Lindsay Smiling Appointed Solo Artistic Director of Wilma Theater

Broadway + NYC

Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Off Broadway

Cabaret

Dance

Opera

Classical Music

Eastern

Central

Western

West End

WEST END

UK Regional

International

Canada

Australia / New Zealand

Europe

Asia

Latin America

Africa / Middle East

Entertainment

TV/Movies

Music

Smiling will lead the Tony-winning Philadelphia company alongside managing director Leigh Goldenberg.

POPULAR

Get all the top news & discounts for Pennsylvania & beyond.

Philadelphia-based, Tony Award-winning theater company Wilma Theater (265 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107) has announced a change in its leadership and names Lindsay Smiling as its Artistic Director.

After serving three years as a Co-Artistic Director, he will lead the organization with Managing Director Leigh Goldenberg. The change in leadership is effective August 1. An original member of the HotHouse Resident Acting Company, performing artist, and director, Smiling shares the theater's core values and brings a bold artistic approach, ability to take risks, and a profound commitment to ensemble practice. His appointment as sole Artistic Director embodies the Wilma's commitment to the HotHouse, its audiences, and its 50-year legacy in Philadelphia.

“It's a real honor to step into the role of sole Artistic Director at the Wilma Theater and help lead it into this next chapter,” said Smiling. “The Wilma has shaped me in so many ways, both as an artist and as a person. After more than 20 years in relationship with this theater, I have such deep respect for what Co-Founding Artistic Directors Blanka and Jiri Zizka built and for the impact they've had on Philadelphia. Over the last six years, the Wilma has gone through an important period of transition, thanks in large part to James Ijames , Morgan Green , Yury Urnov, and Leigh Goldenberg. Their leadership has meant so much to the theater. Looking ahead, I'm excited to keep growing the Wilma's reach and ambition with the HotHouse Resident Acting Company at the heart of the work, in deep collaboration with the playwrights, directors, designers, and guest artists who shape every production alongside them.”

An award-winning Philadelphia-based actor, director, and educator, Smiling has played a major role in shaping the Wilma's artistic identity both on and offstage. Since making his Wilma debut in Arthur Miller 's Resurrection Blues under Jiri Zizka in 2003, he has appeared in more than 20 productions and became a founding member of the HotHouse Resident Acting Company. Smiling made his Wilma directorial debut with the 2025 production of The Half-God of Rainfall, and is directing and starring in The America Play – onstage now through May 31. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and is a founding member of the Black Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia.

Originally co-led by Blanka and Jiri Zizka , the Wilma formed a cohort of artistic leaders in 2020 comprising Morgan Green , James Ijames , and Yury Urnov, with Blanka in a rotating leadership model. This shared leadership model supported the Wilma through the global pandemic and Zizka's retirement, and produced extraordinary art. Ijames departed the Wilma in 2023, at which point Smiling joined the cohort, reforming a direct link between HotHouse and artistic leadership.

Under their stewardship, the Wilma successfully pivoted to acclaimed digital theater, earning national recognition for productions including Heroes of the Fourth Turning and James Ijames 's Fat Ham, which The New York Times praised as part of the Wilma's “beautiful film-stage hybrids.” Ijames's inventive take on Shakespeare's Hamlet later won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and earned five Tony Award nominations during its 2023 Broadway run, with the Wilma serving as co-producer. The Wilma's decades of work staging living, adventurous art led to the theater receiving the 2024 Regional Theatre Tony Award, marking the first time a Pennsylvania company received the award. The award recognizes a regional company that has demonstrated continuous artistic achievement and contributed to the growth of theater nationwide.

Smiling's appointment as sole Artistic Director further centers the HotHouse as the Wilma's artistic engine, and, alongside Goldenberg, positions the Wilma for continued creation of bold, adventurous art in Philadelphia for another 50 years.

“The Wilma's art and artists inspired me to join the company in 2020 after seeing the impact the HotHouse actors have had across the city,” said Goldenberg. “In partnering with such visionary artistic leaders over the past six years, we've iterated our organizational structure to reflect the risk-taking and collaboration that define the Wilma's theater-making process. I'm honored to share leadership with Lindsay in this next phase, supporting his artistic goals, caring for the people of the Wilma, deepening our connection with Philadelphia audiences, and building alliances with colleagues locally, nationally, and internationally.”

The change is part of an ongoing evolution at the theater, allowing the company to further invest in the HotHouse Company, its nationally recognized acting company. The decision was made by a search committee that included representation from Wilma staff, the board, and HotHouse Company Members, and was stewarded by MCA, the leading firm in Artistic Director placements at theaters across the country.

