Long Wharf Theater Names New Leadership Team Members and Board Members at 60th Anniversary Season Launch

Long Wharf Theater has named Briona Jenkins as new director of development and Eric Gershman as interim general manager. They began their functions on October 7. Long Wharf Theater also named six new members (Liana Garcia, Ruby Melton, Frances Padilla, Michael Twitty, Brendan Woo and Nancy Yao) to its board of directors. The new additions to the institution’s leadership and board of directors will strengthen its success as it launches its historic 60th anniversary season.

Jenkins, who brings extensive experience in community activism and nonprofit development, takes on the development role at a crucial time for the institution. As Long Wharf Theater strengthens its new production model, Jenkins will play an integral role in collaborating with the leadership and external affairs team to strengthen the organization’s community relationships and funding streams for sustained growth and creative rigor. . Jenkins was selected as Chief Development Officer following an extensive hiring and ecosystem building process supported by Creative evolutions.

Gershman will work alongside artistic director Jacob G. Padrón on strategic initiatives as well as short- and long-term goals that position the company for sustainability and continued creative excellence. Gershman will work to strengthen Long Wharf Theatre’s new production model while activating venues, neighborhoods and public spaces across its city and region to bring world-class theater to everyone.

“I am delighted to welcome Briona Jenkins and Eric Gershman, who join the company at a momentous time of growth and possibility,” said Jacob G. Padrón, Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre. “Briona brings the strategic expertise needed to advance our work over the next 60 seasons, as well as curiosity, commitment and passion for the power and promise of Long Wharf Theatre. I am excited to collaborate with Briona and Eric as Long Wharf Theater continues its work as a theater company owned by the people of Greater New Haven. I am sure they will do transformative work for the organization.”

Originally from Hamden, Connecticut, and most recently working in the city of Austin, Texas, Jenkins has more than a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector, previously working at several Austin-based organizations while also leading their own nonprofit consulting business. The award-winning leader has served on seven nonprofit boards: Keep Austin Fed, Austin Black Pride, Lone Star Victims Advocacy Project, New Leaders Council Austin Chapter Board, The Equality Alliance, and Equality Texas and currently He is on the board of Random Acts. She has spoken at the 2020 Women’s March in Austin, at two annual Future Front Texas State of the Womb events, at Texas State University Business Week, at a virtual SXSWEdu panel, at two GISH panels on Equality and Racial Justice, and it was a SXSW 2022 Wellness. Panelist. A committed and outspoken activist and podcaster, Jenkins brings the lived experience of an LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC woman into spaces to promote radical change and inclusion in all of her work and now at Long Wharf Theatre.

“I am honored to join the Long Wharf Theater team and bring my expertise not only to my home state of Connecticut, but to an organization that deeply values ​​its surrounding community and works daily to provide them with accessible arts experiences,” she said Briona. Jenkins, Director of Development. “Like the talented team at Long Wharf Theatre, I am dedicated to radical inclusivity and have the unique experience to position the theater for many more years of transformative creativity, storytelling and audience building.”

Gershman joins Long Wharf Theater following a year-long engagement as interim CEO at the Williamstown Theater Festival, where he helped design and implement a more sustainable business model and organizational structure for the 70-year-old institution. He brings extensive business strategy and development experience across the arts, culture and media landscape, including supporting strategy exercises for Brown Arts Institute, Newport Classical, Showtown Theatricals and Netflix. As a member of the AEA Consulting team, he supported additional planning exercises for the Museum of Modern Art, National Black Theater, Newport County Preservation Society, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Rhode Island School of Design, and ProPublica . Prior to his consulting work, Eric held strategic roles at Disney Theatrical Group and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and earlier in his career he held technical production positions at Blue Man Group, the Broadway tour of Annie, and Cirque du Soleil. He is an adjunct professor at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, and holds an MFA in Theater Directing from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, an MBA from the Yale School of Management, and a BFA in Theater Design and Technology from Brown University and the University of Rhode Island. Emerson College.

“It is an honor to support Long Wharf Theater during its leadership transition and as it prepares for another season of incredible innovation, community engagement and meaningful storytelling,” said Interim CEO Eric Gershman. “I am thrilled to return to New Haven and collaborate with Jacob and the entire team as they continue to redefine what it means to be a regional arts institution and how that can manifest in the many dimensions of our community.”

Liana Garcia, Ruby Melton, Frances Padilla, Michael Twitty, Brendan Woo and Nancy Yao are veterans in their respective fields and bring collective decades of experience and knowledge to the Long Wharf Theater board of directors.

“We are pleased to welcome six new outstanding individuals to the Long Wharf Theater board of directors,” said Nancy Alexander, board president. “Liana García, Ruby Melton, Frances Padilla, Michael Twitty, Brendan Woo and Nancy Yao each bring unique experience and leadership to help us navigate this important moment in our history. They all fully believe in the company’s vision.”

The 60th anniversary season, Building Our Future Together, is Long Wharf Theatre’s second season under its innovative production model of presenting plays throughout the greater New Haven area to bring world-class theater to everyone. Following its Arts Congress and fifth annual Black Trans Women at the Center festival, Long Wharf Theater will transform The Lab at ConnCorp, a hub for business innovation and learning, to host a reimagined production of the Golden Age musical She Loves Me , directed by Jacob G. Padrón with musical direction by Miles Plant.

For more information on productions and ways to get involved, visit https://longwharf.org/.

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