Consortium healthy as Eustis heads to NYC

by Mary Jo Curtis

After weeks of rumors and headlines, Oskar Eustis, professor of literary arts and director of the Brown/Trinity Theatre Consortium, has been appointed the new producer of New York City's Public Theater, one of the most prestigious jobs in American theater.

Eustis, who emerged from a pool of nearly 100 candidates to be named last month to succeed George C. Wolfe, becomes just the fourth person to hold that position since Joseph Papp founded the theater in 1954.

The appointment leaves Providence's premier theater, Trinity Repertory Company, in search of a new artistic director and the University in need of a new director for its thriving Consortium.

Associate artistic director Amanda Dehnert, a graduate of the Trinity Rep Conservatory and a member of the Consortium faculty, will become acting artistic director at Trinity and acting director of the Consortium when Eustis heads to the Big Apple this spring. Although there is no time frame for hiring Eustis' replacement, Provost Robert J. Zimmer said Brown will be represented and involved in the search.

In the meantime, according to Spencer Golub, chair of Brown's Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance and director of its academic graduate studies program, the Consortium is healthy and growing. Its first candidates for M.F.A. degrees in acting and directing will graduate this May.

"From the moment this was founded, the Consortium immediately became competitive with the one or two best graduate [theater] programs in the country," said Golub. In combining the resources of the Tony Award-winning regional theater company with those of Brown's nationally-respected theater program, "it's different from all others....

It's not just great, it's singular - and we aspire to be no less than that.

"Oskar has a spiritual and charismatic presence, so certainly this is a transitional moment," Golub continued. "But the Consortium wasn't built around a single personality. There's always an opportunity with a major change to improve and move forward; the Consortium will go on and thrive, and I have no doubt of that.... Oskar leaves us in excellent shape in the most significant ways."

Eustis will play a dual role in New York, just as he has here; he'll teach at both the Public Theater and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He has also said he'll remain involved with the Brown/Trinity Consortium in a limited capacity over the next several years, although the details have yet to be worked out.

"He and I have discussed it, but have not reached an exact conclusion - except that we believe it can work out well," said Zimmer.

"He's not leaving the life of the Consortium. He just won't be an immediate presence," added Golub.