Hana S. Sharif just replaced Molly Smith as Arena Stage’s first African-American artistic director.
She told WTOP, “Following in the great footsteps of the iconic Zelda Fichandler and the visionary Molly Smith, it is such a joy to be artistic director here at Arena Stage and something that in some ways feels manifested. I remember when I was 19 years old saying and writing down that one day I would be artistic director of Arena Stage, so it does feel like a gift to be able to lead this company in the next phase of its life.”
Her mother enrolled her in theater because she was a theatrical youngster, according to the Atlanta native. Sharif began writing plays as a youngster and, at the age of 17, produced and directed her first play, “Black Butterfly.”
She said, “This combination of poetry, movement, and monologues that I had written for my high school. … It really was this transformative, catalytic moment in my life. … It blew open my idea of what might be possible in terms of a career.”
During her sophomore year at Spelman College, she also started her own production company, Nasir Productions. “The chair of our theater department, who really was a foundational figure, left at the end of our freshman year,” she says. A group of us were sitting on the floor of my flat, discussing all of the work we wanted to do and just deciding that we could go buy it, make our own job, and learn by doing. We drew up a mission statement over pizza and soda and a few beers, and we were off.”
Even while pursuing her doctorate studies at the University of Houston, she continued to hone her theatrical abilities. She was even able to care for her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer at the time.
Sharif’s graduate degree introduced her to industry luminaries such as Edward Albee, who mentored her in playwriting, Sir Peter Hall, who mentored her in directing, and Stuart Ostrow, with whom she collaborated on new musicals. She went on to have a nearly ten-year career at Hartford Stage in Connecticut.
Sharif described how she hopped in a car with a former college roommate and drove cross-country on an experience that led to her current role. She had booked a thirty-minute interview with the assistant creative director, Christopher Baker, but the meeting lasted three and a half hours.
She moved to Boston with her husband after having her first kid and began working as a consultant. She received a phone call from a coworker who had learned she was no longer employed by the organization. He offered her a job, which she turned down.
“He said, ‘Let’s go to lunch.’… At the end of lunch, they were like, ‘Great, you’ve got the job,’ and I was like, ‘What job?’ … I worked for two years at ArtsEmerson,” she said.
She secured a job at Baltimore Center Stage after receiving a call from Kwame Kwei-Armah, the center’s creative director at the time. She accepted both the directorship of The Fourth Space and the job of associate creative director that he was seeking.
When Sharif joined the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in 2018, she became the first black woman to lead a major regional theater. When she heard Smith was leaving Arena Stage, she felt she had to take a chance.
“There was no way that I could not throw my hat into the ring. One, Molly is truly a visionary leader for the last 25 years. She’s been at the forefront of the field. As a woman coming up in the field, she really has been an inspiration for myself and so many other female artistic directors. … It felt like the universe was calling. For me, there was something almost spiritual about the opportunity. … I feel very fortunate and excited about the future,” she expressed.
Smith said of her, “I know her magic will be mesmerizing and I, for one, will be cheering from the audience,” according to a statement by Arena Stage.
Out of over fifty applicants, Sharif was the first pick of Arena’s eleven-person search committee, according to The Washington Post.
The board chair of the Arena Stage, Catherine Guttman-McCabe, told the news outlet, “She really checked all the boxes. We started with our North Star; we were looking for the best person in the country to be the next artistic director for Arena. And we found that.”