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May 2, 2003 UIS
announces new director of Sangamon Auditorium
With
more than 25 years of experience as a producer, presenter, and manager in
educational and professional theatres, Linn emerged as the top candidate
in a national search to fill the position.
She is currently the Director of the Fine and Performing Arts
Center at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, located in
southwest suburban Chicago. Linn was responsible for opening that center
in 1993. "Susan
Linn has the right mix of management skills, production expertise, and
experience in program presentation to take on the challenges of this
highly visible position," said UIS Provost Cheney. "We are
confident that she will succeed in carrying on the long tradition of
superb performance art programming at Sangamon Auditorium, and we look
forward to her arrival." Linn
succeeds John Dale Kennedy who announced his retirement in August 2002.
He has accepted a position as director of the Blanche M. Touhill
Performing Arts Center, now being constructed and expected to open in
September at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Jonathan
GoldbergBelle, who chaired the search for the new director, said of Linn,
"She brings a lot of energy, enthusiasm and experience to the
position. The search
committee was particularly impressed with her background in working with
academic programs. As we begin reevaluating the role of the auditorium on
our campus and in the community, we are sure that Susan will prove to be a
campus leader and will help guide our deliberations and actions." Before
going to Moraine Valley, Linn was artistic producer and owner of Soupstone
Productions in Downers Grove where she built and sustained a professional
children's theater company dedicated to producing quality children's
theater in the western suburbs of Chicago.
The company played to more than 75,000 children annually. From
1989-91, she was managing director of Drury Land Oakbrook Terrace Theatre
in Oakbrook Terrace, a tier-five Equity dinner theatre with an operating
budget in excess of $3 million. Linn
produced a season that included five major musicals, and presented a
concert series and a children's theatre series. From
1986-89, Linn was managing director of theatre operations at Loyola
University of Chicago. As a
member of the university's theatre department, she produced a mainstage
and a studio theatre series consisting of four plays each. Linn
has also worked as a theatre manager for South Suburban College in South
Holland and production coordinator for Streeterville Studios, the largest
professional recording studio in Chicago. Her
professional associations include being a legislative committee member of
the Illinois Arts Alliance, a board member of Palos Fine Arts Association,
a past vice president of the Illinois Theatre Association, and site
coordinator for the Illinois Arts Council, ArtsLink. She
earned a master's degree in applied professional studies at DePaul
University in Chicago and a bachelor's degree in theatre from Illinois
Wesleyan University in Bloomington. She has also received acting training
at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Kennedy has served as the auditorium's first and only director for the past 25 years. He is expected to leave UIS for his new position on June 30. Contact: Cheryl Peck, 217/206-6716
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University
of Illinois at Springfield Provost Michael Cheney has announced the
appointment of Susan W. Linn of Orland Park as Director of Sangamon
Auditorium, effective July 1.