Chicago—Steppenwolf Theatre Company announces the appointment of David New to Steppenwolf’s Associate Artistic Director. New is a Chicago-based artist, teacher and arts administrator. He has appeared on the Steppenwolf stage as an actor in The Royal Family, The Ballad of Little Jo, Valparaiso, Morningstar, The Glass Menagerie and Slaughterhouse Five. New has been appointed to succeed Curt Columbus, who has been named Artistic Director of Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island.
“Steppenwolf is an ensemble theater, based on the belief that a collectivity of like-minded artists produces the best work through repeated, creative relationships,” says Artistic Director Martha Lavey. “David, who has worked with the majority of our ensemble members both on our stages and elsewhere, shares this vision of Steppenwolf. His belief in the idea of ensemble as a cultural ideal, as a way of relating intra-institutionally, and within the community, makes him a fitting colleague for artistic matters at Steppenwolf.” The Associate Artistic Director assists in the season planning, in audience and donor relations, with publications and as a representative of Steppenwolf within the Chicago theater community.
David New received a BFA in Acting from the Theatre School at DePaul University in 1987. Since then, he has had a full and varied career in the theater and the humanities as an actor, director, fundraiser and teacher. Over the course of his acting career he has appeared in over 70 productions. He is a multiple Joseph Jefferson award nominee, a recipient of the Sarah Siddons Award, and a Chicago/Stratford Associates Fellow. In Chicago, he has appeared in productions with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Goodman Theatre, The Chicago Humanities Festival, Court Theatre, Victory Gardens, Body Politic, Writer’s Theatre of Chicago, Apple Tree Theatre, Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook and many others. Regional acting credits include Lincoln Center on Broadway, The Ontario Stratford Festival, The Huntington Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Madison Repertory, Peninsula Players, and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. Mr. New has also taught numerous master classes and is a guest lecturer at The University of Chicago where he teaches classes in acting and oral interpretation of literature.
Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships, and contributing new works to the national canon. The company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through on-going group work. Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of thirty-five artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting, filmmaking and textual adaptation.
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