Sept. 30 marks the departure of The Old Globe Theatre’s resident artistic director and Shakespeare festival director Darko Tresnjak, whose record at the Balboa Park venue has been exemplary and exciting. The young Yugoslavia-born director was already known to former artistic director Jack O’Brien from his work at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Huntington Theatre. San Diego theatergoers first became aware of him when he staged Shakespeare’s seldom-performed “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” during the 2003 Shakespeare festival. It was the summer’s big hit, and Tresnjak was invited to head the festival beginning in 2004. At a press conference announcing the 2005 Shakespeare festival and also the appointment of Jerry Patch as Globe artistic director, O’Brien remarked, “Darko brings the Shakespeare festival his intelligence and original vision. What we’ve been missing is Jerry Patch.” Patch left The Globe for the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2008. Tresnjak, who had been named co-artistic director with Patch, became the resident artistic director but never artistic director, and now he is leaving, too, according to the theater’s July 10 announcement. An interview request went unfulfilled. According to a spokesman for the theater spokesman, Tresnjak has been on vacation since the final work in the summer repertory, his staging of “Coriolanus,” which opened July 5. Tresnjak is also represented this summer at the Globe by “Cyrano de Bergerac,” which closes on Sept. 27. Tresnjak deserves every rhapsody ever sung about his work. I remember the accessible Tresnjak coming to an interview the first year of the Shakespeare festival, lugging his enormous production book. He was so enamored of imagery that sometimes he went a bit too far, but he was always worthy of forgiveness. Even his most outrageous excesses were brilliant. He is a sweet, giving soul, filled with love of the art. His leaving is a great loss for The Old Globe and a great tragedy for the city of San Diego. This writer trekked to the Los Angeles Opera for his production of “The Birds,” whereupon he exclaimed, “Oh, it is so good that someone from home came to see my opening!” She will undoubtedly trek to Oregon Shakespeare Festival next summer to see his “Twelfth Night.” Over six festival seasons, Tresnjak developed a core company of much-admired actors, among them Celeste Ciulla, Charles Janasz, Katie MacNichol and Bruce Turk. When announcing Tresnjak’s departure, Globe executive producer Louis Spisto also announced the appointment of former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Adrian Noble as artistic director of the Old Globe Shakespeare Festival for the summer of 2010. Hopes are high for the acclaimed Noble. Meanwhile, Tresnjak will be fine between directing the classics and opera. He made his London debut last season with a critically acclaimed production of “The Merchant of Venice,” which he originated at New York’s Theatre for a New Audience. Think about the excellence of Tresnjak’s productions at The Globe: “The Pleasure of His Company,” “All’s Well That Ends Well,” “Bell, Book and Candle,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Titus Andronicus.” Some live only in memory. But there is still time to catch “Cyrano” and “Coriolanus” before the season ends in September. Check them out at www.theoldglobe.org or phone (619) 23-GLOBE.