Playwrights Horizons Names Kathleen Burke Director of Development

Playwrights Horizons has named Kathleen Burke its Director of Development, joining the organization in the role formerly filled by Benjamin Weisman after he stepped into the newly created position of Director of Strategic Partnerships. In another major addition to their accomplished senior leadership team, fortifying the institution for its future across all facets of its work, Playwrights promotes Eva Rosa-Ferrera to the newly created position of Director of People + Operations. 

Burke’s new role at Playwrights is the next step in an illustrious career building donor pipelines and cultures of philanthropy for some of New York’s most ambitious arts institutions, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Pioneer Works, and Park Avenue Armory. She takes the reins of development for Playwrights following her work as BAM’s Director of Individual Giving and Advancement Operations where, among her milestone achievements, she secured and managed a $2.14 million technology capacity-building grant. 

At Playwrights, Burke will lead the Development department and overall fundraising strategy; oversee the department’s fundraising operations, systems, communications, and pipeline development; partner with Managing Director Casey York, Artistic Director Adam Greenfield, the Board, and other senior staff members to strengthen long-term philanthropic support for the organization and systems needed for sustainable growth; and lead efforts to expand the organization’s major gifts program.

Eva Rosa-Ferrera, who has worked for the organization for 18 years—most recently in the role of Administrative Director of Playwrights Downtown—now becomes Playwrights Horizons’ Director of People + Operations, a role she will be inaugurating. Her many previous accomplishments include serving as lead project manager for the $6 million renovation of Playwrights Downtown, the two-floor complex at 440 Lafayette Street that is home to Playwrights Horizons Theater School and Playwrights Downtown Studios spearheading initial Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility (EDIA) efforts across the organization; and helping grow Gen PH into one of the top young donor programs Off Broadway. 

Now, having made a major impact in seven previous roles and helped shape the organization across two decades and two sites (and through multiple moments of global and industry turmoil) Rosa-Ferrera’s next chapter at Playwrights is as a senior leader: overseeing Human Resources, EDIA, Operations, and Facilities organization-wide. 

Playwrights Horizons Managing Director Casey York said of Burke and Rosa-Ferrera, “Both Kathleen and Eva bring exactly the kind of leadership Playwrights Horizons needs as we enter this next chapter. Kathleen brings deep expertise in building philanthropic relationships and the systems that sustain them, and she shares our belief that fundraising is ultimately about building meaningful, long-term partnerships around the artists and work we champion. Eva has been an extraordinary part of Playwrights Horizons for nearly two decades, contributing to almost every facet of the organization and helping shape both of our campuses. Her new role recognizes not only the breadth of her experience, but the trust she has earned across our community. Together, these appointments strengthen our leadership capacity while reflecting our commitment to building an organization that is ambitious, sustainable, equitable, and deeply connected to the artists and communities we serve.”