Sher, who is a 2009 Tony nominee for his direction of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone for Lincoln Center Theater, was appointed the artistic director of the Intiman in 1999 and currently serves as resident director.

Sher will aid in the creation of a multi-year plan for the continued artistic leadership of the Intiman while working to appoint his successor. Sher's extension and subsequent departure comes on the heels of his appointment as resident director of Lincoln Center Theater in the fall of 2008. Sher has earned Tony nominations for each Lincoln Center Theater production he staged, including The Light in the Piazza, Awake and Sing! and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. He won the 2008 Tony for Best Direction for LCT's South Pacific.

The Intiman has also announced that the resident production of Othello, which Sher was set to direct, has been replaced with the Theatre for a New Audience production of Othello, which played an Off-Broadway run this past season. TFANA's Othello will run July 2-Aug. 2 under the direction of Arin Arbus.

"Not directing Othello was a difficult decision for me to make," Sher said in a statement. "Ultimately, however, the Board and I decided that it will serve Intiman most effectively for me to focus on our succession plan while giving our audiences the chance to see this production, which is one of the best-received stagings of a Shakespeare play in the last decade…

"Additionally," he continued, "I have a long and valued relationship with Jeffrey Horowitz, Theatre for a New Audience's artistic director. Jeffrey invited me to stage my production of Cymbeline for Theatre for a New Audience at the Royal Shakespeare Company and then in New York. This is a great opportunity for Intiman to collaborate with the company and create a model for other partnerships we might wish to pursue in the future — something that is particularly important in this economic environment." In addition to his work for the Broadway stage, Sher directed the Metropolitan Opera's production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia and City Opera's Mourning Becomes Electra. He staged Craig Lucas' A Prayer for My Enemy Off-Broadway for Playwrights Horizons, as well as productions of Cymbeline, Don Juan and The Butterfly Collection.

For further information visit Intiman.