Jaws dropped late Friday afternoon, June 26, when the New York Occasions article broke: Hana S. Sharif, the primary girl of colour to guide Enviornment Stage, was resigning as Inventive Director simply three years into her five-year contract.
The night time earlier than, an area theater blogger who publishes underneath the moniker “Unprofessional Opinion” had acknowledged on Instagram that two sources informed them Sharif had been fired.
Instantly, rumors started to swirl. Was Sharif pushed out or did she stop? Who ought to be blamed for this parting of the way? And what was taking place behind closed doorways at Enviornment that led to this sudden flip of occasions simply hours earlier than the world premiere opening of Enviornment’s season nearer, CrazySexyCool: The TLC Musical?
DC Theater Arts interviewed greater than 15 present and former artists, directors, and employees members who labored with Sharif at Enviornment and at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the place she was Inventive Director from 2019 to 2023.
Whereas the precise circumstances that led to the Inventive Director’s separation from Enviornment Stage stay unclear, our reporting signifies that operations at Enviornment Stage grew to become more and more strained and unstable quickly after Sharif took the helm and remained that approach for a lot of the previous three years, though staffers provided differing views on the reason for the instability.
These interviews reveal sharply divided opinions about Sharif’s management. Whereas a number of describe her as an inspiring creative chief and advocate, a bigger group independently alleges a recurring sample of centralized decision-making, delayed approvals, public confrontations, unrealistic expectations, and an environment through which workers felt more and more reluctant to query management. A number of interviewees stated these patterns contributed to unusually excessive stress, declining morale, and important employees turnover.
DCTA reached out to Inventive Director Sharif and didn’t hear again. In Sharif’s resignation letter, she states that she resigned after she and the Board arrived at a crossroads outlined by “differing visions for the way Enviornment Stage ought to meet the longer term.” That resignation letter will be discovered right here.
DCTA additionally reached out to Enviornment Stage President and Govt Producer Edgar Dobie, who spoke with DCTA through Zoom, saying, “We’re shifting forward with confidence however acknowledging that one thing important has occurred. I did take what Hana expressed in her assertion to coronary heart, which is that she needs us to proceed to thrive and do nicely, so I believe that’s our job now. To give attention to the mission and simply maintain shifting issues ahead.”
Most of the folks interviewed for this text selected to talk anonymously as a result of they signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) when leaving employment at Enviornment. Others fear that talking out might jeopardize future job alternatives. Artists of colour, specifically, informed DCTA they might be seen in a unfavourable mild for talking out towards a fellow creative chief of colour.
Earlier than Enviornment: St. Louis Rep
Allegations of office battle underneath Sharif’s management arose previous to her appointment at Enviornment Stage, throughout her tenure as Inventive Director of The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (i.e., The Rep). An article within the Webster-Kirkwood Occasions titled “Rep’s Monetary Woes No Shock to Theatergoers” states that “many longtime workers of The Rep both left on their very own accord or have been changed throughout Sharif’s five-year span.… Many described a poisonous work setting.”
St. Louis-based artist CJ Cameron carried out in Homicide on the Orient Categorical, which Sharif directed at The Rep in 2023. In his recounting of that have, Cameron describes Sharif’s management fashion as intimidating, confrontational, and emotionally unsupportive. “I’m a grown man, and she or he actually harangued me to the purpose of tears earlier than a notes session within the theater at some point,” Cameron informed DCTA.
He described rehearsals marked by low morale and an absence of belief between the director and solid, with a number of conflicts that almost prompted actors to go away the manufacturing.
“I’ve by no means seen a solid of actors so collectively mistrust a director,” Cameron shared. “Each time Hana was wanted most as a director, she threw within the towel. I noticed her actively retaliate towards an actor of colour for calling out for a last preview after injuring herself backstage; I noticed her coldly dismiss an actor after struggling to assist them honor a selection Hana needed them to make; I noticed her stop on actors and intimacy coordinators throughout intimacy rehearsal, saying, ‘I don’t really feel it,’ and simply stroll out just like the folks within the room not matter and must get it proper by the point she’s again.”
Actor Kambi Gathesha, who labored with Sharif on The Rep’s 2021 manufacturing of Mlima’s Story, shares a distinct perspective. “She was an inspiring chief,” Gathesha informed DCTA. “What she needed to navigate as the primary manufacturing again from the pandemic was herculean so far as I’m involved. I believe she led with grace and our firm felt actually shepherded by her. She pushed in all the proper methods.”
Enviornment Stage
Now staffers and former staffers at Enviornment Stage are sharing equally conflicting accounts of their time working with Sharif.
