Kent Thompson was named artistic director of the Denver Center Theatre Company, part of the Denver Center for Performing Arts, in 2005. Prior to moving to Denver he was producing artistic director of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for 16 years. His production of Macbeth was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts to tour 13 US military bases in the fall of 2004. In 1991 Kent created the Southern Writers' Project, designed to commission and develop new plays that presented 16 world premieres during his tenure. Two of Kent's major accomplishments since moving to Denver have been the Colorado New Play Summit, a premier national festival for new American plays, and the establishment of the Women's Voices Fund, commissioning and developing of new plays by women. He served for eight years on the board of directors for Theatre Communications Group and as its president for three years. He served as a Center management panelist in 2011.