Old Globe leader Murphy departing

A longtime leader and guiding force at the Old Globe Theatre is departing after 13 years, the Balboa Park institution announced Monday.

Michael G. Murphy, the theater’s managing director, is resigning to take over leadership of Shea’s Performing Arts Center, a prominent cultural destination in Buffalo, N.Y.

Murphy’s exit is effective Sept. 26; he’ll join Shea’s as president and CEO in early October.

“It’s very difficult,” Murphy said of his departure from San Diego, where he has lived since 1989. “I originally thought I was going to retire from the Globe. But I think I’ve accomplished a lot of wonderful things here, and now it’s time for some new adventures.”

The move is a kind of homecoming for Murphy; he grew up about an hour south of Buffalo in the town of Gowanda, and his family often took trips into the city when he was a boy.

Murphy recalls seeing a 1970s production of “Annie” at Shea’s, which is now an $18.5 million organization that hosts more than 250 performances and other events each year in its three spaces, and is the biggest arts center in its region.

He will succeed Anthony Conte, who served as leader of Shea’s for 15 years.

Murphy joined the Globe in 2003 as general manager, and was named managing director in 2012, after the departure of former executive producer/CEO Louis G. Spisto.

Before his Globe tenure, Murphy was general manager of San Diego Repertory Theatre and director of administration of San Diego Opera.

He also served as managing director of Austin Lyric Opera in Texas, and in similar positions in New York, before coming to San Diego.

Barry Edelstein, the Old Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi artistic director, who has shared the theater’s leadership with Murphy since coming aboard in late 2012, said his colleague’s tenure has been “transformative” for the Globe.

“Over 13 years, he’s made an extraordinary contribution to the institution, and if I may say so, to the cultural life of San Diego,” Edelstein said.

“Certainly Michael’s fiscal ability and sense of fiscal responsibility has been one of his greatest contributions to this theater. And for any nonprofit, that’s kind of the sine qua non.

“And what was really important for me coming in is that Michael has a reverence for the Globe’s history that is crucial at this institution because of its role in the community. We’re going to be talking a lot about preserving the institutional memory that Michael has, and how to make sure we continue to revere the theater’s really glorious eight-decade history.”

Beyond that, said Edelstein, “We’ve grown very close, not only as professional partners but as friends. He’s a very wonderful, warm, kind man.”

Edelstein said the Globe — the city’s flagship arts institution, with an annual budget of about $20 million — will launch a national search for Murphy’s successor. (The managing director oversees the financial and administrative operations of the theater.)

Among favorite accomplishments during his Globe tenure, Murphy counts the opening of the state-of-the-art Conrad Prebys Theatre Center; the shepherding to Broadway of the musicals “Allegiance” and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (which won the Tony Award as best musical in 2014); and the launching of “sensory friendly” performances for playgoers on the autism spectrum.

Murphy said seeking a new position had not crossed his mind until he happened to hear about the opening at Shea’s while visiting family.

“I was set and settled, so this has been a very dramatic (development) for me,” he said. “I love the Globe, I love the audiences, I love the work we’re doing. I love what Barry’s doing.”

But “this is a good next step. And I’m ready.”

jim.hebert@sduniontribune.com