exit stage right

Friday, August 21 was my last day as Associate Director at Playwrights Horizons Theater School. I spent seven years in the organization, preceded by three at NYU. The ability to speak about something in the scale of a decade is difficult to wrap my head around. I have spent the last seven years surrounded by people who love me, and whom I love very much. I have been able to create a surrogate family that has accepted me, held me up, cheered me on and told me the truth when it was the hardest to hear. I have raised two children in the midst of this community and am not sure how I could have done it any other way. Auden and Colton have PHTS in their DNA—I’m certain of it.

The exit was a long transition that started in May with my farewell to the students. The summer has been about orienting the glorious Jean Andzulis back into a job she previously held—but which has shifted and changed with the passage of time, development of the curriculum, and advances in technology. The last weeks have been filled with much work and much fun—a night of French frivolity at the movies and dinner, drinks and meals with various friends and colleagues, emails, notes, phone calls, gifts, lunch with Helen on that final Friday, followed by a surprise soiree at the office. Leighton and I rounded out the emotional and exhausting day with dinner at a new East Village restaurant called The Redhead.

I am very clear that my affiliation with the School has not ended, but will rediscover and reimagine itself when the time is right. I am grateful to all of my colleagues that have made the last seven years such a joy, especially the various staff members I have worked with over that time. And I am eternally indebted to Helen Cook for her graciousness, generosity, integrity, trust, and love. She cares deeply about the School and the work of the faculty and students—more that most can understand. She has allowed me to directly impact the life of the School by participating in the creation and revision of curriculum, systems, and policy and given me wide berth to manage the day-to-day operations in a way that allowed me to develop a very personal style in doing so. Leighton and I would not be where we are in our lives without Helen’s support. She has been a surrogate grandmother to our boys and a great friend and we could not be more thankful.

Here are some pics from the grand finale moments at PHTS….

 

contemplating the future with Jean Andzulis

 

 

 

with John Ruocco

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