Theatre Bay Area Welcomes
Sam Read, New Director of
Advancement and Communications by / Theatre Bay Area Staff

We are thrilled to announce the hiring of Sam Read into the newly created position of director of advancement and communications, replacing Clayton Lord, who has accepted a position at Americans for the Arts. Read will join Theatre Bay Area on March 18.

Read, who is currently serving as the deputy director of Theatre Puget Sound, an arts service organization in Seattle, WA, brings nine years of innovative program development and management experience to Theatre Bay Area, where he will provide strategic oversight for the organization’s research, development, marketing and communications efforts.

“We are so excited to welcome Sam into the organization,” said Theatre Bay Area executive director Brad Erickson. “His vast experience in innovative program development, project management, outreach, audience engagement and fundraising provide a complete package with which to help Theatre Bay Area unite, strengthen, promote and advance the theatre field.”

In his time at Theatre Puget Sound, Read has built a reputation as an effective and dynamic leader, implementing groundbreaking audience engagement programs such as Arts Crush and the Cultivating New Audiences Seminar Series and overseeing large-scale collaborations in the Seattle arts community to promote and advance artistic causes in the Northwest.

Under Read’s leadership, Arts Crush (which is similar to the Free Night of Theater program run by Theatre Bay Area from 2007 to 2011) has grown into Theatre Puget Sound’s most successful and popular program, engaging infrequent arts attendees and creating lasting impact on the arts ecology of the Seattle region. He will bring his experience in such complex program management to Theatre Bay Area through this new position.

“I am thrilled to be joining the leadership team at Theatre Bay Area,” said Read. “In a way, I feel like this will be a continuation of a conversation I started with the Bay Area community many years ago. When I was twenty years old, I came down to SF to see ‘Angels in America: Parts One and Two’ at ACT. It was one of my first transformational theatre experiences, and was hands-down one of my most memorable experiences in the theatre: emotional, political, confounding, beautiful, communal, and inspiring.”

Read continued: “I look forward to working with everyone at Theatre Bay Area to deliver direct tangible services to artists and organizations while continuing to act as a thought leader and innovator on issues affecting the performing arts field locally and nationally, so that transformational experiences like mine can happen for a long time to come.”