Producing Director Meredith Lynsey Schade Will Depart HERE

HERE announced today that Producing Director Meredith Lynsey Schade will depart the company this fall to pursue other opportunities following seven years with the company, first as General Manager and later as Producing Director. Her exit comes on the heels of the recent departure of Brenna Thomas, the company's former Director of External Affairs, providing an opportunity for restructuring at the institution. A national search will begin immediately for a Managing Director who will work in a new leadership model with Founding Artistic Director Kristin Marting.

"I am deeply grateful for the time that I've spent at HERE over the last seven years," shared Meredith Lynsey Schade. "HERE is a unique organization that centers artists in all aspects of our work - and the dedication of the staff to these artists is bar none. Watching our organization rise up during the pandemic to become such an essential resource to the arts community both in New York City and nationally has been so meaningful to me. It has made the decision to leave all the more difficult. HERE is on the cusp of a great transformation, and I am eager to watch as that comes into fruition."

"We've been so thankful to have Meredith's leadership at HERE," shared Founding Artistic Director Kristin Marting. "Her incredible support for artists and staff here has been instrumental to the organization's success and we will miss her dearly."

HERE has begun the search for a new Managing Director to join the staff in Fall 2022. A full job description is available now at here.org/work-with-us/.

Meredith Lynsey Schade began as General Manager of HERE in 2015, joining the leadership team in 2019 as Producing Director alongside co-leaders Kristin Marting and Brenna Thomas. During her tenure, the organization grew from seven staff members to sixteen, doubling the average annual budget and generating cash reserves and greater fiscal stability. She also introduced a new, inclusive leadership model that engages staff in the active growth of the institution, with committees that focus on everything from staff benefits and the beautification of the facility to equity, accessibility and climate justice initiatives.

In addition to her role at HERE, Schade is a three-time Tony Award-winning commercial and non-profit producer with two decades in the theatre industry. Recent credits include Taylor Mac and Matt Ray's The Hang (HERE); the Broadway productions of The Inheritance (Tony Award); Hadestown (Tony Award); Network; What the Constitution Means to Me; The Glass Menagerie; A Doll's House, Part 2; Hello, Dolly!; The Front Page; Spring Awakening; Bridges of Madison County; and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Tony Award). Off-Broadway: Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe (New World Stages); Uncle Vanya with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, The Forest with Diane Wiest, and Venus in Fur (Classic Stage Company). As one of the founders of the non-profit company The Vicious Circle, she has produced the international Gun Control Theatre Action Week; the two-year, international, 17-play cycle by Erik Ehn titled Soulographie (including its two-week marathon of performances at La MaMa); and developed the devised play Unnatural Acts (Classic Stage Company). The former Executive Director of ArtWallah, she also founded the e-play periodical StageReads and has worked in various capacities with Classic Stage Company, Ars Nova, Dee Gee/Relevant Theatricals, Center for New Performance, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, and on a number of independent films. She served on the board of The Assembly and has worked with a number of organizations in creating new strategic and board development plans. During the pandemic, she became a key advisor to artists and venues across the nation as they navigated government relief including the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, Paycheck Protection Program, Employee Retention Tax Credit, and New York State Shared Work programs.

ABOUT HERE

The Obie Award-winning HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director) was named a Top Ten Off-Off Broadway Theatre by Time Out New York and is a leader in the field of producing and presenting new, hybrid performances viewed as a seamless integration of artistic disciplines-theatre, dance, music and opera, puppetry, media, visual and installation, spoken word and performance art.

HERE's standout productions include Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge, Trey Lyford & Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers, Young Jean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, James Scruggs' Disposable Men, Corey Dargel's Removable Parts, Robin Frohardt's The Pigeoning, and Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, and Looking at You by Rob Handel, Kristin Marting and Kamala Sankaram.

Since its founding in 1993, HERE and the artists it has supported have received 18 Obies, 2 Bessies, 5 Drama Desk nominations, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, 4 Doris Duke Awards, 7 Tony nominations, and 2 MacArthur Fellowships.