Longtime Community Players Managing Artistic Director, Jamie Ulmer, will depart the organization in early 2023, the theater’s Board of Directors has announced.

Ulmer, who has been with the organization since 1997, has accepted the position of Executive Director for Theatre Lawrence in Lawrence, Kan.

“It is certainly with sadness that Community Players announces this departure. After 25 years, Jamie has become the enduring face of our organization and has led us to the success we have today. We wish him the same success in this new and exciting opportunity and congratulate Theatre Lawrence on finding a candidate as deserving as Jamie,” Mason Gustafson, president of Community Players board of directors, said.

Ulmer will remain with Community Players through February, the last show he will direct for the theatre is the upcoming “A Christmas Story: The Musical.”

"I will be forever grateful to the friendships and opportunities this organization and community has provided me the last 25 years,” Ulmer said. “It is certainly a bittersweet time, but I’m looking forward to this next phase of my career.”     

The board of directors has formed a search committee and is beginning the process of conducting a search to fill the position.

“The board is anxious to fill this position,” Gustafson said. “We see this as an opportunity to grow.”