Chenango River Theatre is expanding its leadership team for 2025, splitting the role of Producing Artistic Director into an Executive Director and an Artistic Director. Beginning in November 2024, Paige Tripp will be Executive Director and Drew Kahl will be Artistic Director. According to a CRT press release, outgoing Producing AD Zach Curtis will “work in overlap” with Tripp and Kahl in a “carefully planned transition to ensure that the greater Binghamton area’s only fully professional non-profit theatre company is best positioned for continued growth in the coming years.”
Tripp has worked on 28 shows with Chenango River Theatre since 2009, starting as a backstage intern and working her way up to being the equity stage manager for most productions since 2010. Kahl is a professional director and actor and is a professor in SUNY Oneonta’s theater department. He has been a part of CRT since day one, appearing in the company’s first production, The Foreigner, in 2007. Since then, he has appeared in 18 CRT productions and directed eight.
In announcing the transition, Laura Knochen-Davis, board president, stated, “The CRT community truly appreciates Zach’s many talents and contributions both on and off the stage. We are thrilled that Paige and Drew will be leading CRT through many successful seasons to come.”
Curtis, who informed the board in June of his plan to leave his position, saw the organization through the three seasons immediately following the pandemic (2022-24) and succeeded in bringing attendance figures nearly back to 2019 levels.
Kahl and Tripp are already in the planning stages of the 2025 season, which will be announced in the spring. Before the transition happens, they will both be a part of CRT’s third show of the 2024 season, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Tripp will stage manage, and Kahl will play the role of Freddy, under Curtis’ direction. Curtis will then close out the season appearing as the title role in Macbeth.
