Executive Director

DAVID HAWKANSON prior to Steppenwolf was the Managing Director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, under the artistic leadership of Joe Dowling. Before his arrival at the Guthrie, he served for eight years as the Managing Director of Hartford Stage Company in Connecticut. In the years prior to his tenure at Hartford Stage, Hawkanson was Managing Director for the Arizona Theater Company and a guest administrator at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre. He was a former senior staff member at the National Endowment for the Arts and subsequently chairman of its Theater Program.

He has also had an active career as an arts consultant and board member for such organizations as the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, the Ford Foundation's Working Capitol Fund, National Arts Stabilization Fund, Alliance for Arts Advocates, League of Resident Theatres, Theatre Trustees of America, Theatre Communications Group, New York Stage and Film, the American Arts Alliance and Door County’s Peninsula Players, where he is an honorary board member. In Chicago, he is a board member of the Illinois Arts Alliance and the League of Chicago Theatres.