ACT head changes hats, becomes funding chair

Longtime ACT Theatre managing director Susan Trapnell is stepping aside to make room for a new top administrator: Jolanne Stanton.

The widely respected Trapnell is not leaving ACT but will take on a newly created position as executive director of endowment funding.

"An endowment is really what protects a nonprofit theater's future," said Trapnell, who plans to enlarge ACT's $2 million fund to an undisclosed sum in excess of $10 million. "A big endowment will make it possible for us to not have to make a lot of commercial choices in our programming."

Stanton, who will run the day-to-day business at ACT, is a Seattle resident who joined ACT's board of directors in 2006 and has worked on its strategic planning as a volunteer.

A founding member of a consulting consortium, Stanton is a consultant for nonprofit groups but has never managed a theater. Still, ACT board president Brad Fowler said he is "confident" her experience, and her inside knowledge of ACT, make her good fit for the post.

Trapnell managed ACT from 1982 to 2000 and later headed up the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. She returned to Seattle in 2003 and rejoined ACT during a serious financial crisis that threatened to close the theater. Under her guidance, ACT has reduced its deficit from $1.7 million in 2003 to $600,000 today. Trapnell says further reduction of the debt will occur soon, as part of the company's long-range plan.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com