Theaters tap directors

Harris, Mitchell chosen to lead legit outfits

By MARKLAND TAYLOR

SOUTHBURY, Conn. - Two New England summer theaters have announced the appointment of new directors: Alison Harris has been named executive director at the Westport Country Playhouse, and Gary Mitchell was tapped managing director of the Barrington Stage Co. in Great Barrington, Mass.

Harris assumed her new duties on Dec. 4, replacing Elissa O. Getto, who resigned after one season with the Playhouse as part of its new all-female management. Harris will join artistic director Janice Muirhead and artistic advisory council co-chairs Joanne Woodward and Anne Keefe in running the theater.

Mitchell will take over at the Barrington on Jan. 8. He is the former associate a.d. of Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, Mass. He has produced or directed more than 70 professional productions and has extensive experience in developing plays and in writing for theater and film.

Harris was managing director of the McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J., from 1979 to 1987, but she will be no newcomer to Connecticut when she relocates from Princeton to Fairfield County. She spent most of the 1970s as an administrator and assistant at New Haven's Long Wharf Theater.

Harris has also been treasurer and an executive committee member of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT), and has been on the board of directors of Theater Communications Group, the national service organization for nonprofit theaters.

The Barrington Stage Co. also has promoted business manager Bonnie English to the newly created position of general manager. English joined the BSC in May after a 23-year career in banking in New York City and the Berkshires.