Children’s Theatre names new managing director, part of a major leadership change for the Minneapolis institution

The Children’s Theatre Company has named a new managing director to lead the organization’s operations, marking a summer of significant transition for the Minneapolis theater.

Incoming Children’s Theatre Company managing director Jill A. Anderson smiles in this undated portrait. Anderson, previously the managing director of Syracuse Stage, has established a reputation for overseeing savvy financial and reputational growth, theater officials said. (Brenna Merritt / Children’s Theatre Company)

Jill A. Anderson will assume the role July 22, just a few weeks after incoming artistic director Rick Dildine takes over the top creative post at the theater.

Anderson has served as the managing director of Syracuse Stage since 2016, and has established a reputation throughout her career of boosting theaters’ profiles while overseeing financial growth, CTC officials said.

Previously, she managed the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut and Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. While a college student at the University of Minnesota, she also worked in sales at CTC and as a stage manager at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. She’s a native of Marshfield, Wisconsin.

Anderson takes over the role of managing director from Kimberly Motes, who departed last year to become executive director of the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.

Motes joined CTC in 2016 at a time when the theater was facing several lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse in the 1970s and ‘80s; the theater eventually settled those claims in 2019. During her tenure, Motes and outgoing artistic director Peter Brosius kept the theater on stable financial footing and supported significant growth in partnerships and commissions, theater officials said previously.

“Jill (Anderson) is one of the most distinguished executives in the American theatre, and I am delighted that she will be joining me this summer to embark on a new adventure at Children’s Theatre Company,” Dildine said in a statement.

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