Smiling's fellow Co-Artistic Directors, Morgan Green and Yury Urnov, made indelible contributions during their tenures and will continue to serve in their ongoing roles through August 1. Green will return to New York to focus on her directing work, preparing for new theater projects as well as film and TV.

“ Lindsay Smiling 's dedication to the Wilma is unparalleled,” shared Green. “He is the passionate leader the Wilma needs to take it into its next chapter; he cares, and he listens. Over the last six years, the Wilma has been an incredibly fruitful artistic home, and I am grateful to the wonderful community of artists I've gotten to work with here.”

Urnov will remain a part of the Wilma's creative community as a Wilma Resident Director, focusing on artistic projects and international exchange. He is set to lead the theater's production of The Little Prince in November.

“The core, the heart, and the meaning of the Wilma is the HotHouse Acting Company, and Lindsay, as one of its brightest gems, who now also has three years of experience in co-leading the theater, is fully prepared to take on the Artistic Director's role,” said Urnov. “Lindsay is a perfect embodiment of the Wilma's aesthetics as an artist and of its ethos as a human. I'm glad to add that I will keep supporting the Wilma in the role of the Resident Director, focusing on what I love the most: making art and deepening Wilma's international exchange.”

Wilma Board Chair Katherine Kelton praised Smiling as an artist and leader whose history with the theater uniquely positions him to lead the organization forward.

Established in 1973 as The Wilma Project, the Wilma challenged the Philadelphia cultural community to create original theatrical productions and to develop local artists. Blanka and Jiri Zizka assumed artistic leadership of the organization in 1981, and within five years, the Wilma's audience had grown dramatically, driving a decision to expand the theater to a new home. As Philadelphia launched a plan to create an arts corridor in the early 1990s, the Wilma Theater was chosen for a new 300-seat theater located on Broad and Spruce Streets in Center City. Opening in 1996, the Wilma was the first new theater built in Philadelphia in 40 years and became a cornerstone of the new Avenue of the Arts.

In 2011, Blanka began formulating the Wilma HotHouse as a diverse ensemble of Philadelphia-based actors who would meet regularly to train their voices, bodies, and breath in pursuit of emotional richness, physical freedom, deep trust, and shared theatrical language. The official Wilma HotHouse Company was formed in 2016, opening the doors for the company to become an incubator for artistic experimentation. Now, after a decade of training, the ensemble has developed a unique methodology, and its distinctive performance style has become synonymous with the Wilma Theater . The continued development of the HotHouse Company fosters boundless curiosity through the creation process and limitless possibilities for the work that appears on stage.

The announcement of Smiling as Artistic Director coincides with the conclusion of the Wilma's 2025-26 season with the thought-provoking production of The America Play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks . Directed by and starring Smiling, the play is a daring exploration of fractured stories that shape our nation, written by one of the most influential contemporary American Playwrights , continuing the theater's season of interrogating the American experience. The Wilma invites audiences to celebrate Smiling as he takes the stage for The America Play, which runs in the 300-seat theater through May 31. Tickets are available online now.

This December marks 30 years since the Wilma first opened its theater on the Avenue of the Arts. The theater has remained dedicated to creating adventurous art, engaging artists and audiences in imaginative reflections on the complexities of contemporary life. The 2026-27 season features the world premiere production of Horsegirl & Cowdaddy, The Little Prince, The Animal Farm Project, and Mx. Rogers' Neighborhood: You Can Never Go Down The Drain. From allegory and fable to cabaret and documentary theater, these productions use inventive forms to invite Wilma audiences to consider how care, resistance, and imagination shape our personal lives and broader communities. Early Bird Subscriptions for the Wilma's 2026-27 season start at $120 for all four productions and are available until June 1.

Established in 1979, the Wilma Theater (265 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19107), recipient of the 2024 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is a non-profit theater company creating living, adventurous art engaging artists and audiences in imaginative reflections on the complexities of contemporary life. The theater presents bold, original productions representing a range of voices, viewpoints, and styles in order to develop the form and push existing conventions. Many of the roles in the Wilma's productions are cast from its acclaimed, award-winning resident artists, the HotHouse Acting Company, who meet weekly to train, read plays, and develop their artistry. The organization is currently led by a creative cohort of three co-artistic directors, Morgan Green , Lindsay Smiling , and Yury Urnov, and Managing Director Leigh Goldenberg. Learn more about the Wilma Theater and purchase tickets at www.wilmatheater.org .

Videos

POPULAR

Sign up for announcements, and exclusive discounts on tickets to your favorite shows!

© 2026 - Copyright Wisdom Digital Media , all rights reserved. Privacy Policy

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/philadelphia/article/Wilma-Theater-Names-Lindsay-Smiling-as-Sole-Artistic-Director-20260522)._