts, we're confident she will provide leadership to the field as well."

OSF engaged ALJP Consulting, which centers equity, diversity, and inclusion in its work, to lead the search for the new Director of Marketing and Communications. Of Burgos's appointment, Jocelyn Prince of ALJP said, "Laura Burgos represents the future for performing arts organizations in the United States. Her bold new ideas about engaging audiences and communities in our digital world will continue to have an impact on the arts and culture sector. Laura will play a pivotal role in the industry's evolution in our post Covid-19 world."

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