Jan. 29--Ernie Nolan, the artistic leader of the Emerald City Theatre company, said Friday afternoon that he had been asked to leave his position as artistic director of the children's theater company.
"It was explained to me that Emerald City has decided to take a different approach to company leadership and asked me to step down as artistic director," Nolan said Friday. "I've cherished the almost 10 years I've been with them and appreciate the opportunities they gave me to grow as an artist. They are, and will always be, my family. I wish the new team the best of success."
Emerald City Theatre Company, a non-Equity theater, has an arrangement with Broadway in Chicago and frequently produces shows at the Broadway Playhouse in downtown Chicago.
Nolan has directed regularly for the company, most recently for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" at the Broadway Playhouse. Nolan also works as an assistant professor at the Theatre School at DePaul University and is the vice president of Theatre for Young Audiences USA. In 2014, he received the Illinois Theatre Association's award for Excellence in Theatre for Young Audiences.
Karen Cardarelli, the co-founder, executive director and board member of Emerald City said in an interview Friday that the board of the company "had decided to go in a different direction." Cardarelli said the new artistic director would be Jacqueline Stone, currently the company's education director. Stone is also the artistic director of TUTA Theatre Chicago and will continue in that role.
Cardarelli described Stone's ascent as a "natural evolution for the company."
