PlayCo Appoints Robert G. Bradshaw as New Managing Director

The Play Company (PlayCo; Founding Producer, Kate Loewald) announced today that Robert G. Bradshaw, who since July 2016 has served as Interim Managing Director, has been promoted to the role of Managing Director, effective immediately. In his new role, Bradshaw will oversee PlayCo operations, financial planning and management, in addition to overseeing production with Kate Loewald and Producing Artistic Associate Melissa Hardy.

The Play Company develops and produces adventurous new plays from the around the world, alongside new works by American Playwrights. Bradshaw joined PlayCo as General Manager in 2014, when the organization first established the position. He worked closely with former Executive Producer Lauren Weigel for over two years to strengthen PlayCo's financial and operational management until her departure in June 2016.

Kate Loewald said, "Last July, Rob stepped into the role of Interim Managing Director with grace and some amount of courage, taking on considerable responsibilities. He has made the role his own. It is exciting to advance a dedicated person from within the company as he develops his career, and I look forward to Rob's leadership contributions to PlayCo's promising future."

Bradshaw said, "I am thrilled to step into this new role with The Play Company and continue its important work with an amazing company of talented, dedicated artists and staff. I share PlayCo's passion for the development of new work and producing truly unique programming that New York audiences need to see now more than ever. I am both humbled and honored to join Kate and the board in bringing PlayCo into this new chapter."

Bradshaw is a producer, director and arts education professional originally from New Jersey. Prior to joining The Play Company, he was the Associate Director of The American Place Theatre's (APT) Literature to Life program, a national arts literacy program for underserved students and communities. During his tenure at APT, he produced severAl Verbatim adaptations of significant American literature, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz, and the New York Times bestseller The Giver, by Lois Lowry. Bradshaw has also directed and produced several stage productions in the Greater New York area, and has been recognized for excellence in directing by The Kennedy Center and The National Partners/American Theatre in Washington, DC. As an educator, Bradshaw has served as a teaching artist for several arts education companies and is the co-owner of Enspirited Projects, an arts education/community engagement company based in Brick, New Jersey. He holds a Bachelors in Theatre Studies and a Masters in Arts Management from Montclair State University.

PlayCo's body of work since 1999 includes 32 premieres of new and international plays. In recent years, PlayCo has premiered such notable productions as Invasion! by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise by Toshiki Okada, generations by debbie tucker green (with Soho Rep), The Wildness by Kyle Jarrow and Lauren Worsham (with Ars Nova) and Caught by Christopher Chen. The company has enjoyed collaborating with notable directors including Erica Schmidt, Dan Rothenberg, Leah C. Gardiner, Lee Sunday Evans and Ed Sylvanus Iskandar, among others. In addition to its producing work, PlayCo has recently focused on commissioning, project development and artist residencies to bolster the generation of new work and international collaborations.

PlayCo Productions and artists have been recognized with OBIE, Lortel, Drama Desk, Dramatists Guild, and Drama League Awards and nominations.

About The Play Company (PlayCo)

The Play Company is an OBIE Award-winning Off Broadway theater Production Company. Since launching in 1999, PlayCo has produced 32 new plays from the United States, Germany, Romania, Poland, Sweden, Japan, India, Russia, Chile, Mexico, France, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England. PlayCo develops and produces adventurous new plays from the U.S. and around the world, advancing a dynamic global experience of contemporary theater and expanding the American theater repertoire.

As the only New York company regularly producing outstanding contemporary plays from around the world alongside new American work, PlayCo's distinctive international programming links American theatre with world theater, American artists with the global creative community, and American audiences with a whole world of plays.