Craig J. Horsley Named New Managing Director of Abingdon Theatre Company

Abingdon Theatre Company, now in its 22nd Season of developing and producing new plays by emerging and established playwrights, has announced Craig J. Horsley as its new Managing Director.

Craig J. Horsley joined Abingdon Theatre Company as a board member in 2010. He has been a member of the New York theater community for over 20 years. He began as a theatergoer, then became a Board member and donor to several non-profit organizations. He is currently an investor and producer of Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

Mr. Horsley lived overseas for seven years, working as the Finance Manager of Amerada Hess Oil Corporation of Abu Dhabi. He returned to New York in 1995 and immersed himself in New York theater. "If I'm going to stay in New York," he says, "I will take advantage of what New York does better than anywhere else in the world and that is theater." Over the years he has seen thousands of productions and has the Playbills to prove it.

He has invested in Tony-winning productions of The Norman Conquests, La Cage Aux Folles with Kelsey Grammar, Death of a Salesman with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Pippin, and War Horse, as well as Off-Broadway productions of Forbidden Broadway (2013 edition), The 39 Steps, Becoming Dr. Ruth, and Peter and the Starcatcher.

In 2014, he earned his first Associate Producer's credit for the Broadway production of The Velocity of Autumn, starring Estelle Parsons. In 2011, Mr. Horsley wrote, produced and directed a staged reading of his play, Men Who Let Women Do Too Much, at the Planet Connections Play Festival. He is also currently on the board of New York Theatre Barn, where he serves as Treasurer. The last two years he has been a judge for the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) Excellence Awards.

About his new role as Managing Director, he says, "I am thrilled to be taking a more active position with Abingdon, a theatre company that I have been proud of being associated with for the past five years."

Mr. Horsley is a financial accountant and consultant. In addition to his position overseas, his resume includes financial analyst and consultant for Colgate Palmolive, plus experience at Price Waterhouse and The Penn Central Corporation.

Mr. Horsley replaces Heather Henderson who served as Abingdon's Managing Director for two and one-half years after two years as its Director of Development. Ms. Henderson will continue to serve on Abingdon's Board of Directors.

Jan Buttram is Artistic Director of Abingdon Theatre Company. Abingdon Theatre Company-which has produced more than 83 new plays in its 21-year history- continues its current season with the New York premiere of A Happy End by Iddo Netanyahu.

A Happy End runs through March 29 in the company's June Havoc Theatre (312 West 36th Street). Alex Dmitriev, who helmed Abingdon's premiere of Barton Bishop's God's Daughter, directs. The cast of A Happy End features Curzon Dobell, Lori Gardner, Phil Gillen, Carmit Levite, Joel Ripka and Allison Siko. Set in 1932, Iddo Netanyahu's A Happy End is the story of a Jewish family living in Berlin in 1932 as Hitler's rise to power threatens their happy lives.

For more about Abingdon Theatre Company, visit www.abingdontheatre.org.

Photo by Sara Brown

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