“For all the things individuals are saying on social media, the true tales are a lot worse,” says a former program director who spoke on situation of anonymity. This staffer labored at Enviornment for over a decade and their last yr overlapped with Sharif’s first. “It was a very completely different setting,” they informed DCTA. “I had seen different management modifications at Enviornment. Individuals maintain saying, ‘Properly, that is what occurs when you might have a management change,’ but it surely’s not. It wasn’t excellent earlier than, however this was night time and day.” The supply describes the stress at Enviornment as palpable. “Former workers would go to and simply see it on our faces and ask, ‘What occurred?’”
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Firm Inventive Director Reggie D. White affords a distinct perspective on the instability inside Enviornment throughout Sharif’s tenure, attributing it to employees members’ resistance to the artistic and operational modifications and the upper requirements Sharif launched.
White labored with Sharif for 2 and a half years at Enviornment Stage, the place he was the Senior Inventive Producer after which Senior Director of Inventive Technique and Influence, jobs he describes as “to be at her proper hand.” Previous to that, White labored with Sharif at The Rep.
“I can’t converse to different folks’s expertise, however I’ve realized a lot from her and grown a lot as a pacesetter,” White tells DCTA. “Sure, she has extremely excessive requirements, however don’t you need that from leaders?”
At Enviornment, “there was a ‘That is how I work, and I’m not going to vary’ mentality,” White says. “She [Sharif] gave folks a number of choices to learn the way she needed to strategy issues, they usually have been mainly like, ‘No, I’m not going to do this.’”
Centralized decision-making, inaccessibility, and delayed approvals
One of the vital frequent criticisms of the Enviornment Stage office throughout Sharif’s tenure centered on what a number of former workers described as a centralized management fashion through which Sharif needed to make all last choices however was additionally steadily inaccessible, making it tough to acquire well timed approvals. Former employees members stated initiatives typically stalled whereas awaiting suggestions, solely to require important revisions shortly earlier than deadlines. Others say that delays resulted in canceled previews, late-night work periods, and deliverables not being prepared on time.
“There have been so many canceled first previews each season as a result of she insisted on approving all the things and was so late in getting suggestions to the designers that they couldn’t get the present prepared in time,” a former manufacturing staffer informed DCTA.
A former advertising staffer cited the 2024 manufacturing of Demise on the Nile, which Sharif directed. “She took six weeks off in the course of the summer season,” he stated. “She was speculated to be working from residence for a part of that, however nobody might come up with her.”
A number of interviewees alleged that Sharif needed to evaluation all the things from advertising supplies and grant functions to camp to T-shirts, artist housing provides, and workplace purchases earlier than choices might transfer ahead. “It was one factor after one other,” the previous advertising staffer says. “Piddly issues like interfering with the field workplace. We have been prepared for change, however not somebody who handled everybody like they didn’t know something.”
Jeremy Keith Hunter began working as a contract graphic designer at Enviornment in 2020 and was appointed employees multimedia designer in 2023. Hunter described what he referred to as “a broad cultural shift” following the departure of longtime Inventive Director Molly Smith. He stated the communications group would typically work on initiatives for per week or two earlier than supervisors returned from conferences with Sharif and directed them to vary course. Hunter notes that his supervisors have been typically “clashing and being pulled in each course. No matter was taking place in these conferences, there was a facet of micromanagement,” Hunter stated. “It took a very long time to get issues out the door.”
The previous manufacturing staffer stated employees steadily labored late as a result of essential choices remained unresolved throughout common enterprise hours. “We spent so many nights working till midnight as a result of she wasn’t accessible throughout the day,” He stated. “Lots of these nights have been screaming matches.”
The previous advertising staffer recalled one particular night when, he stated, Sharif knowledgeable the event division at 10 pm {that a} grant utility would should be accomplished by 10 am the next morning: “Hana would say, ‘Should you can’t discover somebody who will do it, I’ll discover somebody who can.’”
White acknowledged that, many occasions, submitting grant functions got here right down to the wire, however he says this was on account of delays attributable to staffers whose work didn’t meet the excessive normal Sharif anticipated, or by resistance from employees to adapting to Sharif’s new priorities and expectations.
White remembers a minimum of one time when he, Sharif, and advertising employees members have been at Enviornment till 4 am. He says this was as a result of the advertising division hadn’t completed the supplies for the season launch. “I see that extra as a gesture of generosity that she was keen to stick with them,” he says.
“It has turn into actually obvious to me — and I’ve witnessed this as Hana’s proper hand — that there’s a substantial amount of time wasted the place people at an establishment attempt to inform the creative director the best way to run the establishment. That may be a elementary misunderstanding of what the ocean change of government management seems to be like.”
