"Rising Star" Director Peter DuBois Honed Skills at Juneau's Perseverance Theatre

Peter DuBois, the openly gay former artistic director of Alaska's innovative Perseverance Theatre Company and award-winning resident director at New York's acclaimed Public Theater, became the new Artistic Director of Boston's Huntington Theatre Company on July 1.

The San Francisco Bay Area Reporter calls DuBois "a rising star in the American theater" and compares his move to Boston with his move to Juneau:

Ben Bohen, his partner of 11 years, will keep their Brooklyn apartment as DuBois sets up another home in Boston for the Huntington job. They plan on commuting, but it won't be as difficult as when DuBois moved to Alaska to become artistic director of Juneau's Perseverance Theatre. 

"Ben finally came out to visit for the month of December," said DuBois, "which is one of the hardest months to be there, and he said, 'OK, I'll make the leap.' We lived together there for four years before I got the call from the Public." 

"Even in Alaska, which is an incredibly conservative state, I actually was very consciously keeping myself out [as a gay man] because it's a part of my identity that I'm really proud of."

The Huntington Theatre Company's profile of DuBois includes his work in Juneau:

Before being recruited to the Public, DuBois was artistic director of Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska. A mid-sized regional company, Perseverance is hailed for distinctive artistic boldness, innovation, and a dedication to its community and its audience. There, DuBois directed revivals of Beckett, Shakespeare, and Chekhov, and introduced modern-day works by Paula Vogel, Suzan-Lori Parks, and others.

The Boston Globe adds:

In a bold move to the furthermost reaches of the United States, DuBois took over where Perseverance founder Molly Smith had left off. It was at Perseverance that he honed his institution-building skills, cutting debt and raising $2.5 million in capital and endowment campaigns to make Perseverance Alaska's largest producing arts organization. He also brokered a relationship with the University of Alaska Southeast in which Perseverance would assume responsibility for all theater education activities at the college, offering minors to its students.

DuBois ran Perseverance from 1998 to 2003, beginning to make a reputation for himself as an up and coming American artist and institutional leader.

On WBUR, DuBois commented on his plans for the 2008-09 season:

"I've developed relationships at the Public and living in Europe and even in Alaska that are relationships that I plan to be bringing to the Huntington Theatre, and I think the programming is going to represent a really diverse range of what theater means."

Congratulations, Peter!