Signature Theatre Company announced today that Erika Mallin has been named the company's new Executive Director. Mallin, who has been the Director of Development at Atlantic Theater Company for the last two years, succeeds Kathryn Lipuma who will be joining the Writers' Theatre of Chicago as their Executive Director next month. In addition, after four years with Signature Theatre Company, Adam Bernstein has been promoted to General Manager.
"We are thrilled to have Erika join our team here at Signature Theatre Company," said James Houghton. "Her passion for the theatre and her diversity of experience will make her an exceptional leader as we move forward into an exciting period of growth and ultimately a new home."
Mallin is the current Director of Development at Atlantic Theater Company. During her time there, she led numerous successful fundraising and audience development initiatives, including increasing annual contributed revenues, breaking net records for its annual gala and creating Atlantic's $10 ticket program. Before joining Atlantic, Mallin was the Director of Corporate Relations at Manhattan Theatre Club where she headed a department that raised more than $3 million annually in corporate contributions and sponsorship. Prior to her work in theater, Mallin worked for the Mayor of the City of New York, first as a Mayoral Aide during the Giuliani Administration, where she created programs to streamline city services. She later became Special Assistant to the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development where she oversaw Mayoral housing initiatives. In 2000, Mallin created her own producing company, Artventure, LLC which produces jazz and arts festivals on the East End of Long Island, as well as staged readings of new plays and musicals.
"I am honored to have the opportunity to work with Founding Artistic Director
James Houghton and Signature's incredibly dedicated Board of Trustees and staff," said
Erika Mallin. "This is a time of success and growth for the institution and I look forward to being a part of Signature's exciting future."
Bernstein has been employed by
Signature Theatre Company for the last four years and served as its Business Manager and Associate General Manager before being promoted in December 2006. Before Signature, he was General Manager for the Blue Heron Arts Center. Bernstein currently serves as the Secretary for the Association of Non-Profit Theatre Companies (ANTC) and is the Founding Artistic Director of Queens-based Confluence Theatre Company.
Signature Theatre Company was founded in 1991 by Artistic Director
James Houghton and is the first theatre in the United States dedicated to season-long explorations of a single-living-playwright's body of work. The company's first nine seasons presented the works of
Romulus Linney,
Lee Blessing,
Edward Albee,
Horton Foote,
Adrienne Kennedy,
Sam Shepard,
Arthur Miller,
John Guare and
Maria Irene Fornes. The 10th Anniversary of
Signature Theatre.
Company -- its 2000-02 All-Premiere Celebration -- featured new works from a selection of the theatre's distinguished past Playwrights-in-Residence. The 2002-03 Season was dedicated to
Lanford Wilson, the 2003-04 Season to
Bill Irwin, and the 2004-05 Season to
Paula Vogel. The first half of the 15th Anniversary (2005-2006) featured
The Trip to Bountiful by
Horton Foote,
Landscape of the Body by
John Guare, as well as a workshop and public staged reading of
Adrienne Kennedy's adaptation of
Madame Bovary. The second half of the Anniversary Celebration features three works by the late
August Wilson, who was to be Signature's thirteenth Playwright-in-Residence. As a direct result of the company's work, Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize,
Lucille Lortel Awards, OBIE Awards and Drama Desk Awards, among many other distinctions.
The National Theatre Conference recognized the company as the 2003 Outstanding
National Theatre of the Year.
Signature Theatre Company, along with the Joyce International Dance Center, has been designated to create a new performing arts center at the World Trade Center site to be designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. At Signature Center, the theatre will expand its programming through the creation of three distinct residency programs that reflect the company's core mission to develop and explore the work of an individual playwright.
