Katy Brown was named Barter’s fourth Producing Artistic Director in October of 2019. She had served as Associate Artistic Director and Head of Casting since 2006, been Artistic Director of the Barter Players since 2000, and came to Barter in 1998 as an actor. She has directed more than 100 professional productions, including The Three Musketeers, Peter and the Starcatcher, Mary’s Wedding, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Miracle Worker, Little Women, The 39 Steps, Great Expectations, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Anne of Green Gables, Doubting Thomas, The Road to Appomattox, The Fantasticks, Holiday Memories, Wait Until Dark, Tuck Everlasting, The Foreigner, Romeo and Juliet, A Thousand Cranes, and Violet, as well as Barter’s national tour of Of Mice and Men. Katy has also been the Director of the Young Playwrights Festival since its creation in 2002, leading to the creation of thousands plays by young people in this region. She has also been responsible for the annual return of Shakespeare to Barter. These productions include Hamlet, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Macbeth and The Tempest. Katy is proud to have been named to the Tri-Cities 40 under 40, the YW Tribute Women (Arts), and The Business Journal’s 25 Women of Influence. During the pandemic, Katy led Barter to repurpose the Historic Moonlite Drive-In so that tens of thousands of Barter patrons could enjoy live performances under the stars when the indoor theatre could not open.