"I am thrilled to be returning to Lansing to take the reins of my favorite theatre," she said in a statement earlier in 2005. "I grew up in this organization. BoarsHead gave me everything I needed to make a creative and productive life on the stage."

Thatcher has acted and directed in theatres across the country, but said, "BoarsHead is and always has been closest to my heart."

Thatcher began her career as an actress at BoarsHead when she was 16 years old. Her roles there included Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday, Jenny Diver in The Three Penny Opera, Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Jill Tanner in Butterflies Are Free. Since then, she has worked in New York and Chicago as an actress, director and writer. She has been a member of the 2001 Tony Award winning Victory Garden Playwrights Ensemble in Chicago since 1996.

She relocated to Lansing in fall 2005 and succeeded Geoffrey Sherman, who left BoarsHead to become producing artistic director of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, AL.

"Kristine Thatcher is a perfect fit for the BoarsHead," said Paul Shaheen, chair of the BoarsHead board of trustees, in a statement. "She is a top-notch professional, she knows Lansing and the BoarsHead well and she can hit the ground running. The BoarsHead has a lot of good momentum right now and Kristie will help us gain even more." Founded in 1966, the BoarsHead Theatre is a professional not-for-profit Equity theatre.

The rest of the 2005-06 season includes Theresa Rebeck's Bad Dates, Derek Walcott's Pantomime and the world premiere of Michigan playwright Kim Carney's Moonglow.

For more information, visit www.boarshead.org.