Thomas Proehl, the former managing director at the Guthrie Theater and ex-head of the Minnesota State Arts Board who left the Twin Cities two-and-a-half years ago for a job in San Francisco, is returning to the Twin Cities.
The Moorhead, Minn. native has been named the new producing director of the theater arts and dance department at the University of Minnesota. He starts in August. Proehl served as general manager of the Guthrie from 1999-2002, and then as the theater's managing director from 2002-2006, the period leading up to the building and opening of the Guthrie's new $125 million theater complex on the Minneapolis riverfront. He became head of the State Arts Board in December 2006, and the administrative leader of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in February 2008. At the U, he will oversee a program that "explores the relationships between the department of theatre arts and dance and the performing arts community," according to a release.
