SSDC Exec Director Hauptman to Leave After 12 Years

The Executive Board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC) recently announced that Executive Director Barbara Hauptman will not renew her contract in November, after 12 years with the union. 

"My time at SSDC has been glorious and the current staff is clearly capable of taking the union into its next phase," acknowledged Hauptman. "I greatly appreciate my years in the theatre/dance world and think it is definitely time I started going to the box office and paying for my tickets."  She will not be seeking another executive position, but has not ruled out teaching.  "I have a bunch of great stories to tell," she says with a smile. 

During Hauptman's time as Executive Director, she developed the SSDC's educational branch, helped found the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds (COBUG), served as Co-Chair of the SSDC's League Pension and Health Fund Board of Trustees, and oversaw several contract negotiations and hindrances.  

SSDC President Pam Berlin stated, "In her twelve years with SSDC, Barbara has been an incredible Executive Director. In all of the areas that her job has encompassed, she has set a high bar for excellence.  Whether in assembling a superb staff, in cultivating her relationships with the membership as well as with the rest of the theatre community, in her formidable skills as a negotiator, and over the past several years, in expanding the programming and opportunities that the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation provides for our members.  She has accomplished all this with astonishing organizational skills, a wonderful ability to trust and delegate, and humor."   

A search committee has been formed with the intention of starting interviews in late spring or summer.

Visit www.ssdc.org for more information.