Enviornment Stage, a Washington-based nonprofit theater that is likely one of the nation’s main regional establishments, has abruptly parted methods with its creative director, who submitted a resignation electronic mail on Friday, hours earlier than the opening evening festivities for a brand new musical in regards to the ’90s woman group TLC.
The departing creative director, Hana Sharif, made it clear that she was leaving underneath strain.
“Finally, the board and I arrived at a crossroads — one outlined not by an absence of shared love for this establishment, however by differing visions for a way Enviornment Stage ought to meet the long run,” she wrote on Friday, “what artwork belongs at its heart, how its groups must be constructed and empowered to evolve, and what a sustainable path ahead actually requires.”
In a separate electronic mail to the theater’s employees, she wrote, “when imaginative and prescient diverges at that basic stage, probably the most sincere and brave factor management can do is acknowledge it — and create house for brand spanking new paths to open.”
Her final day on the job will probably be Tuesday.
Ryan Impagliazzo, the theater’s communications director, wrote in an electronic mail on Friday afternoon: “Hana shared her resolution to step down as creative director with the board and employees this afternoon. We’re grateful for her tenure and may have an official announcement and extra info to share on Monday.”
Sharif is considered one of a small variety of Black ladies main main theaters on this nation; she beforehand led the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, and her arrival there in 2018 was described as the primary time a Black girl had led a serious American regional theater.
Her tenure in Washington was temporary. She took cost of the theater in 2023, succeeding Molly Smith, who had been with the corporate for 25 years. Her time was characterised by bold programming — 9 world premieres, she wrote — and a excessive stage of employees turnover.
“CrazySexyCool: The TLC Musical,” scheduled to open Friday evening, is the most recent in a string of musicals with business ambitions offered at Enviornment Stage throughout Sharif’s tenure. In late 2023, the theater staged “Swept Away,” with songs from the Avett Brothers; that present transferred to Broadway in 2024. This 12 months, it offered “Chez Joey,” a reimagined tackle “Pal Joey,” and final 12 months it staged a revised “Rattling Yankees”; each of these reveals had Broadway hopes. (“Rattling Yankees” is anticipated on Broadway subsequent spring.)
Enviornment Stage, based in 1950 and situated in Southwest Washington, is a large nonprofit — within the 2025 fiscal 12 months it had a $30 million price range and, in accordance with a tax submitting, ran a deficit of $1.8 million.
