The Board of Trustees of San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre’s today announced that they have selected Mr. Matt Morrow to join the Diversionary team as their new executive artistic director. Morrow accepted the Board’s offer and will take his place at the helm of Diversionary in mid-November, bringing to the job extensive experience in directing, financial development and a stint as the associate artistic director of Pittsburgh’s City Theatre Company.
Morrow was selected after a months-long search that started with Diversionary receiving almost 60 resumes from as far away as Hong Kong and South Africa. Ina press release Diversionary stated, “We were thrilled to realize the reputation and scope of Diversionary’s work and see the high quality of applications it produced. After an initial screening of those applications, the Search Committee, led by Board Vice President Darrell Netherton and composed of three board members (Darrell, Tamara Keller and myself) and well respected members of the San Diego arts community (Marcus Overton, Camille Davidson, Bill Eadie, Rob Granat and Larry Baza), met in July to identify the top 10 candidates. The top candidates were then interviewed via phone, and the top three candidates (“the best of the best” in our view) came to the theater to meet with the staff, the Search Committee and the entire board.”
Following this extensive screening and review process, the Search Committee recommended Morrow to the theater’s Board of Trustees, and he was overwhelmingly approved.
Morrow will be relocating from New York where he has held various Theatre positions including associate artistic director, development and new works director. Morrow’s dedication to theater and the LGBT community made him the perfect choice for Diversionary at a time when they have recently completed their strategic planning and re-affirmed their mission to provide an inspiring and thought provoking theatrical platform to explore complex and diverse LGBT stories, which influence the larger cultural discussion.
Acting Executive Artistic Director Todd Nelms said, “I have been honored to serve as the acting executive artistic director of Diversionary since Oct. 3, 2013, as well as now serving as the president of the theatre’s Board of Trustees, but I am eagerly looking forward to Matt’s arrival. We looked for a candidate with a keen knowledge of evolved LGBT theatrical productions, fundraising prowess, experience in developing new works, and excellent leadership and communication skills. I believe we found all of this and more in Matt. We all believe that he will lead our theater in a bold new direction.”
