"I love Intiman, and I am exciting about looking ahead to the next three years," said Sher in a released statement. "I don't think any really interesting work can happen in theatre except in a long conversation with a single community, and we have a wonderfully curious and adventurous audience."

The new contract will keep the director at the Washington stage through March 2008. The news comes at a favorable time for the company as it also announced an end to the current fiscal year (on March 31) with a balanced budget — an understated feat in a city whose arts organizations have struggled to keep afloat in recent years.

Sher staged the current Broadway production of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas' musical The Light in the Piazza set to open at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater April 18. The work debuted at Intiman in 2003 directed by Lucas, then played Chicago's Goodman Theatre (where Sher took over directorial duties).

Other credits for Sher include the world premieres of Craig Lucas' Singing Forest, Joan Holden's Nickel and Dimed (both at Intiman) and Theresa Rebeck's The Butterfly Collection at Playwrights Horizons. In 2000, he earned an OBIE Award for Theatre for a New Audience's Waste and his Intiman debut, Shakespeare's Cymbeline, later played a TFANA-produced run at the Royal Shakespeare Company — the first American Shakespeare production to do so. Next up, he will direct Craig Lucas' new adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters at his homestage.

The 2005 season at the Intiman Theatre includes Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep (April 22-May 22), Craig Lucas' The Three Sisters (June 10-July 9), Martin Moran's The Tricky Part (July 15-Aug. 13), Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel (August 19-Sept. 24) and Frank Galati's adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath (Oct. 7-Nov. 13). For more information, visit the Intiman website at www.intiman.org.