N.Y. theater names new artistic head

The Public Theater in New York has selected a new artistic director -- Oskar Eustis, a former associate artistic director of L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum. The New York theater’s board voted Wednesday to hire Eustis to succeed producer George C. Wolfe.

Eustis has been the artistic director of Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I., since 1994. His new job, leading the company that legendary producer Joseph Papp built, is considered one of the most prestigious posts in American theater.

“It’s dizzying,” Eustis said Wednesday after his selection.

Eustis, 46, was at the Taper from 1989 to 1994 as resident director and later as associate artistic director. He’s probably best known in L.A. for commissioning Tony Kushner’s epic “Angels in America” in his previous job at San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre and directing its first complete production at the Taper in 1992.

At the Public, Eustis will be artistic director instead of producer, the title Wolfe held. He said this reflects the Public’s decision to use the model that has been in effect at the Trinity and the Taper’s Center Theatre Group, in which an executive director runs the management side and reports directly to the board. The Public hired Mara Manus for that job in 2002.

Eustis was one of the top three candidates to replace Gordon Davidson as artistic director of Center Theatre Group last year, but Michael Ritchie got the job. “Exactly the right thing happened,” Eustis said. “Michael is going to be very good.”