Was 45 Years Leading Second Stage Enough? Not for Carole Rothman.
The New York Times
As she departs the acclaimed nonprofit, Rothman discussed why women need to be in leadership, her Tony Awards mic drop and the “perfect production.”
Carole Rothman was a 28-year-old director when she and a colleague decided to form a theater company. It was the 1970s, and leadership opportunities for women were scarce. Also, they had a theory that there were a lot of new-ish plays that, for any number of reasons, deserved another look: Many nonprofit theaters, in their admirable enthusiasm for new work, seemed to be overlooking promising dramas that hadn’t gotten their due.
The result was Second Stage Theater, which is now a leading nonprofit theater in New York. The company has its own house on Broadway (the Helen Hayes), a commitment to staging work by living American writers and a proud history of nurturing Tony- and Pulitzer-winning shows. (In June, its production of “Appropriate” won the Tony for best play revival, and it previously won Tony Awards for “Take Me Out” and “Dear Evan Hansen.”)
After leading the institution for 45 years, Rothman, the founding artistic director and the organization’s president, is leaving at the end of this month. Rothman’s departure is not an entirely amicable one; she is proud of the work the theater has done, but wasn’t quite ready to leave.
She will be succeeded by Evan Cabnet, the artistic director of LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater’s space for producing work by early-career artists.
She spent her final days in the job working on a documentary about the Tony Kiser Theater, Second Stage’s Rem Koolhaas-designed Off Broadway venue, which the organization, to Rothman’s dismay, is letting go at the end of this year, citing cost concerns. (The company will continue to produce work Off Broadway, starting in space rented at the nearby Signature Theater.)
In an interview, Rothman, 73, discussed the challenges she faced as a woman in the industry, her favorite memories (and her biggest disaster) and what her future in the theater may look like.
