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The Rep hires acclaimed Baltimore theater professional as artistic director

Hana Sharif will begin working with The Rep this fall and become artistic director in 2019.
The Rep
Hana Sharif will begin working with The Rep this fall and become artistic director in 2019.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis has named Hana Sharif  as artistic director to replace Steven Woolf.

Sharif, who is associate artistic director at Baltimore Center Stage, will take The Rep post at the end of the 2018-2019 season. 

Sharif’s career includes working as a director, playwright and producer. She is the first African-American woman to head a large professional theater organization in St. Louis.

In Baltimore, she has won acclaim for productions of “Pride and Prejudice" and “The Christians,” worked on community engagement and helped oversee a building renovation and rebranding campaign.

Woolf is retiring after more than 30 years as The Rep’s artistic director. In a news release, he praised the choice of his successor.

“I am enormously happy with this selection,” Woolf said. “I’d like to commend our search committee and its chair, Ann Cady Scott, for choosing Hana. She will be an excellent leader for The Rep moving forward.”

Through the rest of this season, Sharif will work closely with Woolf and Mark Bernstein, The Rep’s managing director, before beginning her first season as artistic director in June 2019.

In this Oregon Shakespeare video, Sharif talks about why she chose theater as her professional realm.

Follow Nancy on Twitter: @NancyFowlerSTL

Nancy is a veteran journalist whose career spans television, radio, print and online media. Her passions include the arts and social justice, and she particularly delights in the stories of people living and working in that intersection.