NEW BAY AREA ARTISTIC LEADERS DISCUSS
theatre in the age of COVID. From the December 1, 2021, Arts Member-Led Forum program “(Re)Filling Those Seats: California Theatre Challenges.” SEAN SAN JOSE, Artistic Director, Magic Theatre JOHANNA PFAELZER, Artistic Director, Berkeley Repertory Theater KHALIA DAVIS, Artistic Director, Bay Area Children’s Theatre TIM BOND, Artistic Director, Theatreworks BRAD ERICKSON, Executive Director, Theatre Bay Area—Moderator BR AD ERICKSON: I went to your websites to figure out when you [took on your currrent positions], it’s all been something of a blur. And Johanna, I think you were the first; [you] came on in the fall of
2019, and we had no idea that any of this was going to be in front of us. Talk about what that was like, up into your first full season at Berkeley Rep, only to have the brakes hit a little bit into the season.
JOHANNA PFAELZER: Yeah, I started at Berkeley Rep in September 2019. I had what in retrospect seems like an incredibly blissful five, five-and-a-half months with all of the challenges attendant in taking over an organization. My predecessor, Tony Taccone, had led Berkeley Rep as artistic director for 22 years and as the associate artistic director for eight years before that. So I thought the challenges ahead of me were simply coming into a new company, learning what it wanted and needed of me, what my agenda was going to be for it. All of those things that at the time seemed plenty challenging. Only to find that within a few months—because when I think back, it was really in February that we all started to get a sense of this impending potential threat. So
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THE COMMO N WE AL TH | February/March 2022
