Michael Gennaro, the executive director of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company for the last seven years, has accepted the position of president and chief executive officer of the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J.
Gennaro, a former actor and the son of the late choreographer Peter Gennaro, is expected to leave the Chicago area in April to take up his new job.
He will succeed the retiring Angelo Del Rossi at Paper Mill. Steppenwolf, meanwhile, has created a search committee to look for a successor to Gennaro.
“Ninety-eight percent of the reasons for my leaving Steppenwolf are to be closer to my family,” Gennaro said.
In a statement, artistic director Martha Lavey said that Gennaro was “a dear friend” and that “Steppenwolf is better for his having been here.”
Gennaro presided over the theater getting the National Medal of the Arts and the transfer of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to Broadway. He’s also widely credited with stabilizing the theater’s management and maintaining strong relationships with the theater’s intensely involved founders and ensemble members.
Although both are large non-profit theaters, Paper Mill and Steppenwolf are very different theatrical beasts.
The New Jersey theater, which has a subscription base and programming philosophy similar to the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, specializes in musicals and other commercial fare and enjoys a great deal of attention from the New York press and a close relationship with Broadway. Name performers from New York frequently appear on its stage.
The current Paper Mill season includes revivals of “Camelot” and “Grease,” both of which are far removed from Steppenwolf’s more experimental diet of serious plays, adaptations and new works. Paper Mill also does not have any equivalent of the illustrious Steppenwolf ensemble.
Nonetheless, the 1,200-seat Paper Mill is a great deal larger than the Steppenwolf. Paper Mill’s budget is $20 million compared with Steppenwolf’s $10 million, and its subscription base of 32,000 is 10,000 higher than the Chicago company.
Steppenwolf, like most non-profit regional theaters, divides its management structure into artistic and executive directors.
By contrast, Gennaro will have overall responsibility for the entire Paper Mill operation.
In other Steppenwolf news, the theater said Tuesday that Martha Lavey will not play the lead role in the July production of Tony Kushner’s “Homebody/Kabul.” Ensemble member Amy Morton will take her place.
