Roundabout announces Harold Wolpert as new Managing Director

Todd Haimes, Artistic Director of the Roundabout Theatre Company, is pleased to announce that Harold Wolpert will be joining the company as the new Managing Director on July 5th, 2005.

On the appointment Todd Haimes remarked "I am very excited that Harold is joining the Roundabout. I have long been impressed by his work in the New York theater community. He brings a vast amount of expertise that will enhance our organization and its long term goals. The company is very fortunate to have found such a strong Managing Director."

Mr. Wolpert said: "I am thrilled to be joining the Roundabout Theatre Company. Todd Haimes is a true leader of the American theatre. I am proud to be joining the organization that he has developed with Ellen Richard, Julia C. Levy, and the generous support of a dedicated Board of Directors, from modest beginnings to three permanent homes that has redefined the theatrical landscape. I look forward to working with the first-rate staff and high caliber of artistic talent that the Roundabout employs within their productions."

Mr. Wolpert has been the General Manager of the Manhattan Theatre Club since 2000, where he managed the company's growth as its budget and staff expanded following the Biltmore renovation. During his tenure, he oversaw the production of new plays by Donald Margulies, Richard Greenberg, Warren Leight, Alan Ayckbourn and John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, as well as David Auburn's Proof and Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife.

A Philadelphia native, Mr. Wolpert earned a degree in History at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his professional New York career as Company Manager at Circle Repertory Company in 1988 for their productions of Reckless and Prelude to a Kiss. In 1990, he joined MTC, where he was the Company Manager for the world premieres of Lips Together, Teeth Apart and Four Dogs and a Bone and the American premiere of Stephen Sondheim's Putting It Together with Julie Andrews.

In 1994, Mr. Wolpert joined the Tony Award-winning Alley Theatre as its General Manager, where he oversaw significant productions by Edward Albee, Horton Foote, Tony Kushner, and Robert Wilson, including Kushner's Angels in America, Wilson's Hamlet, a monologue, and the world premiere co-production of Tennessee Williams' Not About Nightingales with London's Royal National Theatre, directed by Trevor Nunn. Additionally, he played a key role in the Alley's unique collaboration with Vanessa and Corin Redgrave's Moving Theatre Company.

Mr. Wolpert also served as Chairman of the Board of AIDS Foundation Houston (AFH). He is currently on the board of directors of the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers and has been a member of several League of Resident Theatre negotiating committees.

Mr. Wolpert will be succeeding departing Managing Director Ellen Richard who has chosen to leave the company after 21 years to pursue other interests.

The current Roundabout productions on Broadway include the critically acclaimed Twelve Angry Men at the American Airlines Theatre and Natasha Richardson & John C. Reilly in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire at Studio 54. Off-Broadway is the new play McReele by Stephen Belber at the Laura Pels Theatre.

Roundabout Theatre Company is one of the country's leading not-for-profit theatres. The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals as well as new plays by established writers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today's audiences.

The 2004-05 season marks an extraordinary time in Roundabout's history. The theatre has finally secured three permanent theatres each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission. The off Broadway home, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre's Laura Pels Theatre with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays while the grandeur of its Broadway home, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. Together these three distinctive venues serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.

Roundabout Theatre Company productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; New York State Council on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. The Westin Hotel is the official hotel of the Roundabout Theatre Company.

www.roundabouttheatre.org