Festival (ISF) and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival (LTSF). In 1996, Christopher Flinchum was hired as assistant stage manager, later promoted to Production Stage Manager, and is now the Festival’s Production Manager, overseeing all elements of production for Great Lakes as well as ISF and LTSF. After Freedman’s 1997 departure, Bussert and Ezell served as the Festival’s Co-Artistic Directors in 1997-98, and in time for the following season the board hired Great Lakes’ fifth artistic director, James Bundy. Bundy broadened the Festival’s aesthetic and cultural definitions of classic, embracing diversity onstage and off, and initiated discussions with the board and PlayhouseSquare about moving Great Lakes to the Hanna Theatre. Programming in this period featured Shakespeare and musicals, included contemporary adaptations of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, and promoted newer works with classic structures and themes such as Thunder Knocking on the Door, From the Mississippi Delta, and the musical Lone Star Love. In 2001 Bundy promoted Daniel Hahn to the position of Education Director. Hahn’s love of the company’s rich history and his personal dedication to Great Lakes’ mission began in 1995 as an actor-teacher in the school residency program under Kenn McLaughlin. Four years later, Todd S. Krispinsky was hired as Outreach Tour stage manager and made himself indispensable to GLTF, wearing many hats while rising through the ranks. In 2005 Krispinsky became the Festival’s Director of Marketing and Communications, overseeing double-digit sales increases and garnering national coverage in American Theatre magazine and The Wall Street Journal. The 2001 season began under the leadership of new board president David P. Porter, who joined Great Lakes in 1998. Bundy had accepted the position of Dean of the Yale School of Drama, and the search for a new artistic director was underway. Porter’s governance during this era of transition and financial challenge, as well as his personal generosity and dedication to the Festival’s artistic and educational core values, helped sustain Great Lakes at a time of uncertainty. In the spring of 2002, the Festival landed Charles Fee to helm Great Lakes. Producing Artistic Director of ISF, Fee brought a wealth of experience producing and directing the classics, as well as leading a successful capital campaign for the Boise theatre. With Great Lakes’ working capital funds exhausted, an accumulated deficit looming and merger talks with the Cleveland Play House
in progress, Fee immediately inserted a second Shakespeare play into GLTF’s schedule: his A Midsummer Night’s Dream, originally conceived in Boise. Great Lakes’ future production model had begun: creatively sharing work between companies led by Fee, which now include ISF and LTSF. Fee’s production of Midsummer saw the Festival debut of Cleveland favorite Andrew May, who would continue for eight seasons at GLTF, acting in 17 productions, directing, and serving as Associate Artistic Director. That same year, Heather Sherwin joined Great Lakes as Director of Development, helping to set the company on secure financial footing, and then serving as chief strategist and manager of the Hanna Theatre campaign. Working closely with Sherwin was trustee Robyn Barrie, who joined the board in 1998. Time and again Barrie has chaired annual benefits and worked tirelessly to ensure goals were achieved and fun was had by all. The culmination of Great Lakes’ capital campaign, chaired by Timothy K. Pistell, a trustee since 1997, came in 2008 with the opening of the completely re-imagined Hanna Theatre. As Executive VP & CFO of Parker Hannifin Corporation, Pistell drew significant corporate and individual support, resulting in a campaign that exceeded its goal. Featuring the Parker Hannifin hydraulic thrust stage, the Hanna retains all of its historical legacy while enjoying the most modern theatrical amenities. In partnership with PlayhouseSquare under the leadership of President and CEO Art Falco, whose unwavering support and advocacy for the project was instrumental, the Festival’s historic move into its new home is the culmination of an extraordinary team effort. A key player on that team is Bob Taylor, who joined Great Lakes in December 2000 as Development Manager, was promoted to Director of Administration in 2001, and named Executive Director in 2003, a position he also holds at LTSF. Along with Fee, Taylor has led the financial turnaround of the company and the move into the Hanna Theatre. As Fee embarks upon his tenth season as Producing Artistic Director and Great Lakes Theater honors the 50 Stars whose dedication make this celebration possible, we save the final distinction for you: The Great Lakes Theater Audience. Over 4 million adults and students taking in over 300 productions spanning five decades have made this journey a reality. Thank you for your continued support, and here’s to the next fifty years! Daniel Hahn, Director of Education