Andrew Park, an award-winning artistic director, stage director, playwright, lyricist and puppeteer, has been hired as the Artistic Director for the Nebraska Repertory Theatre and Research Assistant Professor in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film. He will begin on Jan. 2, 2017.
“We are thrilled to have someone of Andrew’s talents and expertise come to the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film as the new Artistic Director for the Nebraska Repertory Theatre,” said Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Endowed Dean Charles O’Connor. “The Rep has served students and the community well for more than 45 years providing professional, Equity theatre for Lincoln, and Andy is poised to take it to the next level artistically when we re-launch it, better than ever, next year."
Park follows Professor of Theatre Virginia Smith, who stepped down as artistic director in 2014 after serving for 10 years, but continues her role as senior faculty in the Carson School.
"I'm extremely excited to join the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and Nebraska Repertory Theatre as Artistic Director,” Park said. “The Rep has been integral part of the community for generations, and I'm looking forward to expanding the theater season and contributing to the theater's proud tradition. I know that we're on the verge of creating theater together that will be impossible to ignore."
The Nebraska Repertory Theatre, affiliated with the professional Actors Equity Association, has been on hiatus since 2014. A new collaboration between the Nebraska Repertory Theatre and University Theatre, expected to begin in the fall 2017, will expand opportunities for audiences and students to engage with professional artists over a nine-month season. The new Nebraska Repertory Theatre will also have the opportunity to collaborate with the Lied Center for Performing Arts and other community or regional partners.
“The faculty, staff and students of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film are excited to have Andy Park joining our faculty,” said Harris Smith, interim director of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. “Andy brings a wide variety of directing experience to our School and, more importantly, to the Nebraska Repertory Theatre, as we create a new vision for its future. Through Andy’s leadership we look forward to creating a professional theatre that will not only impact the quality of professional training for our students, but theatre in our state and the Midwest.”
Park has served as artistic director for multiple theaters, organizations and festivals over a professional theater career that spans nearly two decades. He has also directed at several regional theatres, including the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.
Park is the founding Artistic Director of Quest Theatre Ensemble, a position he has held since 2002. Quest is an award-winning, free theater, committed to ensuring that everyone has access to the arts, regardless of their financial position.
Since 2007, he has served as Artistic Director of the John G. Shedd Aquarium, Chicago's highest attended cultural institution. Park writes, directs and produces multispecies aquatic shows that feature dolphins, beluga whales, sea lions, penguins and birds of prey. Past shows at the Aquarium include Fantasea, A Holiday Fantasea and One World.
In 1998, Park was appointed Artistic Director for the Showboat Becky Thatcher Theater in Marietta, Ohio, a position he held for three years before leaving Marietta for Chicago.
Once in Chicago, Park got right to work as a stage director and playwright. His original production, Seashore, with TriArts, Inc., was nominated for three Jeff Citations including "Ensemble" and "New Work."
He also conceived and directed an opening spectacle for the 2005 Lollapalooza Music Festival and served as artistic director for the Chicagoland Puppetry Guild's Puppet Festival and QuesFest—a puppet and drum festival on Chicago's North side.
Additional directing highlights include Circus Crashers at Actors Gymnasium, Failure: A Love Story at Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and three productions for the Cirque Shanghai franchise in Harbin, China and at Navy Pier's Pepsi Skyline Stage in Chicago and the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City.
Park also directed the European tour of Quest's Blue Nativity and The People's History of the United States, which was nominated for two Jeff Citations including "New Work," and the Jeff Award winning production of Evolution/Creation nominated for five Jeff Citations including "New Work" and "Direction."
Park has written 10 full-length musicals with his longtime collaborator and friend, Composer Scott Lamps. Their newest musicals, A Christmas Wish and Return of Neverland were nominated for three Jeff Awards in 2014, including a nomination for "Best Music and Lyrics."