Theatre Bay Area Welcomes New Communications Manager

Theatre Bay Area announced today that journalist and dramaturg Laura Brueckner, Ph.D., will oversee communications at Theatre Bay Area, the nation's third largest theatre service association, which connects more than 350 theatre and dance companies to job and funding opportunities, professional training resources and the larger theatre field.

Brueckner, who received her Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama from U.C. San Diego in December 2014, joined TBA as Associate Editor in 2011, and was promoted to Digital Content Manager in 2014. She also serves as resident dramaturg for Crowded Fire Theater Company, and provides freelance script development support, journalism, and other theatre writing to organizations including HowlRound, Playwrights Foundation, and California Shakespeare Theatre.

"As Theatre Bay Area adapts to the more rapid pace of modern digital communications, I hope to connect our readership with even more ideas, conversations, information, and insights from the region and the wider field," says Brueckner. "I also plan to continue to increase the diversity of voices and points of view represented in our journalism, blogs and forums, knowing that a vigorous theatre scene creates-and deserves-a vigorous dialogue."

Brueckner replaces former Editor-in-Chief Sam Hurwitt, who has headed Theatre Bay Area magazine and overseen organizational communications since 2006. Hurwitt will be leaving the organization to focus on contributing freelance theatre journalism to Bay Area news outlets such as KQED, Marin Independent Journal, San Jose Mercury News and TheIdiolect.com, as well as continuing to freelance for Theatre Bay Area. "I'm tremendously proud of the legacy of Theatre Bay Area magazine," says Hurwitt. "I think we did great work covering and connecting the Bay Area theatre community, all the way back to the early days of what was then Callboard. Most of all, I'm honored to have been in some way of service to this tremendously vital, vibrant and varied artistic community. I'm not just proud of Theatre Bay Area-I'm prouder still of Bay Area theatre. I'm glad to have spent the last decade giving it much needed and much warranted attention."

According to Brad Erickson, Executive Director of Theatre Bay Area, "This transition is part of a yearlong strategic planning process, funded in part by The Hewlett Foundation, which resulted in many shifts in our thinking and our organizational structure, including going from seven print magazines published annually to content being delivered exclusively through digital means."

Theatre Bay Area's mission is to unite, strengthen, promote and advance the theatre community in the San Francisco Bay Area, by providing career development, grants, journalism and by creating a community of theatre makers and building a larger audience of theatre goers.