Ben McGovern / Photo provided by the Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie's associate director of studio programming, Ben McGovern, has resigned. His last day was Friday.

McGovern has been in charge of programming plays at the Guthrie's black-box studio theater for the past four years.

On Wednesday, both the Guthrie and McGovern said that the parting was amicable. McGovern said that he gave up the plum job because he is, at heart, "an artist, not an arts administrator."

"I appreciate the opportunity to work with some great people," he said. "I've had the best education about the theater locally and nationally that I could ever hope for. But at the end of the day, I took this flying leap because it's the right thing to do."

At the Guthrie, McGovern worked with Twin Cities and national companies interested in renting the 200-seat flexible space. He also directed some studio shows. His production of Adam Rapp's "The Edge of Our Bodies," starring Ali Rose Dachis, was a 2011 highlight.

During his tenure, McGovern ushered some of the Twin Cities' most inventive troupes, including Live Action Set and Pillsbury House Theatre, into the 9th-floor Dowling Studio.

The Guthrie is seeking a replacement for McGovern, who already is in the rehearsal room elsewhere. He is directing Carson Kreitzer's "Flesh and the Desert" for Workhaus Collective. It opens Jan. 20.

A Twin Cities native, McGovern, 39, spent a year at the University of Iowa before coming back home to work in the theater. He interned at the late Theatre de la Jeune Lune and served a stint programming the Bryant-Lake Bowl.

"I'm from this community and am living in the house where I grew up," he said. "I'm not going anywhere."