Laguna Playhouse Opens Search to Fill Its New Executive Director Post

The Laguna Playhouse is seeking an executive director, a new position created by the board of directors at a meeting earlier this week.

The job will carry top administrative authority along with the top salary at the 70-year-old theater company in Laguna Beach, artistic director Douglas Rowe said Wednesday. He noted that the executive director, to whom he will report, also will be responsible for fund-raising operations.

“I heartily endorse the move,” said Rowe, until now the theater’s chief executive. “As long as I have the artistic freedom that I am allowed currently by the Playhouse, I am a happy person.”

Rowe said the theater company has a rare “window of opportunity” to expand. “If it fails to act vigorously,” he said, “it will be tragic for the organization’s future.” Rowe added that he has found the dual responsibility of making artistic and business decisions “burdensome.” The company will run more efficiently if it brings in an administrative specialist, he said.

The Laguna Playhouse, which produces six amateur main stage productions a year at its 418-seat Moulton Theatre, has an annual budget of $1.6 million and is Orange County’s second-largest theater operation after the professional South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.

For the past year, Rowe has been hoping to establish a second, smaller stage for a professional troupe by purchasing and renovating the vacant General Telephone Building in downtown Laguna Beach. But that plan, also designed to provide “desperately needed” storage and rehearsal space as well as teaching facilities, has been stalled because of unresolved questions about water contamination beneath the building.

Jody Davidson, the Playhouse’s general manager, said she has been asked by the board to shift her administrative responsibilities to public relations and marketing and to expand her creative involvement with the Youth Theatre and the Adult Education Program. Like Rowe, she will report to the new executive director when the post is filled.

Davidson said that the board wants to hire someone by January but noted that there is no official deadline. Both she and Rowe are on the committee to screen candidates for the job. They said they did not know what the salary for the executive director would be.