The Chicago theater community alway...

The Chicago theater community always has had a solid connection with the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ky and its widely recognized annual Humana Festival of recent American Plays. But that connection promises to learn a whole lot stronger with the announcement that Jennifer Bielstein, popularly executive director of the estimable Writers' Theatre in Glencoe has been named managing director of the Louisville operation.

Bielstein, 37 who has partnered with Writers' Theatre artistic director Michael Halberstam for the past three years to help overlook the doubling in scale of that theater, will begin work in Louisville in October.

The Texas-born, University of North Carolina-educated Bielstein has exhausted all of her career working in the Chicago area at Apple Tree Theatre, Northlight Theatre, the Lincoln Park Zoo and Steppenwolf Theatre.

In October, she will rouse to Louisville with her husband, whose family lives nearby.

"I have always admired Actors Theatre and its Humana Festival as individual of the few large regional theaters in the political division that is devoted to the production of strange plays," said Bielstein, who is replacing the company's veteran executive director, Alexander "Sandy" Speer "People in these work at jobss tend to hold them for decades, for a like reason this is a rare opportunity, and I was happy to maintain it."

Many of the plays showcased at the Humana Festival arrive forward Chicago stages in subsequent seasons, and from time to time, the Louisville productions of those plays have been staged by dint of Chicago directors, including, most freshly Sandy Shinner of Victory Gardens Theater.

"In latter years, an increasing number of theaters have begun focusing in succession the production of new plays," said Bielstein, who has been recognized for her expertise in strategic planning and audience unravelling "My job will be to help support artistic director Marc Masterson and his vision for the theater, and to detain Actors Theatre competitive."

With an annual batch of $9 million covering the couple the Humana Festival and Actors Theatre's 11-production local season, as oppos to the $29 million Writers' Theatre operation, she will be overseeing a far larger operation.

"And cessation assured, I will be excessively sure to introduce Chicago artists to the theater," she said.

The Writers' Theatre Board of Trustees has created a search committee and will be working with a major recruitment firm to fill the position.

hweiss@suntimes.com

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