Artistic Director Marya Sea Kaminski Is leaving the Pittsburgh Public Theater
She is the first woman to lead the Downtown theater company that was founded by two women 50 years ago.
MARYA SEA KAMINSKI | PHOTO BY MICHAEL HENNINGER FOR PITTSBURGH PUBLIC THEATER
Marya Sea Kaminski, artistic director of Pittsburgh Public Theater for seven years and its first female leader, is leaving.
Thursday’s announcement comes amid the company’s 50th anniversary season. Kaminski’s departure is effective in July as the theater’s board of trustees launches a national search for her replacement in partnership with Management Consultants for the Arts.
She told onStage Pittsburgh that she’s leaving now to “have a more expansive and personal response artistically to the world, and cast a vision that is outside the parameters of The Public’s mission. And so that’s why it’s the right time for me.”
Kaminski, 47, is credited with steering the theater company through the turmoils of the pandemic and for building community outreach and technical innovation, according to onStage Pittsburgh. She plans to stay in Pittsburgh, where she lives in Polish Hill.
In an interview with Pittsburgh Magazine when she joined the Downtown theater company in 2018, Kaminski noted the irony of being the first woman to take the helm of the operation 44 years (at that time) after it had been founded by two women — Joan Apt and Margaret Rieck. Its first home was in what’s now the New Hazlett Theater on the North Side.
“What I’m most excited about is being part of Pittsburgh Public but also the legacy of arts in Pittsburgh,” she said at the time.
She followed the tenure of Ted Pappas, producing artistic director at The Public for 18 seasons – the longest of any of the directors since the company’s founding.
Kaminski will direct The Public’s season closer, a musical version of “Twelfth Night,” from June 27-29, which will be the grand finale of The Public’s 50th anniversary season.
“The Board of Trustees wishes to thank Marya for her transformational leadership over the past seven years. Her tenure spanned seismic shifts in American theater, underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Marya led the theater through these extraordinary circumstances with grace, passion and enthusiasm, driving the theater’s vision with innovative and groundbreaking productions,” Bal Srinivasan, chairman of the board, said in a statement.
“There is no doubt her imprint on this company will live on well beyond her tenure,” he added.
