Friday was a busy day behind the scenes for Oregon theater companies.

— In Ashland, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced an interim executive director following the unexpected departure of the E.D. who had taken over just last November.

— In Hillsboro, Bag&Baggage Productions announced a four-person artistic leadership team to take the place of its departing artistic director.

— And in Portland, the financially strapped Portland Center Stage announced progress in its multi-million-dollar emergency fund drive.

OSF names Javier Dubon interim executive director

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s board announced the appointment of Javier “Javi” Dubon, the company’s director of marketing and sales, as its interim executive director, effective June 23. He replaces Gabriella Calicchio, who, as Ashland.news’s Holly Dillemuth reported June 17, is on leave and is abruptly leaving the company effective July 1, after only seven months on the job.

“Transitional moments like these are never easy, but they can be moments of opportunity,” board chair Rudd Johnson said in a press statement. “They give us the space to reflect, to ask what’s best for the organization, and to move forward with renewed intention. This is a moment to realign with our values and set a clear course for OSF’s future as we begin the search for a permanent replacement.”

Since joining the festival in 2022, the press statement said, Dubon “has played a key role in rebuilding audience trust, stewarding the Festival’s public image, and helping OSF regain its footing and regrow its audience following the COVID-19 pandemic.” In his interim role Dubon will continue leading marketing and sales “while assuming broader leadership responsibilities in operations, finance, development, education, human resources, and information technology.”

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Tim Bond, the festival’s artistic director, said that Dubon “brings intellect, passion, and vision to everything he does. He understands the soul of this place. He understands our work on stage, our business model, and most importantly, our people. Javi leads by listening, by showing up, and by creating trust. He is a big-picture thinker who also knows how to execute with precision. His ability to blend strategy with data-driven decision making has been critical to our success.”

“We’re in a period of momentum,” Dubon said. “Audiences are returning. Our teams are growing stronger. We’re meeting and exceeding expectations, and we’re building real excitement again. My role as Interim Executive Director is to keep that momentum moving, to create the conditions for stability, creativity, and collaboration, and to help lay the groundwork for whoever steps into this role next.”

The festival’s release did not give a timeline for naming a permanent executive director.

Bag&Baggage names a new artistic leadership team

Hillsboro’s Bag&Baggage Productions, among the brightest and most innovative of suburban Portland’s theater companies, faced the surprise announcement in late May that its energetic producing artistic director, Nik Whitcomb, was resigning to move on from theater and begin a graduate degree program in Urban Planning and take on community engagement work with TriMet, as ArtsWatch’s Linda Ferguson reported in her DramaWatch column.

On Friday, the company said it plans to fill the gap with a four-person artistic leadership committee.

“The Board of Directors approved the creation of this committee chaired by Bag&Baggage’s founder, Scott Palmer, and including Board Chair Bianca McCarthy (former Executive Director of Echo Theatre Company), Company Manager Ephriam Harnsberger and Resident Artist Signe Larsen,” B&B said in a press announcement.

“This committee, composed of longtime artists, staff, and board members, will provide immediate artistic guidance and make key programming decisions while we pause a formal search for permanent artistic leadership. More importantly, the committee will lead a series of community conversations designed to put our audience and supporters at the center of the company’s next chapter.”

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Palmer, who founded the company and laid the groundwork for its forward-thinking personality, should provide good leadership.

The company will also be asking for the Hillsboro community to help define its next steps, the press release said: “These community conversations are an opportunity to hear from Hillsboro and think about questions like: What do you want from your hometown theatre company? What stories should we be telling? What role should Bag&Baggage play in the cultural life of Hillsboro?”

The company said it will announce details soon on how to take part in the community discussions.

Center Stage’s emergency fund: growing; needs more

In early May Portland Center Stage, the city’s flagship theater company, shocked theater followers by announcing it was in deep financial trouble and was launching a $9 million emergency fundraising campaign to get it out of the hole. Further, it said, it needed to raise $2.5 million of that by the end of August to keep its doors open and stage its 2025-26 season.

On Friday the company announced that so far it’s raised $1.5 million — still $1 million short of the drop-dead $2.5 million needed by the end of August, but a healthy start. The $1.5 million includes a $200,000 city commitment approved by the Portland City Council.

Still, the company is far from out of the woods. Its fundraising campaign continues here.

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