Playwrights Horizons Appoints Fishman New General Manager

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) announced today that veteran General Manager Carol Fishman would be joining the acclaimed theater company as the institution's new General Manager.  Starting next month, Ms. Fishman will bring a wealth of experience and over twenty years as a General Manager, Production Supervisor and Production Stage Manager, including most notably her fourteen years with Second Stage Theatre as both Managing Director and Production Manager.

"We're elated to have Carol join the Playwrights Horizons family," said Tim Sanford, Artistic Director of Playwrights Horizons.  "We're especially excited to bring on someone with such vast experience in the producing community, and someone who already has strong relationships with many of the theater's writers, directors and designers.  As Playwrights is known not only for the quality of its writing, but for the caliber of its productions, I know that this organization will remain in the best hands."

"The General Manager is one of the leaders of this institution," explained Leslie Marcus, Managing Director of Playwrights Horizons.  "And Carol brings with her both amazing expertise in producing theater, and considerable experience in running an institutional theater.  Her many years at Second Stage will be an immeasurable asset, and we couldn't be happier to have Carol join us."

 Ms. Fishman will be replacing Playwrights' longtime and current General Manager, William Russo, who first joined the company in 2000.  Mr. Russo will be leaving Playwrights Horizons to become the Managing Director of New York Theatre Workshop.  Ms. Fishman will officially begin at Playwrights Horizons on Monday, May 12, overlapping with Mr. Russo for four weeks through his final day with the company on Friday, June 6.

 "Billy has made an indelible impact on Playwrights Horizons in his eight years with us," said Sanford.   "And while we're all sad to see him go, we know it's the right time for him to take the next step in his career, which is leading an institution as a Managing Director." 

Carol Fishman has worked as a General Manager, Associate Producer, Production Supervisor and Production Stage Manager for over twenty years.  For fourteen years she served as Managing Director (1993-2003) and Production Manager (1989-1993) for Second Stage Theatre, where she produced over 70 productions resulting in Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, Audelco and Lortel awards. Among the many works she produced there were the New York premieres of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses; August Wilson's Jitney; Stephen Sondheim's Saturday Night; Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth; Lynda Barry's The Good Times Are Killing Me; Cheryl West's Jar the Floor; and the acclaimed revivals of Edward Albee's Tiny Alice and Wendy Wasserstein's Uncommon Women and Others.  While at Second Stage, she also oversaw the construction of the organization's 299-seat theater in Times Square.  As General Manager for Aruba Productions, she has managed several Off-Broadway productions as well as Broadway productions in development, including Almost Heaven, The Screwtape Letters, Stormy Weather, Robin and the 7 Hoods and Grumpy Old Men.  She also served as Event Manager for the promotions of the film of Hairspray and Associate General Manager for Brooklyn, the Musical. Prior to her tenure at Second Stage, she began her career as a Production Stage Manager, working at many of the major Off-Broadway institutions such as Lincoln Center, The Vineyard and New York Theatre Workshop, as well as on Broadway. She also served as Production Supervisor for numerous Off-Broadway productions, including the long-running Blue Man Group: Tubes.

PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work.  In its 37 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors. Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards), Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny's Way, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.  

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