Keen Company Announces Appointment of Jonathan Silverstein as New Artistic Director

The Board of Directors of the Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company today announced the appointment of Jonathan Silverstein as Artistic Director. Mr. Silverstein succeeds Carl Forsman, founder and Artistic Director, who has been named Dean of Drama at UNC School of the Arts, beginning July 1st.

Jonathan has served as Keen Company’s Resident Director since 2007. Previously with Keen: Lemon Sky,The Dining Room (Drama Desk Award: Outstanding Ensemble), I Never Sang For My Father, Tea and Sympathy, and The Hasty Heart. Other Off-Broadway credits include The Temperamentals (Daryl Roth, Stacy Shane and Martian Entertainment); Drama Desk Award: Outstanding Ensemble), Red Herring (NYC Fringe; Outstanding Direction award), Blueprint (Summer Play Festival), Indiscretions (Phoenix Theatre Ensemble), The Rats Are Getting Bigger (NYC Fringe/ Public Theatre); Greater Messapia (Queens Theatre in the Park) and The Train Play (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: Huntington, Old Globe,Cleveland Play House, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Dorset Theatre Festival, Cape Rep Theatre, The Theatre at Monmouth and Sledgehammer. Jonathan was featured as one of 2009’s Out 100, Out Magazine’s annual list of the most outstanding and inspiring men and women of the year. Alumnus, The Drama League Director's Project. MFA: UCSD. Member, SDC. www.jonnysilver.com.

“It is a great honor and privilege to succeed my friend and colleague Carl Forsman as Keen Company’s new Artistic Director. Keen has been my artistic home for the past several years and has shaped my life and work in profound ways. I could not be more thrilled to lead Keen in its next chapter. I look forward to working with the Board of Directors and Damon Chua, our Executive Director, to continue to produce works that speak honestly to the human heart,” Mr. Silverstein said.

Board Chair Patricia Stockhausen added: “The Keen Board of Directors is tremendously excited to name Jonathan Silverstein as the Company's new Artistic Director. We believe his remarkable talent and leadership skills will continue Keen's mission to produce sincere plays that are generous in spirit for many years to come. We are deeply grateful to Carl Forsman for the vision with which he founded Keen and for all his work that has grown the Company into the significant Off-Broadway theatre that it is today. We wish him well.”

“I starTed Keen Company so I could do plays I love with people I love, and as a consequence I spent the last twelve years surrounded by extraordinary amounts of talent and generosity. It has been an incredible experience, and I am so grateful to everyone who made those years possible. As I head off to my next adventure as Dean of Drama at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, I am thrilled that Jonathan Silverstein is prepared to take the reins. For a long time now, his artistic work has been very much at the center of bringing Keen Company new attention and prominence Off-Broadway, and I have every confidence that he will take the company in all kinds of new directions while staying true to our mission of being a theater that believes in the possibility of kindness, forgiveness, and hope. I can't wait to come see all the exciting work I know he'll make,” said Carl Forsman.

Keen Company produces sincere plays. Keen believes that theater is at its most powerful when texts and productions are generous in spirit and provoke identification. Inspired by the works of early 20th Century American Playwrights, Keen Company demonstrates that an earnest intent can still be sophisticated, yet unafraid of emotional candor, vulnerability, and optimism. Keen Company seeks to create a culture of artists, technicians, administrators and audiences who share a desire to invigorate the theater with productions that connect us through humor, heart and hope.

For more information or subscription opportunities for next season, visit www.keencompany.org.