Avery Willis Hoffman, an accomplished theatre producer, artistic director and performance curator, has been appointed as the Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director of Court Theatre, effective Nov. 1. In this role, she will shape and implement the theatre’s artistic vision and programming.
With a lifelong commitment to performance, Hoffman began her professional stage career at age 12 and has since built a career spanning directing, dramaturgy, producing and working closely with artists to incubate cross-disciplinary performance projects. Her academic grounding in ancient Greek and Roman drama and Shakespeare, along with her sustained approach to storytelling as a tool for inquiry, connection and transformation, aligns with Court Theatre’s mission to reinterpret classic works for contemporary audiences.
“Avery brings an extraordinary breadth of experience and a deep commitment to the transformative power of theatre,” Provost Katherine Baicker said. “Her vision and leadership will build on Court Theatre’s tradition of excellence while opening new pathways for artistic innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement. We are thrilled to welcome her to the University.”
For nearly two decades, Hoffman has collaborated extensively with director Peter Sellars on global theatre, opera and dance productions including Shakespeare’s Othello, Mozart’s Zaide and Toni Morrison’s Desdemona, along with cultural festivals such as the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna. She also served as international tour producer for Park Avenue Armory’s FLEXN, a collaboration among Sellars, choreographer Reggie “Regg Rocc” Gray and the Brooklyn flex dancing community.
Her theatre practice has been shaped by wide-ranging leadership across the arts, including her most recent role as the inaugural artistic director of the Brown Arts Institute and professor of the practice of arts and classics at Brown University. There, she led the opening of The Lindemann Performing Arts Center and curated its first season.
While at Brown, she launched several major initiatives, including the Artistic Innovators Collective, a gathering of local, national and international artists across disciplines; IGNITE, a multi-year, campus-wide arts series; and ArtsCrew, an arts workforce development program. She also curated faculty and student collaborations and residencies with artists such as Theaster Gates, Carrie Mae Weems, William Kentridge and Tanya Tagaq.
Previously, Hoffman was the inaugural program director at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City, where she developed public programs focused on artistic experimentation and the arts as stimulators of civic dialogue. She led content development for the permanent exhibitions of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., as part of her work with the interdisciplinary team at Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Her early career also included roles at New York City Opera, Clinton Foundation, TED and Focus Features, all centered on storytelling, culture-building and community engagement.
Hoffman holds a D.Phil. and MSt. in classical languages and literature from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar, and a BA in classics and English from Stanford University.
She will succeed Charles Newell, who served as Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director for three decades.
“I am deeply honored to join Court Theatre and the University of Chicago at this pivotal moment in the history of both Court and our nation,” Hoffman said. “Like the ancient Greeks, I believe theatre belongs at the center of civic life, with the transformative power to illuminate human nature, challenge assumptions and inspire resilience. I’m excited to build on the legacy of my predecessors, Nicholas Rudall and Charles Newell, and to collaborate with Court and University leadership, staff and faculty to reimagine how we understand and stage the classics.”