New artistic director at Philly’s Inis Nua Theatre Company

Inis Nua Theatre Co., a Philadelphia-based company that draws its material from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, has named longtime Philly theater director Kathryn “KC” MacMillan as artistic director.

MacMillan doesn’t hesitate answering the obvious question about Inis Nua.

At a time when many theater companies are focusing on stories by and about people in the Black, Latino, and Asian communities, is there really room for a company focused on the British Isles?

“Good question,” she responded instantly. “Yes.”

“There are stories of [the African] diaspora, tensions of immigration, and the diverse communities in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales,” she said. “Part of what drove Brexit,” she continued, “was a traditionally homogenous culture feeling a distrust towards communities that had been immigrating to England.”

The emphasis on diverse voices is not new for Inis Nua. It’s been including diverse creative works in its season for several years, such as A Hundred Words for Snow in 2020 and Untitled in April 2019.

Playwrights and theater companies in the British Isles continue to grapple with these topics. “Those playwrights are diverse, and those stories are diverse,” MacMillan said.

“The issues are different in some ways, but not in all the ways,” she said. Even if the underlying tensions are familiar to Inis Nua’s Philadelphia audiences, seeing the stories set in the British Isles gives theatergoers some breathing room to absorb the ideas.

William Shakespeare used the same tactic — setting stories with controversial ideas for his time — in ancient times and faraway places, MacMillan said.

MacMillan replaces Inis Nua’s founder and artistic director Tom Reing, who is dealing with health issues. Reing, now artistic director emeritus, will remain on the company’s board.

MacMillan will keep her position as producing artistic director of Tiny Dynamite, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

She has directed more than 50 plays, including the Tiny Dynamite production of The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged, which she cowrote. This summer she directed Shakespeare in Clark Park’s production of The Taming of the Shrew.

Inis Nua opens its season Oct. 26 with Ten Dates With Mad Mary.