FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE....January 19, 2007
            Contact Kathy Reed, 518-798-7479

ADIRONDACK THEATRE FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP TRANSITION

Founders Martha Banta and David Turner
to depart following 13^th season in summer 2007

Board of Directors has established Search Committee and launches
“ATF 2010” Transition Funding Campaign

The Adirondack Theatre Festival’s 13^th Annual Winter Benefit taking place at the Charles Wood Theater in Glens Falls on January 19 will include the announcement that ATF founders Martha Banta (Artistic Director) and David Turner (Producing Director) will depart the company they founded in 1993 following ATF’s 13^th summer season in 2007.

“Dave and Martha shared their decision with the Board last summer” says ATF Board President and Founding Committee member David King, president of the Lake George RV Park.  “While we were of course saddened by their decision, we fully support their need to spend more time on their careers and family in New York City where they make their professional and personal home.  We are all extremely proud of what we have accomplished for our community and region under David and Martha’s leadership for almost fifteen years.  Thanks to their incredibly hard work we have one of the most renowned summer theaters in the region in Glens Falls, and a beautiful 274 seat theater which resulted from their visionary use of a vacant Woolworth Store 11 years ago when our downtown was nearly empty.”  David Turner will continue to serve as an active and essential member of ATF’s Board of Directors.

ATF’s Board of Directors plan to announce at the Winter Benefit that a Search Committee for a new Producing Artistic Director has been established under the leadership of Board Member Kate Broderick in New York City.  The Committee also consists of ATF Board Member Gilles Chiasson who resides in Los Angeles and works on the upcoming NBC drama THE BLACK DONNELYS, actor/writer Bill Bowers whose show IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING premiered at ATF, former ATF Box Office Manager Pennie Fike who is currently Creative Affairs Coordinator for BLUE MAN GROUP, and John Banta, Director of Special Events for American Ballet Theater.  The Search Committee hopes to identify a new leader for ATF by the conclusion of the 2007 summer season.

The Board will also announce that a Transition Advisory Board will be established locally in the coming weeks to serve as a sounding board for issues raised by the transition, including the need to raise at least $30,000/year for three years to provide an increased salary for ATF’s leadership.  A campaign called “ATF 2010” has begun to raise this transition funding, with almost half of those funds already being pledged to date.  The Transition Advisory Board will be lead by Elise and Woody Widlund of North Creek.

“As our Board has progressed from our initial sadness at this inevitable news, we have come to see this transition as a time of great opportunity”, says King.  “New leadership can bring new ideas and energy to an organization and a community, and we seek input from far and wide on this process.” ATF’s Board has also established an email address: thefuture@ATFestival.org which can be used  for any  input or inquiries about this leadership transition.

 

ATF Leadership
1/19/07
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Martha Banta and David Turner, along with a 12-member Founding Committee, founded the Adirondack Theatre Festival in 1993 and presented its first 18-day season of new and contemporary theater at the French Mountain Playhouse within the Lake George RV Park in June 1995.  Since then more than 60 productions have been produced, over 500 artists and staff have worked at the Festival, and thousands have attended productions.

 

Highlights have included a Benefit performance of LOVE LETTERS by Elaine Stritch and Jason Robards which launched ATF in 1995, world premieres of more than a dozen plays and musicals including FULLY COMMITTED by Becky Mode in 1998 which went on to be produced Off Broadway and around the world, MIMI LE DUCK, a musical which was produced Off Broadway this past fall, and IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING which was subsequently produced at Berkshire Theater Festival and Off Broadway.  In its second season in 1996  ATF presented a renowned production of Edwards Albee’s THREE TALL WOMEN at a vacant Woolworths store on the main street of downtown Glens Falls.  ATF went on to use this vacant building for seven more years, resulting in its eventual renovation to the  Charles Wood Theater which ATF opened in 2004 with the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY.

 

The Adirondack Theatre Festival has gained a reputation throughout our region and our industry as a summer theater where contemporary work can be seen  and new plays and musicals can be developed.  It has been awarded grants by the NYS Council on the Arts, The National Endowment of the Arts, The Shubert Foundation, and many other individual, corporate, and government funders.