About Us

Sheldon Epps

Sheldon Epps (Artistic Director) has been Artistic Director of the renowned Pasadena Playhouse since 1997. Before beginning his tenure at The Playhouse, he served as Associate Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre for four years. He was also a co-founder of the off-Broadway theatre, The Production Company.

Mr. Epps has directed both plays and musicals at many of the country’s major theatres including the Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, the Guthrie, Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, and the Goodman Theatre. He conceived the highly acclaimed musicals Play On! and Blues In the Night, which both received Tony Award nominations. He directed productions of both of those shows on Broadway, in London, and at theatres around the world.

Mr. Epps has also had a busy career as a television director, helming episodes of shows such as “Frasier,” “Friends,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Girlfriends” and many others. For more than a decade, he served as a member of the Executive Board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Mr. Epps received the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for his efforts and accomplishments at The Pasadena Playhouse. Under his leadership, The Playhouse has earned distinction for productions of artistic excellence, critical and box office success, and highly praised theatrical diversity.

Charles Dillingham

Charles Dillingham (Interim Executive Director) Charles Dillingham brings to The Pasadena Playhouse over forty years of senior executive experience in performing arts management as well as teaching, executive coaching and consulting. He has led some of the largest performing arts institutions in the country and partnered with several leading artistic directors. At Center Theater Group he supervised all development, marketing, administrative and financial operations for the company’s three theatres – the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Prior to CTG, he was CEO of the Entertainment Corporation USA, presenting commercially the Bolshoi Ballet and Opera, Kirov Ballet and Opera and the Royal Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House and arranging American tours. He was Executive Director of American Ballet Theatre during Mikhail Baryshnikov’s tenure as Artistic Director, supervising ten television films, seventy-five new stage productions and tours to Paris and Japan. He previously served as Managing Director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Theatre Company and worked closely with Artistic Director William Ball at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. He began his career at the Yale Repertory Theatre and the Williamstown Theatre Festival with their founders Robert Brustein and Nikos Psacharopoulos. Mr. Dillingham holds a BA from Yale and a MFA from the Yale School of Drama. He resides in Pasadena with his wife, Susan Clines, an executive at the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association.