The Off-Broadway League Announces Its First Female President

The Off-Broadway League has announced that Terry Byrne was elected as the new President of The Off-Broadway League. Byrne is the first female president in the nearly 60 year history of the League. The organization also announced three new additions to the Board, including Dean Carpenter, Steven Chaikelson and Casey York.

Ms. Byrne has had a long association with the Off-Broadway League, serving on the Board of Directors since 1993. Her work with the League includes participation on negotiating committees for the League's collectively bargained agreements with AEA, SDC and USA. She has also served on the Administration and Host Committees for The Lucille Lortel Awards, and as Chair of the Off-Broadway Chapter of the Broadway Green Alliance. She is the General Manager of The Westside Theatre and replaces Adam Hess who served in the role as President for the past four years. Mr. Hess will continue to serve on the board in the role of Treasurer.

The three new board members bring a vast wealth of knowledge to the organization and represent both the commercial and non-profit side of Off-Broadway.

The slate of board members for 2018-2019 is: Terry Byrne - President, Carol Fishman - 1st Vice-President, Ryan Conway, 2nd Vice-President, Adam Hess - Treasurer, Pamela Adams - Secretary, Jeremy Adams, Adam Bernstein, Dean Carpenter, Steven Chaikelson, Michael Coco, Beth Dembrow, George Forbes, Roger Gindi, Gary Glaser (Council), Danielle Karliner Naish, Gilbert Medina, Evan O'Brient, Eva Price, Catherine Russell, Lindsey Sag, Seth Shepsle and Casey York.

Terry Byrne has worked in the NYC theatre arena for 35 years, and as General Manager of The Westside Theatre for twenty-seven years. Associate Producer of the Off-Broadway productions of Trumbo, Hedwig And The Angry Inch, and Political Animal. Ms. Byrne has served on the Board of Directors of the Off-Broadway League since 1993. Her work with the League includes participation on negotiating committees for the League's collectively bargained agreements with AEA, SDC, and USA. She has also served on the Administration and Host Committees for The Lucille Lortel Awards, and as Chair of the Off-Broadway Chapter of the Broadway Green Alliance. In her community of Bloomfield, NJ, Ms. Byrne served for many years on the Advisory Board for the Charles Seller Foundation, a service-based theatre organization for youth. She has been married to Bloomfield High School theatre director Brandon Doemling for 36 years, and is the mother of two BFA/Acting program graduates.

Dean A. Carpenter is a New York City based Producer and General Manager. He is currently the General Manager of Primary Stages. Prior to joining Primary Stages he served as Managing Director of About Face Theatre in Chicago and New York's Second Stage Theatre and as Executive Producer of the Drama Desk nominated musical revue Till Divorce Do Us Part. On Broadway Dean has been a member General Management teams of Jersey Boys, The Farnsworth Invention, Wicked and The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee. Dean holds an Bachelor's Degree in Theatre from Northwestern University and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Management and Producing from Columbia University.

Steven Chaikelson, through his company, Snug Harbor Productions, general manages and produces on and off Broadway, around the United States and internationally. Selected credits include: Broadway: The Band's Visit; Ring of Fire; Elaine Stritch at Liberty (Tony Award); George Gershwin Alone; A Moon for the Misbegotten (starring Cherry Jones and Gabriel Byrne); Death of a Salesman(Tony Award, starring Brian Dennehy); Julia Sweeney's God Said Ha! and Fool Moon (Tony Award); Off-Broadway: Red Roses Green Gold;Murder for Two; Martin Moran's All the Rage(Lortel Award) and The Tricky Part (Obie Award); Eve Ensler's Emotional Creature; Elective Affinities(starring Zoe Caldwell); Evil Dead The Musical;and Almost, Maine. In addition, he hasconsulted for numerous not-for-profit arts institutions, including New York Stage & Film, the Barrow Group, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, the Apollo Theatre Foundation, Cambodian Living Arts and Peter Brook's CICT. Steven is a professor in the Columbia University School of the Arts, where he runs the MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program. He is a co-author of Theatre Law: Cases and Materials, the first and only law school casebook devoted to theatre law, and has contributed to the theatre volumes of Entertainment Industry Contracts, published by Lexis.

Casey York is a Brooklyn-based Producer and Arts Administrator. Since 2014 she has been the General Manager of NYC's new work incubator Ars Nova, where she supports the development activities and production of adventurous music, comedy and theater artists in the early stages of their professional careers. She previously served as the Associate General Manager at Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons, and completed New York Foundation for the Arts' Emerging Arts Leaders' Boot Camp program. She is a proud alum of Williams College where she was recently an adjunct instructor of Theater Management.

The Off-Broadway League was founded in 1959 to foster theatrical productions produced in Off-Broadway theatres (productions in Manhattan in venues with 100-499 seats), to assist in the voluntary exchange of information among its members, and to serve as a collective voice of its membership in pursuit of these goals. In the recent years the League has grown to represent an average of 150 individual members and theatres and 100 non-for-profit and commercial shows per season.

The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers instituted the Lucille Lortel Awards to recognize excellence in the Off-Broadway arena and to honor Lucille Lortel's devotion to Off-Broadway. Awarded annually since 1986, the Lortel Awards are produced by the League in association with the Lucille Lortel Foundation. Additional support is provided by Theatre Development Fund.

For more information about The Off-Broadway League, call 646-588-4779 or visit www.offbroadway.org.

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