Rebecca Bradshaw, who has helmed numerous productions in the Boston area over the years, has been named artistic director at Gloucester Stage Company.
In an interview Monday, Bradshaw said her aim is to stage new plays and to lead Gloucester Stage “from a feminist point of view as well as an anti-racist point of view.”
“I come from a very political lens as to how to create and direct theater,” she said. “On and off the stage, I want to create a very just environment.”
Bradshaw takes over from actress-director Paula Plum, who has been serving as interim artistic director since Robert Walsh stepped down two years ago. Plum and Bradshaw collaborated on choosing the plays for this summer’s four-show season. (Bradshaw will direct one of them, “The Ding Dongs,” by Brenda Withers.)
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“I have worked with Rebecca Bradshaw as a director and colleague and we could not have asked for a more savvy, capable, and artistically gifted person to lead Gloucester Stage,” Plum said in a statement. “She is a person of experience, talent and integrity.”
In a statement, Gloucester Stage managing director Christopher Griffith said he is “grateful to have a business partner with such a strong commitment to the artistic community, championing diverse voices, and theater education.”
Among Bradshaw-directed productions in the Boston area have been Joshua Harmon’s “Bad Jews” at SpeakEasy Stage Company , Anna Ziegler’s “Photograph 51″ at Central Square Theater, and Jen Silverman’s “Witch” at Huntington Theatre Company .
During eight seasons at the Huntington, Bradshaw’s duties included line producing, casting, and developing new work.
“A really good play is where there’s a moment of awe, a moment of inspiration, a moment of heartbreak. Those are the shows that go on the short list,” she said. “The shows that I really feel are my tentpole productions are the ones where the audience walks away wanting to talk about the play. A lot of the plays I do have unlikely heroes.”
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She said she plans to draw on the relationships she has built within the Boston theater community and at the Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, N.Y., where she was producing artistic director for the past two years.
“My favorite part of the job is building teams,” Bradshaw said. “Over the years I’ve really collected a lot of people that I adore working with. Having been a producer, primarily at the Huntington, I’ve met a lot of people.”
Bradshaw floated the possibility of collaborations with other theater companies on productions that could have a life beyond Gloucester, in Boston, New York, Chicago, or elsewhere.
Don Aucoin can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter @GlobeAucoin .