Southerland is Next’s Next Artistic Leader

BY Carrie L Kaufman

Jason Southerland

By the end of the year, Next Theatre will be firmly in the hands of new leadership. Kevin Heckman took the long-empty job of managing director over the summer, just as artistic director Jason Loewith was announcing he was stepping down. Now, another Jason—Jason Southerland—is taking over Next’s artistic chores.

Southerland is a 1997 graduate of Harvard/American Rep’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, and he founded and was artistic director of Boston Theatre Works, which he’s been running for 10 years.

But BTW’s run seemed to be over this past May, when the company announced it was out of money, and heavily in debt due to an over-ambitious run of Angels in America. The production won critical acclaim and nabbed two Elliot Norton Awards (Boston’s version of The Jeffs), but did not draw enough audiences or financial backing to keep up with the expense of producing in a larger, more high tech space.

“We were always on the verge of great success or total collapse,” Southerland told The Boston Globe at the time.

Now Southerland has joined a healthy, well-supported theatre, thanks largely to the work of Loewith, whose artistic success led to the off-Broadway production of The Adding Machine and whose management success led to the reduction of $95,000 in debt. (See PerformInk, June 6)

Southerland’s artistic choices at BTW have mirrored those at Next. Both theatres staged The Laramie Project in the same season (2001/02). BTW has also produced works like Homebody/Kabul, Pulp and Not About Nightingales. Southerland’s sample season, which he submitted as part of the interview process at Next, includes a production of Campbell Scott’s one man show, The Atheist, and a deconstructionist version of Night of the Iguana.

“He wants to do it smart. He wants to let the art lead,” said Next board president Judy Kemp. “And he’s big on engaging all our constituencies in the process,” including donors, subscribers, the Chicago theatre community. “He has a particularly strong interest in getting to know Chicago and particularly Evanston,” Kemp added.

Southerland was chosen from among three finalists, two from out of town and one from Chicago. “I think everyone felt comfortable with each of the three finalists as artists,” said Heckman, who is also PerformInk’s listings editor and Review Round-up writer. “It came down to how they would be as institutional leaders.”

And Southerland, said both Kemp and Heckman, was in sync with where Next wants to go.

“Part of our growth, as part of our strategic plan, is getting to a bigger space at some point, but we have to build the financial base to do it,” said Kemp. “We have to be smart about getting ourselves into the position of managing a capital campaign before we can get there.”

Southerland will start at Next on Nov. 17. He’s currently directing in Worcester, MA.