Since I have had many roles in the theatre from acting, directing, and writing to producing and leading institutional theatres – I have spent considerable time thinking about where I am most effective. Is it in the rehearsal room? The board room? The audition room? The lobby? The stage? And recently I have settled on a place, both literal and figurative, that encompasses the energy and dynamic that I seek in my work: the point of intersection between performer and audience. That place where the stage meets the seating area is the looking-glass that transforms the senses on both sides. It gives meaning to actors’ voices and movement; sparks imagination in audiences’ eyes and ears; and creates an alchemy that bonds total strangers into a shared, communal, emotional and intellectual experience. That’s where I want to be – figuring out how to make it the most thrilling place on earth.
After completing twenty-seven years leading Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York – shaping it into a regional powerhouse, and one of the most successful professional theaters in the country: with a newly renovated facility, artist housing, and a Top 25 audience size in the 50th largest metro region - I served our field as the interim leader of the historic Cleveland Play House.
Over forty-five years of experience as a non-profit CEO or co-CEO:
o Total trustees and Board Chairs worked alongside – 380 trustees, 25 Chairs
o Range of performance venues - 90 seats to 650 seats
o Total of budgets managed - $192,000,000
o Total audiences served – 3,650,000
o Total artists employed – 4,000
o Total full productions made – 358
In 2017, I formed TheaterLeader.com as a counseling service for artistic and managing leaders who need a thought partner, as well as Board Chairs who wrestle with governance issues. I continue to have clients across the country.
Cleveland Play House - Cleveland, Ohio
Interim Artistic Director July 2022 - September 2022, July 2023 - December 2023
Interim Artistic & Managing Director October 2022 - June 2023
CPH is the oldest regional theatre in the country and had suffered the loss of both its artistic and managing leaders. I financially and operationally stabilized the $14 million company, created a People & Culture department, and programmed a 2023-24 Season that is headed toward a million dollar improvement in ticket sales. With a new managing director and artistic director in place at CPH, my tenure was celebrated by the Board as i moved back to Rochester.
Geva Theatre Center – Rochester, New York
Artistic Director/Co-CEO 1995 – 2003, 2012 - 2022
CEO 2004 – 2011
Co-Chief Executive and Artistic Director, reporting directly to the Board of Trustees. With the Executive Director, responsible for the overall operation of the theatre center: artistic, financial, educational, strategic leadership and institutional direction. Two theatres (Wilson Stage, 522 seats. Fielding Stage, 180 seats), café/bar, rehearsal and production facilities. $8 million annual budget. Annual attendance of 120,000 including over 10,000 season ticket holders. Full-time staff of fifty-two, part-time staff of thirty, and over 200 artists employed each year. Geva Theatre Center is the one of the most attended regional theatres in the Northeast.
Upon arrival in 1995, Geva had a $1.3 million accumulated operating deficit on an annual budget of $3.2 million, a $1 million building debt, no resident artistic staff and the lowest subscriber base in ten years. By 1999, the entire operating deficit and building debt were eliminated, season subscriptions had risen 40% making Geva the most attended regional theatre in New York State, and six staff members in artistic, literary, and education were added. A second venue, the Fielding Stage, was opened in 2000 after a successful $4 million dollar capital campaign. A subsequent capital campaign raised $11 million including a $9 million dollar renovation of the theater facility and the purchase of fourteen new artist loft apartments.
Produced over two hundred and twenty-five productions, including an Off Broadway musical at the Minetta Lane in 2005. Directed over fifty plays and musicals including five world premieres and plays by Shakespeare, Moliere, Wilder, and Sondheim.
New Play Development
Over the past twenty-five years, Geva has produced thirty world premieres, commissioned plays from twenty playwrights, and developed more than ninety plays and musicals within its workshop and readings series. Since 2005, Geva premiers have had over fifty subsequent productions around the country, Off Broadway, and Korea. Eight Geva premieres in the last decade have been published by leading theatrical publishers.
Education
Over 24,000 people including 16,000 students annually participate in Geva educational activities, including serving the community with these advances:
Established major alliance with SUNY Brockport to provide teaching and directing services.
Implemented nationally-recognized “Prologue” series of pre-show background talks given before each performance of every play, and now copied in many regional theatres across the country.
Established Geva Theatre Conservatory with its signature Summer Academy: acting training for thirty students aged 12-18 in a five-week intensive program.
Expanded existing programs with middle and high schools included Geva in the Classroom.
Community Engagement
Engaging the community in conversation and artistic expression is a central Geva tenet – many programs being part of “Free Geva” series at no charge. They include “The Hornet’s Nest” series of provocative play readings with community “Instigators” leading audience discussions, post-performance panels on topical issues, partnerships with community non-profits to activate our lobby, and during the pandemic creating the “Amplify Series” of live online BIPOC community leaders. Geva also hosts many non-profit benefits in its two theatres and café. In 2018, Geva established its first Engagement Department to amplify these efforts.
Anti-RacismIn 2020, Geva made a commitment to embark on an anti-racism journey. In 2021, Geva published its commitment statement and Action Plan. See www.gevatheatre.org for details.
Geva has made representation onstage and on creative teams a central part of artistic programming, including a 2022 Season with a majority of playwrights being BIPOC and half of all creative team members. Past initiatives include producing “August Wilson’s American Century” from 2007-2011, an unprecedented five-year commitment to presenting all ten of August Wilson’s plays in decade order. Each season, Geva produced one full production and one staged reading. Artistic Advisor for the initiative was celebrated August Wilson actor, Stephen McKinley Henderson.
