Michael Haney, most familiar to Playhouse in the Park audiences as the director of holiday evergreen A Christmas Carol, will become the theater's associate artistic director starting July 1.

        “The Playhouse is very much a family, and I've always felt like the family member who comes home for the holidays,” says Mr. Haney, 51. The post, last held by Charles Towers, has been empty than a year. It “is a great opportunity to be on the inside of a major regional theater.”

        Mr. Haney's duties will include directing Carol and at least one other play, working with the Ohio University M.F.A. Acting Company, assisting with the summer season and overseeing alteractive, the winter Monday night performing series. (The lineup for the series, starting in January, is expected soon.) He'll also be among the readers for the annual Rosenthal New Play Prize.

        Mr. Haney had a 20-year acting career before turning to directing. He spent four years as artistic director of the Allenberry Playhouse in Pennsylvania. Mr. Haney and his wife, actress Amy Warner, will move here from Venice, Calif.

        He describes his theatrical taste as eclectic, encompassing American and world classics, contemporary avant garde, new scripts “and I've done a little bit of all of them.” Recent local productions have been The Last Night at Ballyhoo and The Mystery of Irma Vep at Playhouse and The Countess at Ensemble.

        Mr. Haney's eclecticism was one of the key factors for Playhouse producing artistic director Ed Stern. Many of the directors he's interviewed in the past have urged more classics and more avant garde work. With Mr. Haney, Mr. Stern says, “I'm not being forced to change what I think is successful here.”

        No contractual term has been set. “We'll see how we work together,” Mr. Haney says.

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