David Jobin, managing director of City Theatre since 1998, has accepted a similar position at San Jose Repertory Theatre, beginning March 6.

	David Jobin's last day as managing director at City Theatre will be Feb. 18.

In terms of budget, City Theatre is Pittsburgh's third largest, following Pittsburgh CLO and the Public Theater. Jobin oversaw a growth in budget from $1.4 million to $2.6 million while at City, first alongside artistic director Marc Masterson and now Tracy Brigden.

Founded in 1980, San Jose Rep has a recent 550-seat facility in downtown San Jose, located near Silicon Valley, 50 miles south of San Francisco. San Jose is actually the largest city in the Bay Area (now officially known as the San Jose Valley). The company has a current budget of $6.2 million and anticipates adding a second stage.

Jobin, 41, was first approached by a head-hunter in September. He then interviewed quietly with San Jose's artistic director and search chairman at a fall conference of the Theatre Communications Group, the national association for some 420 not-for-profit theaters.

He announced his decision to Brigden and Edward Harrell, president of City's 40-member board of directors, just before Christmas, and the news is expected to break today in the highly competitive Bay Area theater community.

"It's the hardest decision I've ever made," Jobin said yesterday. "I've had a great time at City. How many people can say they like going to work every morning? But now I'll get to do it in warm weather. It's very exciting."

Was City surprised?

"A little bit," said Harrell, president of the Tribune Review Co. "But David has grown and matured in his job, so it's no surprise that a larger organization came after him -- just that they came all the way from the West Coast. We were fortunate to keep him as long as we did."

The loss is personal for Brigden, who arrived at City in 2001.

"He's a good friend. How lucky we were to enjoy each other's company. We hardly ever fought, which is unusual for an artistic and managing director."

She calls Jobin extraordinary in not being concerned just with the bottom line: "David really cares about the art."

But Brigden says she understands from her own recent move here "the excitement of moving someplace new, wanting a whole new life. I'm happy for him. I assume he's going to be making a lot more money and have an easier product to market. And now I have a place to stay when I go to the Bay Area."

She also sees this as an opportunity for City. "It's never bad to have an influx of new ideas and experience," she said.

She immediately rejected the idea of taking on both leadership jobs, as Ted Pappas has done at the Public, and Harrell is planning a national search for Jobin's replacement. A search committee has been formed but has not yet met. Harrell says they would like to have someone new in place by fall.

He expects a smooth transition, with Brigden holding both reins for a while. "I don't see us in any trouble. We may just have to walk a few months before we start running again."

The biggest current challenge facing City is development of the former Walter Long Manufacturing plant, expansion of the theatre's production and office spaces, and refurbishing some newly acquired actors' apartments. The Walter Long acquisition is one of Jobin's greatest satisfactions, along with his re-structuring of City Theatre's assets to eliminate $1.8 million debt and strengthen the $2.2 million endowment.

He says his greatest regret is never having improved "that gravel pit courtyard" between City's main building and the Hamburg Studio: "We never found the funding."

In size and in producing both modern plays and classics, San Jose Rep is more like Pittsburgh Public than City, which focuses on new work.

Raised in Aurora, Ohio, outside Cleveland, Jobin went to Grove City College and came to Pittsburgh in 1989 as an intern under Roz Ruch at the Public Theater. He next spent seven years as director of the CLO Academy and then of CLO education and outreach.

Then he came to City to learn from Masterson. Like him, Jobin has been active in the profession, both locally and nationally, where he serves on a key League Of Resident Theatres committee that negotiates contracts with theatrical unions. That made it inevitable that he would come to the attention of others in the national theater community.

He will officially leave City on Feb. 18, spending a week on LORT-Equity contract negotiations before taking over in San Jose. His partner, a corporate lawyer here, is negotiating to relocate with him.

Nationally, "David is very visible and has a good reputation," says Joan Channick, deputy director of TCG. "It's big news that he's moving to San Jose and it will be big news about the opening at City -- a good theater in a great arts city." She estimates that about 10 or a dozen such jobs change hands in any year.

Jobin says San Jose's Near told her company's board that City, though smaller, "has more of a national reputation than we do." Jobin's move and Masterson's to lead the high-profile Actors Theatre of Louisville both speak well for City's standing.