photo by: Journal-World File

Executive Director of Theatre Lawrence Mary Doveton, pictured in this Journal-World file photo, is planning to retire after 45 years leading the arts nonprofit.

The founder and longtime executive director of Theatre Lawrence, Mary Doveton, is planning to retire, the arts nonprofit announced in a press release Wednesday afternoon.

Doveton is set to remain with Theatre Lawrence through a transition to a new director, according to the release, and Theatre Lawrence has already begun a national search. Doveton will exit after leading the nonprofit for 45 years, having started in 1977.

The theater started in space at the Carnegie Building in downtown Lawrence, before raising enough money to purchase and transform an old church at 15th and New Hampshire streets into a theater, which experienced both a flood and a fire as the shows — everything from serious dramas to Broadway musicals — went on. As the theater outgrew that space, it undertook to raise $7.2 million, almost entirely from private sources, and in 2013, the 35,000-square-foot Theatre Lawrence opened at 4660 Bauer Farm Drive in west Lawrence.

“I treasure the memories and the friendship of the many talented people who have helped birth and grow this theatre,” Doveton said in the release. “Their dedication, their imagination and their persistence have created an arts institution in which we can all take pride. The stories, the music and the laughter given life on the stage have brought tears and joy to hundreds of thousands of people.”

In addition to working locally, Doveton has been an active leader with the American Association of Community Theatre serving in several capacities on the national board and adjudicating state, regional and national theater festivals, according to the release. She is a member of the AACT College of Fellows, community theater’s highest honor. On the state level she most recently was a respondent for the William Inge New Playwrights Festival.