Philadelphia Theatre Company names two co-artistic directors. Here’s their vision.

Philadelphia Theatre Company’s new artistic leadership comes as a package deal: a married couple who, together, will assume the role of artistic director.

Taibi Magar, an Egyptian American director, and her husband, Tyler Dobrowsky, a longtime expert in community engagement and new play development, will share a salary, an office, and lots of conversation — around the dinner table and elsewhere — about the future of one of the city’s oldest theater companies.

“Our pillow talk is always about theater,” she said in an interview, glancing toward her husband, before making a quick mid-description correction. “Or often about theater.”

They laughed.

They will each carry the title of co-artistic director, replacing Paige Price, who served as producing artistic director for five years and left at the end of the season. They officially begin their roles on Sept. 6 and are busy moving into their new home in Old City. At work, they will share an office on South Broad Street.

“We want to underline the Philadelphia theater community because we know and understand how powerful [it] is here,” Magar said in an interview at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, home to the Philadelphia Theatre Company. “We want to be a cheerleader for the work, both nationally and internationally. We are lovers of Philly and want to spread that love around the country.”

They had been scouting opportunities, but semi-reluctantly, since both have been devoted residents of Providence, R.I., where they met and where they both have worked the last 10 years as the associate artistic director and director of new play development at Trinity Repertory Co. in Providence.

Magar, a director with many productions on her resume, said she knew they would eventually have to leave to advance professionally, so she was glad to return to Philadelphia, where she had lectured at the University of the Arts. Another Philadelphia connection? She directed the Underground Railroad Game in its off-Broadway debut. Written by Philadelphians Jenn Kidwell and Scott Sheppard with Lightning Rod Special, a Philadelphia theater group, the play, which went on to tour nationally, was first presented to audiences in the 2015 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

PTC board chairperson Gary Deutsch, managing chief counsel at PNC Bank NA, acknowledges he was initially skeptical about the idea of co-artistic directors.

“I come from the corporate world where everybody reports up to one person,” he said. “And then on top of that, you have a married couple.”

What would happen, one could speculate, if the two of them ganged up on Emily Zeck, the managing director? Or what would happen if the two of them disagreed?

“But you have to look at the people in those positions,” said Deutsch. “I don’t feel there is a lot of ego there, and they all seem to have a drive for the mission.”

Magar and Dobrowsky said they pitched themselves as a package deal, so while they will be making more than the $150,000 set as the minimum for the position, they won’t be making even close to double. They said they are satisfied with their compensation and will be working hard to bring up pay for the rest of the staff.

Deutsch said that Magar and Dobrowsky “have a very unique skill set, with Taibi’s directing skills, and Tyler’s organizational skills. I think we ended up with a lot more for the organization than we originally set out for.”

While Magar will pay more attention to the artistic side of the enterprise — collaborating with directors, actors, and eventually incorporating her own work — Dobrowsky said his role will be to build community engagement, setting up education programs for young people.

Dobrowsky also led Trinity’s new playwright program (alums include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames, one of three artistic co-directors working just up the street at the Wilma Theatre). Building on that in Philadelphia is also part of the plan.

The couple said they will start by listening to try to learn how PTC can better engage the community. They will have a little time, as the company has already announced its 2022-23 three-play season.

The season opens with The Tattooed Lady, running Oct. 28 through Nov. 20. Music and lyrics are by Max Vernon, whose hit off-Broadway musical KPOP previews on Broadway earlier in October with its official opening on Nov. 20. The remaining PTC plays are Empathitrax in February and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill in April.

Meanwhile, it is already time for PTC to be looking ahead to the 2023-24 season. “As far as what our first play will be … well, knock on wood, we would love for it to be Macbeth in Stride, a new musical we premiered and codirected at A.R.T. [in New York City] last fall,” they wrote in an email.

Like most theaters, PTC is struggling to emerge from the pandemic. Ticket sales are down, and audiences have been slow to return. In addition, PTC has had its own financial struggles connected with its home in the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on South Broad Street.

For example, a second-floor studio envisioned as a revenue-generating intimate theater and event space, has never been constructed. Meanwhile, even running an empty theater is costly — $500,000 a year for utilities, insurance, and maintenance, said Zeck, who will remain running PTC’s business side of the nonprofit theater company.

In 2012, the company stopped making payments on its $11 million mortgage. In 2014, TD Bank foreclosed on the theater, but in 2015, the theater company was able to buy it back for $5 million. Of that, $3 million was raised from donors, including funding by a foundation started by Suzanne Roberts’ son, Comcast chairperson and chief executive Brian L. Roberts, and his wife, Aileen.

Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC) loaned the theater $2 million, with monthly payments capped by a balloon payment of $1.9 million due in 2020. With the pandemic, the theater was able to not only skip some monthly payments but negotiate lower payments going forward and delay the balloon payment until 2031, Zeck said.

“All theaters are struggling,” Magar said. If anything, she said, PTC is in better shape. “We wouldn’t have come here if we didn’t think [the board and community] could support our vision.”

Their vision incorporates the building. In some communities, theater companies are leaving their buildings, presenting their works where they can and avoiding the headaches and costs that come with a building.

But Magar and Dobrowsky see the building is part of their vision. “We believe a theater should not just be where you go to see great plays. It should be part of the civic and cultural life of the city,” he said. “Too often theaters feel like country clubs when they should feel like community centers.”