Cape Playhouse - Dennis, MA
Producer and Chief Executive 2013-2015
Six shows in twelve weeks summer stock. The oldest professional summer theater in America.
Hired as the first non-profit CEO in the Playhouse's 88-year history, leading the Cape Cod Center for the Arts through a two-year turnaround. Instituted professional non-profit theater systems and values. Reversed a ten-year decline in subscriptions. Increased contributed income by 36%. Simultaneously leading Geva Theatre Center, I resigned in December of 2015 after two successful seasons.
Sacramento Theatre Company – Sacramento, California
Artistic Director and CEO 1988 – 1995
Chief Executive and Artistic Officer reporting directly to the Board of Trustees. Responsible for the overall operation of the California capital’s only resident professional theatre company. Two theaters: 301 and 90 seats. $1.6 million annual budget. Annual attendance of 60,000. Cited by California Arts Council as “approaching model status” and given highest rating.
Annual attendance increased 30%. Annual revenues increased 82%.
Contributed income increased 45%. Earned income increased 74%.
Strong commitment to cultural diversity in programming, staff and trustees. Cited by Actors’ Equity Association for outstanding non-traditional casting policies.
Artistic
· Produced sixty-five plays, including twelve premieres.
· Directed twenty-two plays including Life’s a Dream, The Imaginary Invalid (own adaptation), The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Heartbreak House, Dancing at Lughnasa, Master Harold…and the boys, All My Sons, the American premiere of Away by Michael Gow of Australia, the world premieres of When You Come Home to Me (musical) by Jonathan Gillard Daly, At the Still Point by Jordan Roberts, and Golf With Alan Shepard by Carter Lewis.
· Extensive development of ten of the twelve premiers at STC including: Uncle Bends: a home cooked negro narrative by Bob Devin Jones (American Theatre, May/June 1995).
· Created “The Classical Rep”, an annual rotating rep of two classical plays performed by a racially diverse acting company. (American Theatre, April 1994and Feb. 1993.)
Education
· Recipient of the 1995 “Professional Artist of the Year” Award given by the California Educational Theatre Association for outstanding education and outreach.
· Created “Prologue”, a half-hour background talk given before every performance of every play (330 times in 1994/95).
· Produced seven regional school tours of ethnically diverse material.
· Established a school at the Theatre Company to engage and expand the imaginations of students in grades one through twelve, The Ensemble.
· Developed third-year professional internship for the UC Davis MFA Acting Program.
· Over twenty-four thousand students and seniors served through four distinct programs
Institution
Idaho Shakespeare Festival – Boise, Idaho
Producing Director and CEO 1983 – 1987
Chief Executive Officer reporting directly to the Board of Trustees. Responsible for the overall operation of the Festival. 500 seat outdoor amphitheater. Four plays in repertory during the summer, occasional indoor plays during the winter. $250,000 annual budget. Summer attendance 18,000. Only professional theatre in the State of Idaho.
Produced twenty-two productions including three commissioned world premieres.
Directed eleven plays including five by Shakespeare and one premier.
Increased attendance 112%.
Increased contributed income 375%.
Increased earned income 390%.
Developed numerous artistic and educational programs.
Led major expansion of the Board of Trustees to include all major corporations and financial institutions in the state.
Denver Center Theatre Company – Denver, Colorado
Directing Staff 1979 – 1982
Hired for the inaugural seasons of Denver’s first professional theatre center. The DCTC is part of the $80 million Denver Center for the Performing Arts. 1982 annual budget of $3.5 million. At twenty-seven, became the youngest director in America on a major regional stage.
City Studio Theatre - Northampton, Massachusetts
Managing Director 1976 – 1979
Co-CEO reporting directly to the Board of Directors.
Established City Studio Theatre as the resident theatre of Hampshire County.
Produced twenty-six plays and thirty cabarets.
Creator/Producer of the First Festival of Contemporary Russian Emigre Visual and Performing Arts in America (featured on CBS Nightly News with Walter Cronkite).
Related Experience
Board of Directors, Theatre Communications Group
Founding member of Board of Directors, Rochester Fringe Festival, the third largest Fringe Festival in the country
Member of Mayor’s Economic Development Task Force, Rochester, NY
Recipient of the 1995 “Professional Artist of the Year” Award from the California Educational Theatre Association for educational and outreach programming.
Member of Actors Equity Association since 1979.
Writer/Adaptor of seven plays for production.
Recipient of two California Council for the Humanities grants and three Idaho Commission for the Humanities grants.
Recipient of the 1993 Business Volunteers for the Arts “Excellence in the Arts” Award.
Teaching Experience
Guest Lecturer at SUNY Brockport
Developed third year professional internship for the MFA Acting Program of the University of California at Davis.
Guest faculty positions at:
University of California at Davis Directing, Advanced Directing
Sacramento City College Theatre Management
San Francisco State University Directing Restoration Comedy
College of Idaho Voice and Public Speaking
Boise State University Directing Shakespeare
Education
Boston Latin School, Chairman of the Senior Class Committee 1972
Commonwealth Scholar at University of Massachusetts, Amherst- BA in Theatre/Honors 1977
Personal
Born in Boston, Massachusetts. Married to Christina Selian, artist and costume designer. Two sons, Maximilian and Augustus.