Hana Sharif out as Artistic Director at Arena Stage

An interesting development for sure

NY Times Article

Interesting but welcome. Sharif’s departure should not be surprising to anyone familiar with the internal reality (and horror) of her tenure. Arena Stage saw extraordinary staff turnover, persistent instability, and a leadership culture that left many people exhausted, confused and demoralized. She was left completely unchecked by the board or anyone else. This was not occurring in a vacuum either; her prior institution in St. Louis later faced a $2.5 million budget shortfall and canceled productions⁠. Arena Stage had a $1.8m deficit last season according to its most recent 990.


Any public outrage seems largely to be coming from people who admired her work from a distance, not those who had to work inside the organization she “led.”

CoffeeBreak said: "Yes, word on Sharif is not good. My understanding is this was not a resignation in truth - but she was given that opportunity. They should begMolly back to firm things up for a few years (if she'd even be willing) -- then get the RIGHT person at Arena. it's a wonderful space and place. They need to hire based on talent and ability and not for .... other reasons."

You're a self hating racist and it's really sad to continuously witness.

When the full story comes out, the people who knee-jerk rushed to defend her based on optics are going to look really stupid.

Exactly.

Ensemble 95 (who enjoys the neutral name to not have much of a real identity) is a suspected AI bot (see other posts) or a jerk who only goes after a select view people to elevate themselves while claiming racism etc (who don't know the real story). The reasons have nothing to do with race despite what people may want to claim.

The truth will come on this one.

Updated On: 6/28/26 at 03:25 PM

Hey simple minded one. You hating yourself and your skin is what I’m talking about. I’ve also heard Shariff was let go because she’s not good. I’m not saying it had to anything to do with her race. I’m saying it’s sad to see a self proclaimed “Black woman” suggest her Blackness it’s why she was hired.

Deflect with calling me a bot all you want. I wish you were a bot, it would make your sad commentary more explainable.

And continues to have the highest median income counties in the US.

I'm not surprised one bit by their lack of reporting on this. They gutted their arts and culture coverage this year, laid off many staff members including their theatre critic, and made it clear that this kind of reporting isn't important to them.

This is sad. Arena was a great place under the leadership of Molly Smith. Great shows, full houses, financial success, Broadway transfers, happy staffs etc. There was much change over after her departure due to Sharif and it seems the re-hires under her leadership were not good either. (and primarily, unhappy) Hopefully they will turn such a great venue around - it's possible. The building will be a better place with this change in the long run.

Updated On: 7/2/26 at 03:41 PM

I can understand the upset. But that article is hateful in and of itself. Myers does not have a much of a leg to stand on herself). But this is all about the job Hana didn't do - and chose not to do, well; -- and in the long run (after years at both institutions) put her in these positions. People of all ethnicities, religions and levels of her teams and staff agree on this, for the most part - unless they were close to or were propped up by her.

It's easy to be angry (and in many instances understandably so) but not here - it's harder to accept the truth of the situation that led to this and similar change ( in St. Louis).

Even more interesting is Myers hides all of the posts (at the bottom of the comments section) that do not agree with her. She appears to enjoy an echo chamber.

Updated On: 7/2/26 at 04:56 PM

I’m not sure how Nataki Garrett Myers’ angry, ranty essay is going to help anyone - including her. Yikes.

Anyway, it seems pretty clear at this point that Hana Sharif was disliked by a lot of people at Arena from the board down to her subordinates. The company was also losing a lot of money. These two things combined will get most people in leadership roles fired from their job. Was the fact that she is a black woman a contributing factor to her being disliked by colleagues and donors? Maybe? Who knows. “Everyone’s a little bit racist.” But my guess is if that she were nicer to people and her shows were better received, she’d still be working there.

Nataki Garrett bungled her tenure at OSF so badly that she basically made herself unemployable and had to rebrand herself as an executive coach. (Sharif is one of her clients, prominently featured on her website — natch.) She did experience genuine racism during her time in Ashland, but that doesn’t obscure the fact she was woefully unqualified for her position and likely would have been relieved of her duties had she tried to stay. She really is the last person who should be weighing in on this situation as she has less than zero credibility in this area, not to mention deep conflicts of interest.

Updated On: 7/2/26 at 05:59 PM