Sean Fenton, the new executive director of Theatre Bay Area, knows what it was like to be an actor in a show that abruptly halted in March 2020.

他’当演员和工作人员之间的案件带来更多取消时，S感到恐惧和不确定性。他了解在戏剧艺术家，即使是一位既定的工会演员，也很难在湾区工作 - 如此之多，以至于他在接受TBA工作之前，他一直在权衡是否要参加博士学位课程东海岸的临床营养。

“It is a bit of a trip going from community college student to executive,” he joked, referring to organic chemistry and other prerequisites he just completed for that program. “It’sa totally different wardrobe.”

所有这些经验将派上用场，他在这家46岁的非营利组织中的新角色倡导并为当地戏剧艺术家和公司提供服务。作为布拉德·埃里克森’ssuccessor, Fenton — who also has administrative experience at arts research firm WolfBrown and in Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre — helps set the agenda for theater in the region, identifying challenges and opportunities in the industry and rallying the sprawling Bay Area theater community toward shared goals.

在新工作的第一天，在接受《纪事报》采访时，芬顿（居住在奥克兰的加利福尼亚内陆帝国人）说，湾区的剧院和剧院湾区都在转弯点。

“我们’他都反映了我们希望我们的部门在未来的样子，这是由于大流行的原因，也是由于对解决包容性，多样性，公平和获取问题的重新承诺，”他说。

挑战是多种多样的。“我们’re still not seeing houses as full, and from a public health perspective, there’这样做的原因。”他说。“但是就收入而言，当然’sdifficult for theaters.”

剧院workers are leaving the arts or the region altogether. And in terms of racial inclusion, many types of Bay Area audiences and artists still don’t feel welcome in predominantly white spaces.

在剧院湾区，现在只有六名员工，很多兼职。（八年前，当我在那儿工作时，工作人员的身材几乎是两倍。）随着大流行，它放弃了办公室的空间，这是在其杂志停止印刷之后。

芬顿说：“我们正在使用不同的资源。”

The whole staff has less than a year on the job, but Fenton sees fresh eyes as an asset.

“我们have an opportunity to shape TBA into what we want it to be,” he said. “We don’必须回到过去。”

他计划花早期的日子来了解哪些利益相关者（他的员工，戏剧工作者，观众）想要从TBA那里以及如何与政策制定者和其他有力的人物合作，这可能会导致拆除一些计划并创建其他计划。许多新的领导人吐出了关于听力之旅的类似词，但是在与《纪事》交谈时，芬顿展示了专业演员的特殊礼物。他没有’t steamroll ahead; he seeks and finds silent clues in his interlocutor’sdemeanor and responds accordingly.

芬顿说，阿拉米达（Alameda’S任命“使他为湾区剧院社区感到高兴。We’re going to see someone who’s really passionate, who really knows how to listen and who really advocates for marginalized voices.”

Kahng recalled that when the two were working on Kahng’S剧院的“四个移民：美国音乐漫画”，芬顿指出了一个抒情诗，有些人可能将其视为诽谤。“他采取了这一步骤来谈论这件事，”卡恩回忆道。不仅仅是芬顿的诚信，也引人注目。这是他所说的恩典。“我只记得感谢您的一点回头。这绝不是指责或攻击。”

Fenton’splans for TBA are preliminary, but he hopes to increase its regranting to artists and theaters, drawing on the popularity of the Performing Arts Worker Relief Fund, administered with Dancers’集团和Intermusicsf，在大流行期间向有需要的艺术工人分配了超过60万美元。已经，非营利组织’slong-running CA$H program, which gives project-specific support to small companies and artists, is expanding to offer general operating dollars in October.

他还希望在公平，多样性和包容性的争议中发挥更为活跃，反应性的作用，无论是在铸造和编程选择还是工作场所政策中。

“我们have a responsibility to be a leader, both by setting an example for how we operate internally as well as by providing resources and tools that our member companies and individual members can look to,” Fenton said.

“I also want to offer grace to our entire community in this area, because we’全部学习。”他补充说。“我们社区中没有一个人没有偏见。”

他envisions TBA as both disseminating best practices and serving as a mediator when needed.

“我想提醒我们所有人，我们有很多共同点。”良好的意图’他说：“但是我们可以’t also ignore good intentions. It’一个好的起点，对吧？”

然后在那里’对艺术形式的共同热爱。

“剧院桥我们的能力cultures as well as to reaffirm our human experiences,” he said, “I think that’ssort of unparalleled.”