STAGE TUBE: I AM THEATRE Project - Michael Maso

BroadwayWorld.com is excited to share a weekly series developed by the Theatre Communications Group! This week managing director Michael Maso shares pivotal moments in his theatre career and why the arts matter to him!

Michael Maso (Managing Director, Huntington Theatre Company) has led the Huntington's administrative and financial operations since 1982, producing more than 160 plays in partnership with three artistic directors and leading the Huntington's ten-year drive to build the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which opened in September 2004. In recognition of these efforts, he was honored by the Boston Herald as 2004's Theatre Man of the Year. He received the 2010 Theatre Hero Award from StageSource, the Greater Boston Theatre Alliance. Michael is a past president of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), an association of 70 of the country's major not-for-profit professional theatres. In 2005, he was named as one of a dozen members of the inaugural class of the Barr Fellows Program. He is the 2005 recipient of the Commonwealth Award, the state's highest arts honor, in the category of Catalyst. In 2000, Michael was honored with the Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence at Boston's Elliot Norton Awards. He has served as a member of the board of directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for not-for-profit theatre, and as a site visitor, panelist, and panel chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts. Michael is also a member of the board of directors of ArtsBoston. Mr. Maso is an associate professor of theatre at Boston University.

I AM THEATRE spotlights the stories of theatre practitioners, in their own words. With 50 videos over the next 50 weeks, TCG is celebrating its 50th anniversary by sharing stories from a diverse group of people who are creating, supporting, and engaging with theatre. YOU ARE THEATRE: We want to hear your stories! TCG will release a new video each week of individuals sharing pivotal moments in theatre - and hope they will inspire you to tell your stories too. Join us as we seek to raise the international awareness of the depth, diversity and impact of the theatre field. WE ARE THEATRE! Today, not-for-profit professional theatres in the U.S. employ 130,000 people annually, inspire more than 30 million attendees and contribute $2 billion directly to the U.S. economy. What if thousands of theatre artists across the world posted their own video testimonies of why they do what they do and why theatre matters? How might that transform communities' awareness of our work? Please share the stories we've recorded, and we'll share the videos you make, and together we'll testify in a voIce That everyone will hear...I AM THEATRE. YOU ARE THEATRE. WE ARE THEATRE!

For 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 13,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the US Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America's largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 11 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. www.tcg.org