For the past three decades, Louis Tyrrell has been producing new, often American, plays at Florida Stage and more recently at its informal offspring, Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach.
On Monday, three days after he opened Allison Gregory’s world premiere, Uncertain Terms, the final play of the theater company within the performance venue’s fourth season, he unexpectedly announced that he was resigning. His tenure as artistic director will conclude at the end of March, after which he expects to focus on working with youngsters geared to careers in the theater and on freelance directing assignments.
After Florida Stage declared bankruptcy in 2011, following an unsuccessful relocation within the Kravis Center complex, Tyrrell created Theatre at Arts Garage, a storefront, cabaret-seating space where he introduced plays by Israel Horovitz, Daniel Maté, Carter Lewis, Sarah Treem and many others, with minimal production values. “This has been such a good adventure, these four seasons, a delight in determining what a new model might be for producing new work,” he said this week by phone. “For which there is, understandably, a smaller audience.”
Still, Tyrrell characterized the Arts Garage venture as a success, and there is no suggestion of financial difficulty or question about its future. “I have no doubt that it will continue and prosper,” he said. “They will no doubt expand on what we have built, and I will have the opportunity to try to find new ways to proliferate this thing that has diminished since the economic downturn,” a reference to the production of the new, challenging plays on which he has built a career.
He denied that his decision has a specific cause, but now that Theatre at Arts Garage has a firm footing, he plans to devote himself to the Youth Engaged in Storytelling (YES) lab education outreach program, working with theater career-minded youngsters, and to directing and producing plays on a freelance basis. Tyrrell sounds determined to remain in South Florida. “Well, I love it here. This is where I live, this is my community,” he said. “I’d like to try to find ways to do it right here at home.”
Although he turns 65 this August, Tyrrell is not thinking about retirement. “Well, y’know, I’m an old guy, but I’d like to think that I will continue to have a purpose and a place,” he said. Nor is his health a factor in his resignation. “No. no, I couldn’t be healthier,” said Tyrrell, who had a bout with cancer over 10 years ago, but has been free of the disease since 2005.
The Arts Garage is in expansion mode, taking over the adjacent Puppetry Arts Center and converting it into a second performance space. Tyrrell indicated that the construction project will probably preclude having theater productions at the Garage this summer. A more important priority will be selecting a new artistic director for the theater, which Tyrrell will not be involved in.
“That’s going to have to be (president/CEO Alyona Ushe) and the board’s call,” he said. “There are wonderful talented people in the community who deserve an opportunity to continue what we’ve begun.
“It’s all good,” he said. “The best is yet to come.”