The Neighborhood Playhouse Names Pamela Moller Kareman as Executive Director

The Neighborhood Playhouse has announced the appointment of Pamela Moller Kareman to the role of Executive Director. She takes the reigns of leading the storied acting conservatory from Harold G. Baldridge, who stepped down after 33 years at the helm of the organization.

A longtime board member of The Neighborhood Playhouse, and graduate of the program, Ms. Kareman spent the past 15 years as artistic director of The Schoolhouse Theater, turning it into one of the most well regarded professional theaters in Westchester County. As an educator, Ms. Kareman taught the Meisner Technique for over 20 years in New York City. She is a member of the Drama Department advisory board at LaGuardia High School For Music and Art and Performing Arts.

“I am honored to have been chosen to bring The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre – one of the most important acting schools of the 20th century – into the 21st century,” said Ms. Kareman.  “I feel privileged to take part in supporting a curriculum that readies young students for the joys and challenges of their chosen path.”

CEO of CBS, Les Moonves, a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse, said, “Pam brings the skill set of a remarkable actress, director and producer all rolled in to one.  She knows great talent and also has phenomenal administrative abilities that will enable The Playhouse to retain its stature as one of the leading acting schools in America.  The Playhouse could not possibly have made a better choice.”

Under Ms. Kareman’s guidance, The Neighborhood Playhouse is offering new course work, including classes in auditioning for film and television as well as voiceover technique, being taught by veteran television, film and stage actor, Todd Susman (“Orange is the New Black,” “Old Jews Telling Jokes”). They are increasing the availability of one-on-one work with vocal technique classes, taught by opera coach Andrea Del Giudice. Award-winning composer Douglas J. Cohen joins the faculty to teach a new class in song interpretation.

The Neighborhood Playhouse has been a major force in American theatre and theatre education since its founding in 1928. The school offers the actor-in-training a means of investigating and expanding the range of his or her instrument in a full-time conservatory atmosphere that concentrates on the artistic growth of the actor through the unique and specific technique developed at The Playhouse by Sanford Meisner. The goal of the Meisner Technique: “To live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.”

Pamela Moller Kareman, a born and bred New Yorker, has worked in the theater as a director, producer, actor and educator. After two seasons directing and acting in a comedy group at The Manhattan Theater Club’s cabaret she became the artistic director of New York’s Acorn Productions. During her tenure with Acorn she produced numerous shows in New York, including an acclaimed revival of JP Miller’s The Fox.

For 15 years was artistic director at The Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls, New York where she directed and produced over 40 successful productions. While at The Schoolhouse Ms. Kareman nurtured new playwrights and unearthed little known gems by renowned writers, as well as presented some of the great American classics. The New York Times wrote that the theater “has evolved in credibility, professionalism and stature” and called it “Westchester’s sole claim to consistent professional theater.”  In the past six years four productions directed by Ms. Kareman were moved to off Broadway theaters, including Ingmar Bergman’s Nora, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, S.N.Behrman’s Biography and last season’s award-winning Brownsville Bred by Elaine Del Valle at 59E59.

Ms. Kareman has a strong background in theater education. She has taught the Meisner Technique throughout New York City for over twenty years, most recently at The Kareman Studio at Carnegie Hall.

Currently Ms. Kareman serves on the board of directors of The Neighborhood Playhouse, Theater 808 and is a member of the Drama Department advisory board at LaGuardia High School For Music and Art and Performing Arts. She is also a proud member of the director’s union, SDC.

Ms. Kareman is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse where she studied with Sanford Meisner.

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