Congo Square and Theatre of Western Springs have announced new artistic directors, while Second City and Steppenwolf have created new positions.

Congo Square Theatre , which hasn’t produced much since losing its space a couple of years ago, has announced that artistic director Derrick Sanders will be leaving the company. The outlook for the company as a whole seems uncertain.

Performink was unable to reach Sanders for comment before deadline, but according to Chris Jones’ “Theater Loop” blog, the company has named Ann Joseph Douglas as interim artistic director and announced just one show for 2010—a May revival of George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum, to be directed by Anthony Irons.

Congo Square, which has won wide critical acclaim (particularly for its fine productions of the work of the late August Wilson, who was a primary benefactor of the troupe), has produced more sporadically since losing its old home in the former Duncan YMCA/Chernin Center for the Arts on West Roosevelt Road. (That space is now occupied by Provision Theater.) The company members, composed primarily of Equity actors, have been in demand at other theatres, as has Sanders as a director, and playwrights nurtured by the troupe have also had subsequent success. Onetime Chicago writer Lydia Diamond’s Stick Fly, which premiered with Congo Square in 2006, closes its run at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage on Sunday, Feb. 7.

The news is better for leadership changes at other organizations.

Diana Martinez, who left her position as executive director for Paramount Arts Center in Aurora last summer, is now the chief operating officer of Second City , Inc. She had spent a brief time as the chief administrative and marketing officer of The Second City International, and her new position will retain marketing responsibilities as well as overseeing day-to-day operations for Second City here and in Los Angeles and Toronto. The move is designed to allow Andrew Alexander to grow the corporation’s television and new media enterprises.

Kurt Naebig takes the reins at the venerable Theatre of Western Springs as the new artistic director—the company has been without an AD since dismissing Jack Phillips last May. Naebig, who formerly ran the Audition Studio (later Acting Studio Chicago), has directed for TWS in the past and will helm the female version of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple this spring.

Steppenwolf names Rebecca Rugg as associate producer. The newly created job focuses on new-play development and dramaturgical support. Rugg, a faculty member of the Yale School of Drama and a former staff member with the Public Theater, will work closely with Polly Carl, Steppenwolf’s director of artistic development, who came on board this past fall. Rugg’s past dramaturgical credits include Caroline, or Change, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, and work on the original commission of Passing Strange.