Chris Stafford, executive producer at Leicester’s Curve for the past two years, has been appointed the theatre’s new chief executive.
As executive producer he was responsible for overseeing all Curve productions, programming visiting companies and commissioning new work. He was lead producer on the musical adaptation of Sue Townsend's The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ The Musical which played to more than 17,000 people at the venue earlier in 2015.
Before arriving at Curve, Stafford was executive director of Brighton company dreamthinkspeak, producers of “site-responsive theatre”. His earlier career includes roles at Shakespeare’s Globe and Bristol Old Vic.
He said, “I’m honoured to be leading our terrific theatre into the next phase of development. Leicester is an exciting, diverse and vibrant city and I look forward to ensuring as many people as possible who live, learn and work across our region can engage with us here at Curve.
“It’s an incredibly exciting and pivotal time to be undertaking this role, with the recent appointments of artistic director Nikolai Foster and commercial director Alister de Ternant. I very much look forward to working with the board and our talented team to build our next chapter.”
Stafford replaces Fiona Allan who is to become chief executive of Birmingham Hippodrome.