Conferences and office tradition
A number of interviewees additionally described conferences with Sharif as annoying and uncomfortable, with a number of saying they ultimately grew to become reluctant to attend conferences together with her or requested that their supervisors attend in order that they wouldn’t need to be alone.
“Workers began having conferences inside weeks of her arrival about the best way to deal with conferences together with her,” the previous manufacturing staffer informed DCTA. “I used to be a defend for my employees, and it took a toll on my well being.
“I felt like I couldn’t be within the room together with her,” the supply added. “I felt like I used to be being gaslit and held accountable for issues I hadn’t finished. The individuals who assist her would say that she is simply setting her boundaries. But it surely felt to me like she’s simply actually good at manipulation. It was essentially the most poisonous work setting I’ve ever been in.”
The previous program director recalled attending a employees assembly early in Sharif’s tenure through which an worker who was residence with COVID participated remotely. “She grilled him for 2 hours concerning the price range like he was on the stand,” they recalled. “Two folks within the room have been tearing up as a result of it was so aggressive. She was yelling at him and berating him … and he was so sick.”
A number of former workers point out crying or seeing others cry within the office. “Individuals have been in tears on a regular basis,” the previous program director shared. “You possibly can’t work underneath that pressure for lengthy and never be affected.”
White acknowledged that he noticed folks depart conferences with Sharif in tears, however doesn’t suppose it was proper in charge her. “It’s not about her habits; it’s about their capability to obtain,” he informed DCTA. When requested for an instance of a time through which he noticed somebody cry at Enviornment, he recalled a gathering with a improvement one who ended up in tears as a result of the grant wasn’t prepared on time and Hana had notes on it.
Workers departures and morale
A number of interviewees state that there was an unusually excessive fee of employees turnover throughout Sharif’s tenure, as proof of declining morale amongst Enviornment Stage employees.
A comparability of Enviornment Stage’s employees listings revealed in February 2023 and June 2026 exhibits important turnover throughout Sharif’s tenure. Of roughly 72 named workers listed in early 2023, solely about 25 remained in June 2026. Probably the most dramatic modifications occurred within the advertising, communications, creative, and administrative departments, lots of which have been nearly fully rebuilt.
“Each few days somebody would pack up their desk and stroll out or be fired, the previous program director says. “Individuals would simply disappear on a regular basis. And numerous the time it was individuals who have been nicely revered.”
The previous manufacturing staffer says that workers who challenged management have been typically the primary to go away. “Everybody who stood up for themselves was ultimately taken out,” he stated. “She accepts no criticism, and she or he needs no questioning. The individuals who questioned why have been eliminated the quickest.”
The previous advertising staffer shared an identical story: “Inventive administrators need to make tough choices, however individuals are used to that. This was past that. She throws her weight round, fires folks with out motive.”
White acknowledges that there was employees turnover throughout Sharif’s time at Enviornment, however disagrees that Sharif’s management was the trigger. “A few of these attrition numbers being attributed to Hana really feel misleading,” he says, noting that he can consider only some dismissals that got here immediately from Sharif.
However staffers inform a number of tales of terminations that felt sudden, unexplained, and dismissive of the work that they had contributed to the group.
Hunter says that he was abruptly terminated with out clarification in 2024 and that the expertise completely altered his view of the theater trade. “They by no means cited a selected grievance and had no particular reprimand,” he says.
Hunter stresses that he’s not motivated by animosity for Sharif. He notes that he and others had excessive hopes for her management however says that the circumstances surrounding his dismissal and the dearth of communication left him devastated personally and professionally. Hunter remembers considering, “What had I finished that was so egregious to warrant the inhumanity of this dismissal?”
Staffers who stand by Sharif
However different staffers interviewed by DCTA recount very constructive experiences with Sharif. One present employees member, who requested to not be recognized as a result of she nonetheless works at Enviornment, says she was conscious of the strain there earlier than she started the job in early 2025. “It initially scared me away, however I discovered that I favored Hana. My supervisor left a month after I joined, and she or he warned me to be cautious of Hana, saying she lies. However I by no means skilled that. Each time I’ve needed to go to her to unravel an issue, it’s been a constructive expertise.”
This worker says that she has witnessed important employees turnover since she joined the employees, however attributes it to differing visions. “I’m group Hana. However the outdated guard of workers didn’t like that Hana is leaning into the industrial facet of issues, producing industrial, Broadway-bound productions. They favored the Molly Smith mannequin the place budgets have been smaller however so have been expectations.”
