Wilson promoted, will take over July 1

SecondStory Repertory, the professional theater company at Redmond Town Center, has announced that its founding artistic director, Stan Gill, will retire at the end of this current season.

Gill will be succeeded on July 1 by Susanna Wilson, currently the theater’s education and marketing director, as well as the director of many productions at SecondStory Repertory and on stages around Seattle.

Gill has built and run theater companies all over the country during the varied course of his career and has also taught at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He came to the Seattle area from Boston and founded SecondStory Repertory (his seventh such enterprise) in 1999.

Assembling a corps of actors, directors, musicians, designers and technicians, SecondStory Repertory became the first theater ensemble on the Eastside with its own home — a full-time performance space in Redmond Town Center which Gill and the company built themselves.

“I’d like to thank Stan for his years of dedication to SecondStory,” said Daryl Orts, president of the SecondStory Repertory board of directors. “He has truly been the heart and soul of our theater since it began, and we wouldn’t exist at all if it hadn’t been for his vision, leadership and commitment. Replacing him will be a huge challenge, but we’re confident that the transition will be smooth and that Susanna will continue Stan’s strong artistic vision.”

Wilson’s tenure as artistic director commences at the start of SecondStory Repertory’s 10th anniversary season.

“Susanna is one of the most joyous and passionate directors I’ve worked with in my fifteen years in Seattle,” said Gill. “I have loved working with her and look forward to watching her lead SecondStory into its second decade.”

Gill and Wilson first collaborated on the theater’s successful production of “The Pirates of Penzance” in 2005. Wilson’s work at the theater also includes directing the drama “Proof” and the recent comedy “Born Yesterday,” as well as the musicals “Anything Goes” and “My Fair Lady.”

She also oversees educational programs such as the SecondStory Repertory Teen Festival and 24-Hour Play Festival; has directed shows for Seattle Public Theater, ArtsWest and Wooden O Theater; and performed onstage at ACT, Book-It Repertory and the Village Theater.

“I have been acting since age 7, and strangely enough, directing since age 12,” said Wilson. “I’m someone who likes to take things apart, look at each piece intently to analyze how it works and then put everything together again — in the hopes of re-creating something beautiful, something that touches and transforms. I love every cog in the machinery, so I think it is a natural progression for someone like me to go from being an actor, then a director and producer, to being an artistic director of a theater company.”

She said she looks forward to dialogue with audiences and deepening the theater’s roots in Redmond. Her initial goal is the maintain the theater’s well-respected level of production and perhaps in the long term, grow the organization into a nationally-known regional theater.

For more information about SecondStory Repertory, visit www.SecondStoryRep.org or call (425) 881-6777.