This year began with an ending: the Jan. 4 death of David Wheeler.

As the founding artistic director of the groundbreaking Theatre Company of Boston in the 1960s, Wheeler was in the forefront of efforts to build a regional audience for edgy, challenging drama. Inevitably, his passing prompted not just an appraisal of Wheeler’s legacy but questions about which contemporary troupes could be said to share his adventurous and idealistic approach to theater.