Chutzpah! Festival Announces New Artistic Managing Director

Jessica Mann Gutteridge.

The Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver has announced Jessica Mann Gutteridge as the new Artistic Managing Director of the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre and Chutzpah! Festival. The position was previously held by Mary-Louise Albert, who is leaving after 15 years.

Jessica Mann Gutteridge joins the JCC from Boca del Lupo, where she managed Performance Works on  Granville Island. She was also a founding board member of the Granville Island Theatre District. She held positions of Managing Director and Education Manager at Carousel Theatre for Young People. Her work as a dramaturg has included new plays for young audiences and playwrights from Shakespeare to Genet to Edwin Sánchez. She received her MFA from the Yale School of Drama’s Department of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism and studied directing at Wesleyan University.

Born and raised in New York, Gutteridge returned to the theatre after nearly two decades as a lawyer specializing in advertising and trademark law. At Columbia Law School, she was editor-in-chief of the Columbia-VLA Journal of Law and the Arts. Her non-profit board work has included serving as Co-President of Landmark on Main Street (a performing arts and community centre on Long Island NY), the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, and the Bayview Treehouse Preschool. She was a member of the 2018-19 Cultural Leadership Program at the Banff Centre, Alberta.     

"I look forward to continuing to bring diverse, world-quality artists to present their work to Chutzpah! Festival audiences, and to reach a new generation with exciting performances,” says Gutteridge. "I am also delighted to steward the Rothstein Theatre as a gem appreciated by professional artists and community members throughout Metro Vancouver.”