New managing director at George Street Playhouse

See the following release from George Street Playhouse. I don't deal a lot with managing directors (except at the smaller theaters, where the artistic directors multitask like you would not believe) so I don't have much in the way of comment, except to say that I wonder how experience in Wisconsin will translate to this area, where the competition is so relentless. Of course, it's always good to see these positions filled instead of eliminated, if you know what i mean.

Two plays this weekend. I'm in Netcong Friday for "The Dinosaur Musical" and at Paper Mill Sunday for "Happy Days." We're back to the "no rest for Willie" portion of the 2007 theater season. Look for the Review Previews to flow liberally over the next few months--my calendar tells me only two weeks of no plays between now and mid-December.


George Street Playhouse Announces
Appointment of Todd Schmidt
As Managing Director

New Managing Director Comes to New Brunswick From
Wisconsin’s Peninsula Players Theatre


New Brunswick, NJ – The Board of Trustees of George Street Playhouse announced the appointment of Todd Schmidt as Managing Director. Mr. Schmidt is currently Executive Producer of Peninsula Players Theatre, based in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. His first day at the New Brunswick theatre will be November 12.

“I am thrilled with this choice,” said Artistic Director David Saint. “Todd seems to be absolutely the right fit for George Street. I was so impressed with his skills in fundraising, having headed a successful capital campaign of $7.2 million for a new theatre. I also took it as a great sign that each of our first forays into the theatre was under the tutelage of the great producer Jim McKenzie.”

George Wolansky, Jr., Chairman of the George Street Playhouse Board of Trustees, said, “It is with great pleasure that we welcome Todd to the George Street family. His incredible, well-rounded background in all aspects of theatre are enormously impressive, and will be put to good use in New Brunswick.”

Prior to joining George Street Playhouse as Managing Director Todd Schmidt served as the Executive Producer of Peninsula Players Theatre, America’s oldest professional resident summer theatre, in Door County, WI. While with the Peninsula Players Todd produced more than 70 plays and led the theater through a remarkable period of growth that revitalized and reorganized the organization culminating in the opening of a new state-of-the-art performance space in 2006. In Chicago Todd directed and co-produced St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson at Victory Gardens Theatre and The Woman in Black, which was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for best production. He is president of the Council of Resident Summer Theatres, past president of the Peninsula Arts and Humanities Alliance and an active founding member of Theatre Wisconsin, the alliance of professional theaters in the state. Todd holds an MFA degree from the Goodman School of Drama, DePaul University and a BA from Auburn University, Alabama. He has been on the faculty of Loyola University-Chicago, directed for Oakland University in Detroit, and has worked with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Apple Tree Theatre.