Note from the Producing Artistic Director and the Managing Director

Welcome to Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog, our final production of the 2022-23 season. We want to thank everyone – actors, directors, staff, designers, stage managers, tech crew, volunteers, and our wonderful patrons – for making the season such a great success.

Now, we want you to meet the newest member of our staff and our first chief financial & operating officer, Rudina Toro. We have known the immensely talented Rudina for years, and we’re confident that her business acumen will be a game-changer for PBD. Rudina, the floor is yours.

Working at PBD is such a special opportunity. I grew up in theatre; my mom was a producing artistic director in Albania, where I was born, and my favorite uncle was an actor and director with the national theatre. He also read plays on the radio and acted in movies. Both were exceedingly caring, nurturing, and generous, and always happy to take me to work. I took them up on every offer, which means I was at the theatre more than anywhere else during my entire childhood. So, theatre is really in my blood.

When I was a young teenager, my family moved to South Florida and considered our plans for the future. In his infinite wisdom, my dad steered me toward a business career. He knew I was good with numbers and believed an accounting degree would perpetually provide opportunities and security. As always, he was right. Even now, I know that if I can access an organization’s financials, I can understand most everything about the operation; numbers always tell the real story.

Prior to joining the PBD team, I was CFO at two nonprofits. But I spent the first 14 years of my career with a CPA firm and met Sue Ellen while working there. We collaborated on the very first PBD audit when the nonprofit was newly established, and we connected instantly. I started coming to shows at the Banyan theatre and never left.

As an accounting professional, I feel I must be entirely invested in an organization’s mission so I can help support it and contribute to its success. And PBD is such a good fit: I respect and admire Bill and Sue Ellen and the incredible work they do. I cannot think of another local company that creates such enriching and impactful work, and I am beyond grateful for the opportunity and the trust they place in me daily.

Contributing to life-changing work is the privilege of a lifetime, as I have witnessed first-hand the transformative power of PBD. When my husband and I first started dating, he was unfamiliar with theatre. I said, “I love PBD, and you have to go with me.” He wanted to make me happy, so he said he would do whatever I wanted. From his first show, The Dresser, he was completely won over and now attends all productions eagerly. We hope our two girls, Logan and Remi, will grow up to feel the same!