University of California, San Diego professor Darko Tresnjak was on busman’s holiday the evening of Thursday, Dec. 6. First encountered and greeted while he was having dinner at The Prado, Tresnjak was on his way to see the Old Globe/USD MFA production of “Pericles, Prince of Tyre.” (Sabin Epstein staged the noteworthy student production at the soon-to-be-razed Cassius Carter Centre Stage. It closed Dec. 9.)
Tresnjak remarked that “things haven’t settled” since he was appointed the Old Globe’s new artistic director that morning. It’s been an exciting few weeks at the Globe. Founding director Craig Noel received the National Medal of Arts; an enhanced production of Jack O’Brien’s “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” settled in for its 10th annual run; and O’Brien became artistic director emeritus of the Old Globe.
Tresnjak joins the Tony Award-winning theater as artistic director, sharing artistic management with two-year resident artistic director Jerry Patch and completing a triumvirate comprising Tresnjak, Patch and five-year executive director Lou Spisto, whose title includes the initials CEO effective Jan. 1, 2008.
Triumvirate rule is not new to the Globe. One hopes this union will be as successful and harmonious as the former triumvirate. In 1981, Noel, who intended to retire, appointed a young whippersnapper named O’Brien as his successor. O’Brien became artistic director and Noel, who never truly left, became executive producer. Managing director Tom Hall made the third in what became a halcyon regime. Formerly a highly respected community theater in the winter that employed Equity actors for the summer Shakespeare Festival, the Globe became a year-round Equity company in 1982.
The company, which received the Tony Award for regional theater excellence in 1984, gained further national recognition due to O’Brien’s Broadway forays, which gradually increased in number and duration. The Globe claims a total of 19 plays and musicals sent to Broadway, including “The Full Monty” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” both mounted at the Globe by O’Brien, who has received Tony Awards for “The Coast of Utopia” and “Henry IV,” both staged at Lincoln Center, and “Hairspray,” now in London and on tour.
Though he retained his Globe title and continued working from afar on behalf of the theater, O’Brien moved his home base to New York several years ago. Last season he opened the Globe’s production of “Grinch” in New York. He will be honored for lifetime achievement by the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle in January at Sherwood Auditorium.
The Yugoslavia-born Tresnjak burst on the Globe scene with a resoundingly successful summer production of “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” in 2004. The following year he was appointed artistic director of the reestablished Old Globe Shakespeare Festival.
Of his new appointment as artistic director, Tresnjak said, “I’m thrilled. I love the city and I love the Globe.” The staff meeting in which the announcements were made was described as very calm. “Everybody knows me and knows Jerry.”
So it’s a smooth transition, a new year and a new regime for the Old Globe.