Raiyon Hunter is one other Enviornment staffer who says she has had a constructive skilled relationship with Sharif for a few years, first as an intern at The Rep, and now as Enviornment’s Casting Director/Line Producer. “In each experiences, Hana has actually helped me in how I see myself as an artist. My skillset has grown; she has invested in me personally, and that’s all I’ve seen her do with anybody who walked into Enviornment stage.”
Raiyon got here to Enviornment at Sharif’s invitation, and particularly due to her admiration for Sharif’s creative imaginative and prescient. “Hana shared numerous conversations about her desires and targets that impressed me to observe her imaginative and prescient. What she talked about felt like a kind of moments that was bigger than me. Coming to Enviornment Stage together with her felt like an opportunity to additional American theater normally.”
Sharif’s supporters inside Enviornment Stage fear that Sharif is being held to a double normal on account of her race and gender. “It’s tough for me,” White says, “to not draw a right away straight line to the individuals who stated comparable issues about Vice President Harris and Nataki Garrett earlier than she was pressured to go away her function at Oregon Shakespeare Pageant. It’s difficult for me to listen to a critique of Black femme management underneath a really strict microscope. Having excessive requirements will not be abuse. There are tangible examples of what office abuse seems to be like and having excessive requirements will not be abuse. I gained’t lie, her requirements are excessive, however that’s how she obtained the job. She was a rare artist and chief with excessive requirements.”
Raiyon is extra blunt about it: “If she have been a white girl or white man, there wouldn’t be this degree of pushback. I’ve labored underneath many who’ve been verbally and bodily abusive to employees, and I’ve by no means seen them be held to the stake this fashion.”
“She has large concepts and ambitions and supplies the instruments for all of us to succeed in that collectively,” Raiyon provides. “I take a look at all that’s being stated about her and different mentors who went by one thing comparable. It looks like a deterrent so younger black ladies like me don’t wish to attempt for these kinds of positions.”
HR assist or lack thereof
Staffers interviewed for this text repeatedly acknowledged that Enviornment’s Human Assets providers and Board of Trustees did little to intervene in office battle, even when assist was requested. A number of sources inform DCTA that Enviornment has gone by a number of iterations of HR management over the previous three years, at one level counting on an exterior HR agency that was accessible to Enviornment solely as soon as per week. (DCTA reached out to Enviornment for affirmation and was informed that they had no remark.)
One former contractor, a instructing artist who had been concerned with Enviornment’s “Voices of Now” program since 2011, wrote a letter to Enviornment’s Board of Trustees Chair, Catherine Guttman-McCabe, in June of 2024, alerting her to what he felt have been issues within the division. The letter learn, partially, “I’m extraordinarily involved about a few of the modifications which have been applied within the [name redacted] departments. I’m undecided how a lot the Board of Trustees is conscious of the huge upheaval that has occurred over the previous few weeks. Would you might have time to discuss this one night this week or any time right now?”
The contractor tells DCTA that the board chair didn’t reply however forwarded the letter to the HR division. He shares that he then spoke with HR “they usually simply gave me the runaround. It was not productive.”
Conclusion
None of this explains what lastly led to Sharif’s sudden resignation on June 26. Board members contacted by DC Theater Arts didn’t reply, and staffers can solely speculate on what occurred within the weeks main as much as the resignation.
In a public assertion launched on June 28, Enviornment introduced that Dobie would proceed to guide the group in his capability as President and Govt Producer till a seek for a brand new Inventive Director will be carried out within the fall. Within the Zoom name with DCTA, Dobie reiterated that objective. “We wish to take a while to do a strategic evaluation. It does make sense to have a strategic taking of inventory. We are going to do this over the summer season, and the search will come out of that course of.”
Enviornment Stage was based in 1950, serving to to launch America’s regional theater motion and turning into one of many first racially desegregated theaters within the nation. In talking with DCTA, Dobie frequently referred again to Enviornment’s mission and imaginative and prescient as a guidepost shifting ahead.
When requested how he would reply to these with heated emotions about Sharif’s departure, he replied, “I’d say, please give us some grace. Our mission and our core values stay our north star.”
SEE ALSO:
Further accounts of the work ambiance inside Enviornment Stage can be found on public boards together with this Reddit thread and this BroadwayWorld thread.
Hana S. Sharif steps down as creative director of Enviornment Stage (information story, June 28, 2026)
Learn the total resignation letter from Enviornment Stage Inventive Director Hana S. Sharif (information story, June 26, 2026)
New oral historical past reveals influential Enviornment Stage founder Zelda Fichandler (DC Theater Arts evaluation of Mary B. Robinson’s biography by Robert Michael Oliver, September 30, 2024)
Enviornment Stage names Hana S. Sharif as its new Inventive Director (information story, April 23, 2023
