Chris Burrill, the production manager of the...

Chris Burrill, the production manager of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, has been hired away by the Irvine Theatre Operating Co. to be technical director of the new Irvine Theatre. “This is an opportunity for him to be in command of day-to-day operations,” Douglas Rankin, the theater’s executive director, said Tuesday.

Burrill, an Irvine resident who has been at the Center for four years, was chosen over three finalists from Colorado, Illinois and Montana, Rankin said. Before that Burrill had been technical director of the Los Angeles Dance Alliance.

The $17.6-million Irvine Theatre, currently under contruction, is expected to open in August, 1990. The post of technical director is expected to pay $45,000 annually, according to an informed source. He starts Oct. 18.