Chad Bauman, a fixture at Arena Stage since 2007, will become Managing Director of Milwaukee Repertory Theater effective June 1, the Company announced today.
“Chad’s experience in helping bring to the stage some of the best theater being performed in America will be a significant addition to our already strong team,” said Milwaukee Rep Board of Trustees President Judy Hansen. “His skills in strategic planning, team building and leadership made him a standout candidate among the wonderful pool of theater professionals that were interested in this prestigious position.”
Bauman currently serves as Arena’s Associate Executive Director where he oversees the marketing department (which he originally headed up,) communications, IT, and strategic planning divisions. He writes a seminal blog, Arts Marketing, where he often shares the strategies he uses to help build audiences and increase revenues. During his tenure, he’s seen them nearly double in both cases. As the new Mead Center for American Theater facility was being built, and Arena operated away from home in two different venues for more than two and a half years, Bauman was often credited for his innovative marketing efforts which succeeded in holding and growing the Arena Stage audience base as the company.
Bauman left Arena once before, in March of last year, to become Associate Director at the Smithsonian Associates, the outreach and membership division of the Smithsonian Institute. While he was away from Arena, he wrote a bi-weekly column for DCTS which included this provocative article about being a Helen Hayes judge. He returned to Arena in June.
Far from being strictly a “numbers man”, he has a genuine love of theatre. In addition to his work at Arena Stage, Bauman is an Adjunct Professor at American University and Drexel University in Philadelphia, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. It is unknown whether his move to Milwaukee will terminate these relationships.
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