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After 20 years, Triad Stage exits stage left

Triad Stage, which offered professional theater productions in the Piedmont for two decades, is shuttering its doors.

The not-for-profit organization was poised to return to Greensboro last summer, following a roughly two-and-a-half-year COVID break. Leading the transition was retired Community Theatre of Greensboro Executive Director Mitchel Sommers. He was brought in to plot a path forward for the struggling regional company in the wake of former artistic director Preston Lane’s sudden departure amid sexual abuse allegations.

But then, in March of this year, the Board of Trustees announced the season’s suspension as it explored its options. Three months later, in a press release, the Board concluded that dissolving the organization is the only responsible option.

Triad Stage is among several long-running theater organizations across the country hit hard by the financial stresses caused by the pandemic. In 2020, the theater was running a $1.5 million deficit. The attempt to reopen was met by strong headwinds of the post-pandemic landscape with anemic donation revenue and houses averaging less than half full.

Details of the theater’s liquidation plan will be released later this summer.  

Before his arrival in the Triad, David had already established himself as a fixture in the Austin, Texas arts scene as a radio host for Classical 89.5 KMFA. During his tenure there, he produced and hosted hundreds of programs including Mind Your Music, The Basics and T.G.I.F. Thank Goodness, It's Familiar, which each won international awards in the Fine Arts Radio Competition. As a radio journalist with 88.5 WFDD, his features have been recognized by the Associated Press, Public Radio News Directors Inc., Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals, and Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas. David has written and produced national stories for NPR, KUSC and CPRN in Los Angeles and conducted interviews for Minnesota Public Radio's Weekend America.

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