The Cabaret Changes Hands—2013-14 team announced

The end of a Yale Cabaret season—20 shows, now all done!—means that one team of artistic and managing directors is moving on (and in most cases are als0 graduating for the Yale School of Drama) and next year’s team has been anointed.

This weekend, in the chatty “fire speech” period before performances of the season-closing social satire The Ugly One (see review below), the Yale Cabaret has been passing the torch. Outgoing Artistic Director Ethan Heard and Managing Director Jonathan Wemette have been announcing the names of their successors.

The Managing Director for the 2013-2014 school-year Cabaret season will be Shane Hudson, who was was an associate producer of last summer’s story-based Yale Summer Cabaret season and the producer of Milk Milk Lemonade at Yale Cabaret last fall, to name a couple of credits.

For the artistic directorship, the Cabaret is changing models from a single person to a team of three. This is not the first time this method has been used, but it’s notable this time that all three co-artistic directors—Whitney Dibo, Lauren Dubowski and Kelly Kerwin—are from the Yale School of Drama’s dramaturgy program. It’s not a given that this post tends to go to directing students, but that’s certainly been common. Having an artistic team that’s as devoted to the nuances of text as to those of staging will doubtless lead to some provocative and thoughtful programming choices.

Kerwin was the dramaturg for, and Dibo and Dubowkski were the co-directors of, the “promenade play” The Twins Would Like to Say at the Cabaret earlier this month. All three women have extensive Cabaret and Yale School of Drama credits, collectively ranging from the revival of The Yiddish King Lear to the Yale Rep show American Night—The Ballad of Juan Jose. There’s just the right mix of experience here, from down-and-dirty low-rent shows to pristine artistic displays. I’m excited already for whatever they come up with for next semester.