Classic Stage Company Names Greg Reiner as Executive Director

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick, has announced that Greg Reiner will join the acclaimed Off-Broadway theater as its new Executive Director beginning March 19.   Reiner comes to CSC after an extremely successful tenure as Executive Director of Tectonic Theater Project, where, among many other achievements, he produced the world premiere of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later in 150 theaters on a single night, and oversaw the Tony nominated Broadway production of 33 Variations.  Reiner succeeds Jessica R. Jenen, who departed CSC in the fall.

 "We are thrilled to have Greg joining CSC, he brings with him a keen mind, deep passion, boundless resourcefulness and an impressive inventiveness; in short: just the qualities we need as we venture into this phase of CSC's institutional growth," said Kulick.   "Greg brings to this position an outstanding twelve-year record of institutional growth," said Board Chair Lynn F. Angelson.  "Our board and our staff look forward to a robust future at CSC with Greg joining our leadership team."

"Classic Stage Company is one of the most important theaters producing classical work in the United States, and I am excited to be a part of the next stage of their growth.   I look forward to working with Brian and the entire CSC team as we find new ways to make the company’s world class work accessible to audiences of all ages and economic ability, as well as build our education programs into a transformative change agent in young people’s lives across the country, introducing them to the importance of these plays and their relevance to their own lives," said Reiner. 

Prior to Tectonic, Reiner was Managing Director of The Actors’ Gang, where he launched an International Touring Initiative, which has brought Actors’ Gang productions of Embedded, 1984 (both directed by Tim Robbins), The Exonerated and The Guys to theater audiences across North America, including The Public Theatre in New York City, and Festivals in Europe, Australia, Asia, New Zealand and London. In addition, Greg facilitated the Actors’ Gang move to the historic Ivy Substation in Culver City, a transition that tripled the Gang’s subscriber and audience base and broadened the Theatre’s community outreach and education programs. Prior to The Actors’ Gang, he was Managing Director of Shakespeare Festival/LA. Greg was recently chosen as a participant in National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program, a two-year initiative designed to unleash the collective power of 100 top executive leaders in the cultural sector.

Now in its 45^th year Classic Stage Company is the award winning theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. This season CSC has presented the critically-acclaimed production of The Cherry Orchard with John Turturro and Dianne Wiest and is currently presenting Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham in Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo, directed by Brian Kulick. Its current season will conclude with William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci.  Past seasons have included critically acclaimed productions of Chekhov’s Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton (Obie Award); David Ives’ The School for Lies with Hamish Linklater (Obie Award), directed by Walter Bobbie; Unnatural Acts, conceived and directed by Tony Speciale; Ostrovsky’s The Forestwith Dianne Wiest and John Douglas Thompson, directed by Brian Kulick; David Ives’ Venus In Fur with Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley, directed by Walter Bobbie; Shakespeare’s The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, directed by Brian Kulick;  Chekhov’s Uncle Vanyawith Denis O’Hare, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton; Anne Carson’s An Oresteia (International PENN Award for Poetry); Chekhov’s The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming;  David Ives’ New Jerusalem with Richard Easton, directed by Walter Bobbie;  Hamlet, Richard II, Richard III with Michael Cumpsty (Obie Award as Hamlet), directed by Brian Kulick; and Yasmina Reza’s A Spanish Play with Zoe Caldwell, directed by John Turturro.

CSC presents plays from the past that speak directly to the issues of today. As we return to works of the past, we endeavor to keep a clear eye on the future, particularly in terms of the next generation of artists and audiences.  Founded in 1967, CSC has received wide recognition for its significant contributions to theatre as an art form through productions of classic plays, translations and adaptations and a long-standing commitment to the identification and nurturing of leading and emerging artists. Classic Stage’s artists are the finest established and emerging theater practitioners working in this country. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theatre, Classic Stage has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. For more information on Classic Stage Company visit the theatre’s website at www.classicstage.org.