Michael Wilson
Janet S. Suisman Artistic Director
Hartford Stage: Now in his 10th season as artistic director of Hartford Stage, Mr. Wilson has overseen sixty-one new productions for the theatre, including A Moon for the Misbegotten and The Mystery of Irma Vep, both later revived as part of the Hartford Stage/Long Wharf Theatre Partnership begun in 2005. He has directed twenty-three new productions, including the premieres of Enchanted April (also Broadway, Outer Critics Circle nomination); Horton Foote’s The Carpetbagger’s Children (also Off-Broadway, Lincoln Center Theater); Eve Ensler’s Necessary Targets (also Off-Broadway); David Grimm’s The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue and Chick, The Great Osram; and Jeremy Sams’ Zerline’s Tale. As part of the theatre’s nine year Tennessee Williams Marathon, he has directed The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Night of the Iguana, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, and 8 By Tenn (which included the premieres of The Palooka, Now the Cats with Jeweled Claws, and The One Exception). His other productions include David Hare’s The Bay at Nice, Long Day’s Journey into Night, and Macbeth. Under his leadership, Hartford Stage has focused on the development of new work — with sixteen world premieres, nine Brand:NEW festivals, six Broadway or Off-Broadway transfers – and expanding its education and community outreach programs, which have garnered the Bank of America’s 2007 Neighborhood Builders Award and the Hartford Courant’s 2005 Tapestry Award for the company. Other directing includes Broadway: Old Acquaintance (Roundabout Theatre Company). Off-Broadway: Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate and The Day Emily Married (Primary Stages); Chris Shinn’s What Didn’t Happen (Playwrights Horizons); and Jane Anderson’s Defying Gravity (Laura Pels Theatre). Resident: Alley Theatre, A.R.T., Berkeley Rep, Goodman, Guthrie, Long Wharf, NY Stage & Film, and Philadelphia Theatre Co., among others. International: Angels in America Parts I & II, 1995 Venice Biennale. Awards: Daryl Roth Creative Spirit, Princess Grace Foundation Statue and Elliot Norton Awards; Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship; the Connecticut Critics Circle’s Tom Killen Award for Outstanding Contribution to Connecticut Theatre; the 2007 National Governors Association Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts; and a 2007 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Hartford. Education: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Morehead Scholar. Other: Mr. Wilson was named the 2003 Citizen of the Year by the Greater Hartford Civitan Club. From 1990 to 2002, he was privileged to have as his stage manager the late Wendy Beaton, with whom he collaborated on over 17 productions in four American cities and in Venice.
Michael Stotts
Managing Director
Hartford Stage: Mr. Stotts arrived at Hartford Stage in July 2006. Theatre: During his three-year tenure as Managing Director at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Mr. Stotts produced a significant number of new plays including works by Paula Vogel, Craig Lucas, James Lapine and Julia Cho, among others. Sixteen Wounded by Eliam Kraiem moved to Broadway in 2004, and Cho’s BFE and Lapine’s Fran’s Bed with Mia Farrow subsequently transferred to or were produced at Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons. Prior to Long Wharf he served as Managing Director at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and for nine years he served in the same capacity at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in Madison, New Jersey, where he successfully initiated and managed a $7.5 million capital campaign to build the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, which opened in 1998. Most recently he served as a Planning Consultant at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Mr. Stotts began his professional career at the Manhattan Theatre Club where he served in a number of management capacities from 1986–1990. Mr. Stotts was a co-founder and President of the Connecticut Arts Alliance, a statewide arts advocacy organization. He has recently served on the board of the National Corporate Theatre Fund and the Greater New Haven Convention and Visitors Bureau. In New Jersey, Mr. Stotts served as Chairman of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, the statewide association of New Jersey’s 22 professional theatres. In addition, he served on the board of ArtPride New Jersey, the statewide arts advocacy organization. In 2005 Mr. Stotts was honored with a Distinguished Advocate Award from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism
Jeremy B. Cohen
Associate Artistic Director/Director of New Play Development
Hartford Stage: Jeremy has served as the Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Play Development at Hartford Stage since 2003; directing credits include: Mahalia: A Gospel Musical (w/Frenchie Davis), I Am My Own Wife (w/James Lecesne), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (w/Robert Clohessey), Bad Dates, A Christmas Carol; produced and directed in Brand:NEW Fall Festival of New Work (2003–2007). Recent: returned to The Alley for the third time with The Scene, having also directed Bad Dates, and served as the Associate Director for the 50th anniversary production of The Trip to Bountiful. Regional work includes: Good on Paper (Denver Center Theatre Company—New Play Summit); new production of Hannah and Martin (Theater J, Washington DC; 5 Helen Hayes Nominations, including Outstanding Production and Outstanding Director), after having developed and directed its World Premiere (7 Jeff Awards, including Outstanding Production & Director) for TimeLine Theatre (Chicago); Nickel and Dimed (Steppenwolf Theatre); The Unexpected Man (Adirondack Theatre Festival, NY); the World Premiere of Adam Rapp’s Ghosts in the Cottonwoods at Victory Gardens; the World Premiere and West Coast Premiere of Michael Elyanow’s The Idiot Box (Naked Eye Theatre Company, Chicago and Open Fist Theatre Company, LA) and the workshop of The Radiant Abyss (Woolly Mammoth, DC). As Founding Artistic Director of Naked Eye Theatre Company, Cohen developed and directed over 15 plays in the company’s seven years, including the World Premieres of Jamie Pachino’s Waving Goodbye (Kennedy Center award; Jeff-Award, Best New Play) at Steppenwolf, and Timothy Mason’s Cannibals, in addition to the Midwest Premieres of Adam Rapp’s Nocturne and Naomi Wallace’s One Flea Spare at the Goodman Theatre (After Dark award, Outstanding Production). Cohen also remounted Naomi’s The Retreating World Off-Broadway, after having developed and directed its World Premiere at the McCarter Theatre. In Chicago, he twice remounted the American Premiere of Mom’s the Word at The Metropolis Theatre, after its initial run at the Royal George Theatre. Other directing credits include: the East Coast premiere of Closet Land (Off-B’way) at New York Performance Works; the Midwest Premiere of Shopping and Fu**ing at Bailiwick Repertory (After Dark Award, Best Director); and the World Premiere of Scott McPherson’s Scraped, and Sally Nemeth’s Pagan Day at Bailiwick. Cohen has been a Director-in-Residence as well as serving on the Directing Faculty at the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference & National Theatre Instiute for a number of years, and is the recipient of a NEA/TCG Directors Fellowship and a Northwestern University CIRA Grant for his play 12 Volt Heart. Upcoming work: workshop of Some of the People, All of the Time by Jamie Pachino at the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis.