Jaws dropped late Friday afternoon, June 26, when the New York Times article broke: Hana S. Sharif, the first woman of color to lead Arena Stage, was resigning as Artistic Director just three years into her five-year contract.  The night before, a local theater blogger who publishes under the m oniker “Unprofessional Opinion” had stated on Instagram that two sources told them Sharif had been fired.  Immediately, rumors began to swirl. Was Sharif pushed out or did she quit? Who should be blamed for this parting of ways? And what was happening behind closed doors at Arena that led to this sudden turn of events just hours before the world premiere opening of Arena’s season closer, CrazySexyCool: The TLC Musical? Hana S. Sharif photo by Cheshire Isaac DC Theater Arts interviewed more than 15 current and former artists, administrators, and staff members who worked with Sharif at Arena and at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, where she was Artistic Director from 2019 to 2023.  While the exact circumstances that led to the Artistic Director’s separation from Arena Stage remain unclear, our reporting indicates that operations at Arena Stage became increasingly strained and unstable soon after Sharif took the helm and remained that way for much of the past three years, although staffers offered differing views on the cause of the instability.  These interviews reveal sharply divided opinions about Sharif’s leadership. While several describe her as an inspiring artistic leader and advocate, a larger group independently alleges a recurring pattern of centralized decision-making, delayed approvals, public confrontations, unrealistic expectations, and an atmosphere in which employees felt increasingly reluctant to question leadership. Several interviewees said these patterns contributed to unusually high stress, declining morale, and significant staff turnover. DCTA reached out to Artistic Director Sharif and did not hear back. In Sharif’s resignation letter, she states that she resigned after she and the Board arrived at a crossroads defined by “differing visions for how Arena Stage should meet the future.” That resignation letter can be found here.  DCTA also reached out to Arena Stage President and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie, who spoke with DCTA via Zoom, saying, “We are moving ahead with confidence but acknowledging that something significant has happened. I did take what Hana expressed in her statement to heart, which is that she wants us to continue to thrive and do well, so I think that is our job now. To focus on the mission and just keep moving things forward.” Many of the people interviewed for this article chose to speak anonymously because they signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) when leaving employment at Arena. Others worry that speaking out could jeopardize future job opportunities. Artists of color, in particular, told DCTA they would be seen in a negative light for speaking out against a fellow artistic leader of color.  Before Arena: St. Louis Rep Allegations of workplace conflict under Sharif’s leadership arose prior to her appointment at Arena Stage, during her tenure as Artistic Director of The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (i.e., The Rep). An article in the Webster-Kirkwood Times titled “Rep’s Financial Woes No Surprise to Theatergoers” states that “many longtime employees of The Rep either left on their own accord or were replaced during Sharif’s five-year span.… Many described a toxic work environment.”  St. Louis-based artist CJ Cameron performed in Murder on the Orient Express, which Sharif directed at The Rep in 2023. In his recounting of that experience, Cameron describes Sharif’s leadership style as intimidating, confrontational, and emotionally unsupportive. “I’m a grown man, and she literally harangued me to the point of tears before a notes session in the theater one day,” Cameron told DCTA. He described rehearsals marked by low morale and a lack of trust between the director and cast, with multiple conflicts that nearly prompted actors to leave the production.  “I have never seen a cast of actors so collectively distrust a director,” Cameron shared. “Whenever Hana was needed most as a director, she threw in the towel. I saw her actively retaliate against an actor of color for calling out for a final preview after injuring herself backstage; I saw her coldly dismiss an actor after struggling to help them honor a choice Hana wanted them to make; I saw her quit on actors and intimacy coordinators during intimacy rehearsal, saying, ‘I don’t feel it,’ and just walk out like the people in the room no longer matter and need to get it right by the time she’s back.” Actor Kambi Gathesha, who worked with Sharif on The Rep’s 2021 production of Mlima’s Tale, shares a different perspective. “She was an inspiring leader,” Gathesha told DCTA. “What she had to navigate as the first production back from the pandemic was herculean as far as I am concerned. I think she led with grace and our company felt really shepherded by her. She pushed in all the right ways.” Arena Stage Arena Stage exterior courtesy of Arena Stage. Now staffers and former staffers at Arena Stage are sharing similarly conflicting accounts of their time working with Sharif.  “For everything people are saying on social media, the real stories are so much worse,” says a former program director who spoke on condition of anonymity. This staffer worked at Arena for over a decade and their final year overlapped with Sharif’s first. “It was a completely different environment,” they told DCTA. “I had seen other leadership changes at Arena. People keep saying, ‘Well, this is what happens when you have a leadership change,’ but it’s not. It wasn’t perfect before, but this was night and day.” The source describes the stress at Arena as palpable. “Former employees would visit and just see it on our faces and ask, ‘What happened?’” Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Artistic Director Reggie D. White offers a different perspective on the instability within Arena during Sharif’s tenure, attributing it to staff members’ resistance to the creative and operational changes and the higher standards Sharif introduced.  White worked with Sharif for two and a half years at Arena Stage, where he was the Senior Artistic Producer and then Senior Director of Artistic Strategy and Impact, jobs he describes as “to be at her right hand.” Prior to that, White worked with Sharif at The Rep.  “I can’t speak to other people’s experience, but I have learned so much from her and grown so much as a leader,” White tells DCTA. “Yes, she has incredibly high standards, but don’t you want that from leaders?” At Arena, “there was a ‘This is how I work, and I’m not going to change’ mentality,” White says. “She [Sharif] gave people multiple options to learn how she wanted to approach things, and they were basically like, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’” Centralized decision-making, inaccessibility, and delayed approvals One of the most common criticisms of the Arena Stage workplace during Sharif’s tenure centered on what multiple former employees described as a centralized leadership style in which Sharif wanted to make all final decisions but was also frequently inaccessible, making it difficult to obtain timely approvals. Former staff members said projects often stalled while awaiting feedback, only to require significant revisions shortly before deadlines. Others say that delays resulted in canceled previews, late-night work sessions, and deliverables not being ready on time.  “There were so many canceled first previews every season because she insisted on approving everything and was so late in getting feedback to the designers that they couldn’t get the show ready in time,” a former production staffer told DCTA.   A former marketing staffer cited the 2024 production of Death on the Nile, which Sharif directed. “She took six weeks off in the middle of the summer,” he said. “She was supposed to be working from home for part of that, but no one could get a hold of her.” Multiple interviewees alleged that Sharif wanted to review everything from marketing materials and grant applications to camp to T-shirts, artist housing supplies, and office purchases before decisions could move forward. “It was one thing after another,” the former marketing staffer says. “Piddly things like interfering with the box office. We were ready for change, but not someone who treated everyone like they didn’t know anything.” Jeremy Keith Hunter started working as a freelance graphic designer at Arena in 2020 and was appointed staff multimedia designer in 2023. Hunter described what he called “a broad cultural shift” following the departure of longtime Artistic Director Molly Smith. He said the communications team would often work on projects for a week or two before supervisors returned from meetings with Sharif and directed them to change course. Hunter notes that his supervisors were often “clashing and being pulled in every direction. Whatever was happening in those meetings, there was an aspect of micromanagement,” Hunter said. “It took a long time to get things out the door.” The former production staffer said staff frequently worked late because important decisions remained unresolved during regular business hours. “We spent so many nights working until midnight because she wasn’t accessible during the day,” He said. “A lot of those nights were screaming matches.” The former marketing staffer recalled one specific evening when, he said, Sharif informed the development department at 10 pm that a grant application would need to be completed by 10 am the following morning: “Hana would say, ‘If you can’t find someone who will do it, I’ll find someone who can.'” White acknowledged that, many times, submitting grant applications came down to the wire, but he says this was due to delays caused by staffers whose work did not meet the high standard Sharif expected, or by resistance from staff to adapting to Sharif’s new priorities and expectations.  White recalls at least one time when he, Sharif, and marketing staff members were at Arena until 4 am. He says this was because the marketing department hadn’t finished the materials for the season launch. “I see that more as a gesture of generosity that she was willing to stay with them,” he says. “It has become really apparent to me — and I’ve witnessed this as Hana’s right hand — that there is a great deal of time wasted where folks at an institution try to tell the artistic director how to run the institution. That is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the sea change of executive leadership looks like.” Meetings and workplace culture Multiple interviewees also described meetings with Sharif as stressful and uncomfortable, with several saying they eventually became reluctant to attend meetings with her or requested that their supervisors attend so they wouldn’t have to be alone.  “Staff started having meetings within weeks of her arrival about how to handle meetings with her,” the former production staffer told DCTA. “I was a shield for my staff, and it took a toll on my health. “I felt like I couldn’t be in the room with her,” the source added. “I felt like I was being gaslit and held accountable for things I hadn’t done. The people who support her would say that she is just setting her boundaries. But it felt to me like she’s just really good at manipulation. It was the most toxic work environment I’ve ever been in.” The former program director recalled attending a staff meeting early in Sharif’s tenure in which an employee who was home with COVID participated remotely. “She grilled him for two hours about the budget like he was on the stand,” they recalled. “Two people in the room were tearing up because it was so aggressive. She was yelling at him and berating him … and he was so sick.” Multiple former employees mention crying or seeing others cry in the workplace. “People were in tears all the time,” the former program director shared. “You can’t work under that strain for long and not be affected.” White acknowledged that he saw people leave meetings with Sharif in tears, but does not think it was right to blame her. “It’s not about her behavior; it’s about their ability to receive,” he told DCTA. When asked for an example of a time in which he saw someone cry at Arena, he recalled a meeting with a development person who ended up in tears because the grant wasn’t ready on time and Hana had notes on it.  Staff departures and morale Several interviewees state that there was an unusually high rate of staff turnover during Sharif’s tenure, as evidence of declining morale among Arena Stage staff. A comparison of Arena Stage’s staff listings published in February 2023 and June 2026 shows significant turnover during Sharif’s tenure. Of approximately 72 named employees listed in early 2023, only about 25 remained in June 2026. The most dramatic changes occurred in the marketing, communications, artistic, and administrative departments, many of which were almost entirely rebuilt. “Every few days someone would pack up their desk and walk out or be fired, the former program director says. “People would just disappear all the time. And a lot of the time it was people who were well respected.” The former production staffer says that employees who challenged leadership were often the first to leave. “Everyone who stood up for themselves was eventually taken out,” he said. “She accepts no criticism, and she wants no questioning. The people who questioned why were removed the fastest.” The former marketing staffer shared a similar story: “Artistic directors have to make difficult decisions, but people are used to that. This was beyond that. She throws her weight around, fires people without reason.” White acknowledges that there has been staff turnover during Sharif’s time at Arena, but disagrees that Sharif’s leadership was the cause. “Some of these attrition numbers being attributed to Hana feel deceptive,” he says, noting that he can think of only a few dismissals that came directly from Sharif.  But staffers tell multiple stories of terminations that felt sudden, unexplained, and dismissive of the work they had contributed to the organization. Hunter says that he was abruptly terminated without explanation in 2024 and that the experience permanently altered his view of the theater industry. “They never cited a specific grievance and had no specific reprimand,” he says.  Hunter stresses that he is not motivated by animosity for Sharif. He notes that he and others had high hopes for her leadership but says that the circumstances surrounding his dismissal and the lack of communication left him devastated personally and professionally. Hunter remembers thinking, “What had I done that was so egregious to warrant the inhumanity of this dismissal?” Staffers who stand by Sharif But other staffers interviewed by DCTA recount very positive experiences with Sharif. One current staff member, who asked not to be identified because she still works at Arena, says she was aware of the tension there before she began the job in early 2025. “It initially scared me away, but I found that I liked Hana. My supervisor left a month after I joined, and she warned me to be wary of Hana, saying she lies. But I never experienced that. Every time I’ve had to go to her to solve a problem, it’s been a positive experience.” This employee says that she has witnessed significant staff turnover since she joined the staff, but attributes it to differing visions. “I’m team Hana. But the old guard of employees didn’t like that Hana is leaning into the commercial side of things, producing commercial, Broadway-bound productions. They liked the Molly Smith model where budgets were smaller but so were expectations.”  