Press Release: August 16, 2021

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Greetings from Compass Rose as we begin our 2021-2022 Season!  

We have new leadership for our 2021-2022 Season.   Lucinda Merry-Browne, Founder and Artistic Director, is taking a leave of absence for the 2021-2022 Season.  Our new interim Artistic Director is Jim Bunzli.   For the last five years, Jim has been involved with our theater first as an actor, then as a director, then as a producing director.   He is a professor of theater at Loyola College who is on sabbatical this year.  He will be in charge of moving into our new space and producing and directing the shows as well as our educational activities until June of 2022. 

Here is some more information about Jim:

James began his career as Resident Artistic Director of the Mansfield Playhouse in Ohio. Since then, he has been active in the professional theatre as an actor and director. Credits include Everyman Theatre and Single Carrot Theatre (Baltimore), Mill Mountain Theatre, Wayside Theatre, and Theatre IV (VA), Idaho Repertory Theatre, and the Texas Shakespeare Festival. Since 2017, James has been working with Compass Rose as an actor (Pygmalion, Inherit the Wind) and director (Disgraced, Red). He is an Artistic Associate of the company and was named Producing Director in 2019.  

James has also taught Theatre and directed many productions at the University level for over 20 years, most recently at Loyola University Maryland where he is Associate Professor of Fine Arts/Theatre and just completed 10 years as Area Coordinator for the Theatre Program. His research has focused on Autobiographical Solo Performance; he has published articles, created new works with other performers, directed solo shows, and written/performed his own pieces. His work has been seen at theatre festivals in the US and Canada, including New York International Fringe, Thunder Bay Fringe, Minnesota Fringe, and Emerging Artists Theatre’s “One Woman Standing” in NYC. 

James holds a PhD in Theatre from Bowling Green State University and an MFA in Acting from the University of Texas at Austin.