Southern Theater names music program director

News

Kate Nordstrum, Southern's current director of marketing and communications, will add the part-time responsibilities of curating musical performances to her duties there. Kate brings experience with booking and promoting music both at the Southern with events like The Wordless Music Series, and previously as marketing manager at Lincoln Center in New York.

This is the second of three positions to be filled at the Southern following the controversial departure of founding artistic director Jeff Bartlett. With Jon Furguson also on board to handle theater programming, the team will be completed by an as-yet unnamed director to focus on dance, the genre promised to remain the majority of Southern's offerings in the future. With much of the dance community paticularly concerned about the loss of Bartlett's vision and artist-centric insight, we wait "on point" to see who will step into those shoes.

Headshot of Leah Cooper
Leah Cooper

Leah Cooper is a freelance stage director, nonprofit administration consultant, co-founder of this here Web site, co-artistic director of Wonderlust Productions, and the Executive Director of the Minnesota Theater Alliance. She is also on the board of directors for Live Action Set and the California Institute of Contemporary Arts. From 2001 to 2006, she led the Minnesota Fringe Festival to annual attendance increases and financial stability. Up next, she is directing Shooting Star at Park Square Theatre and writing a play for Wonderlust's Adoption Play Project.