Raiyon Hunter is another Arena staffer who says she has had a positive professional relationship with Sharif for many years, first as an intern at The Rep, and now as Arena’s Casting Director/Line Producer. “In both experiences, Hana has really helped me in how I see myself as an artist. My skillset has grown; she has invested in me personally, and that is all I’ve seen her do with anyone who walked into Arena stage.” Raiyon came to Arena at Sharif’s invitation, and specifically because of her admiration for Sharif’s artistic vision. “Hana shared a lot of conversations about her dreams and goals that inspired me to follow her vision. What she talked about felt like one of those moments that was larger than me. Coming to Arena Stage with her felt like a chance to further American theater in general.” Sharif’s supporters inside Arena Stage worry that Sharif is being held to a double standard due to her race and gender. “It’s difficult for me,” White says, “to not draw an immediate straight line to the people who said similar things about Vice President Harris and Nataki Garrett before she was forced to leave her role at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It’s challenging for me to hear a critique of Black femme leadership under a very strict microscope. Having high standards is not abuse. There are tangible examples of what workplace abuse looks like and having high standards is not abuse. I won’t lie, her standards are high, but that is how she got the job. She was an extraordinary artist and leader with high standards.”  Raiyon is more blunt about it: “If she were a white woman or white man, there would not be this level of pushback. I’ve worked under many who have been verbally and physically abusive to staff, and I’ve never seen them be held to the stake this way.”  “She has big ideas and ambitions and provides the tools for all of us to reach that together,” Raiyon adds. “I look at all that is being said about her and other mentors who went through something similar. It feels like a deterrent so young black women like me don’t want to strive for those types of positions.” HR support or lack thereof Staffers interviewed for this article repeatedly stated that Arena’s Human Resources services and Board of Trustees did little to intervene in workplace conflict, even when help was requested. Multiple sources tell DCTA that Arena has gone through several iterations of HR leadership over the past three years, at one point relying on an external HR firm that was available to Arena only once a week. (DCTA reached out to Arena for confirmation and was told they had no comment.) One former contractor, a teaching artist who had been involved with Arena’s “Voices of Now” program since 2011, wrote a letter to Arena’s Board of Trustees Chair, Catherine Guttman-McCabe, in June of 2024, alerting her to what he felt were problems in the department. The letter read, in part, “I am extremely concerned about some of the changes which have been implemented in the [name redacted] departments. I’m not sure how much the Board of Trustees is aware of the massive upheaval that has occurred over the last few weeks. Would you have time to speak about this one evening this week or any time today?” The contractor tells DCTA that the board chair did not respond but forwarded the letter to the HR department. He shares that he then spoke with HR “and they just gave me the runaround. It was not productive.”  Conclusion None of this explains what finally led to Sharif’s sudden resignation on June 26. Board members contacted by DC Theater Arts did not respond, and staffers can only speculate on what happened in the weeks leading up to the resignation.  In a public statement released on June 28, Arena announced that Dobie would continue to lead the organization in his capacity as President and Executive Producer until a search for a new Artistic Director can be conducted in the fall. In the Zoom call with DCTA, Dobie reiterated that goal. “We want to take some time to do a strategic review. It does make sense to have a strategic taking of stock. We will do that over the summer, and the search will come out of that process.” Arena Stage was founded in 1950, helping to launch America’s regional theater movement and becoming one of the first racially desegregated theaters in the country. In speaking with DCTA, Dobie continually referred back to Arena’s mission and vision as a guidepost moving forward.  When asked how he would reply to those with heated feelings about Sharif’s departure, he replied, “I would say, please give us some grace. Our mission and our core values remain our north star.” SEE ALSO:Additional accounts of the work atmosphere inside Arena Stage are available on public forums including this Reddit thread and this BroadwayWorld thread.Hana S. Sharif steps down as artistic director of Arena Stage (news story, June 28, 2026)Read the full resignation letter from Arena Stage Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif (news story, June 26, 2026)New oral history reveals influential Arena Stage founder Zelda Fichandler (DC Theater Arts review of Mary B. Robinson’s biography by Robert Michael Oliver, September 30, 2024)Arena Stage names Hana S. Sharif as its new Artistic Director (news story, April 23, 2023 ...read more read less