The Pasadena Playhouse State Theatre of California announced Thursday that Danny Feldman will be the theatre’s new Executive/Artistic Director, following the planned retirement of longtime Artistic Director Sheldon Epps.
Feldman will work closely with Epps during a transitional period. Epps will become The Pasadena Playhouse’s Artistic Director Emeritus.
Feldman will join The Playhouse from his current post as Executive Director at Labyrinth Theater Company in New York City. A native of West Hills, California, he returns to Los Angeles where he served as Managing Director of Reprise Theater Company for several years.
“We are very excited to have Danny join us,” said Playhouse Board Chairman David DiCristofaro. “He brings a strong commitment to artistic excellence, with an impressive producing background coupled with extensive theater management experience. Danny embodies the mission and values of our Playhouse – artists at the center of the theater, and a commitment to the community which we serve.”
Epps, who has served as The Playhouse’s Artistic Director for 20 years, agreed. “I warmly welcome Danny to The Playhouse and happily welcome him back to the Los Angeles theatre community. I am sure that his energy, enthusiasm and passion for our art form will be of great value to our theatre and to our community. I look forward to working with him, and to our collaboration over the course of the transition.”
“I sincerely hope that his time at The Playhouse will be as rich and rewarding as mine has been,” said Epps.
As the Executive/Artistic Director, a title that was created to encompass his experience as a producer and captures the artistic integrity he has brought to all of his work, Feldman will provide the artistic vision and strategic, financial and operational direction of The Playhouse. Among his executive responsibilities, Feldman will work with the Board of Directors and will act as the spokesperson with key constituents, including government officials, community leaders, and funding sources. He will oversee an annual budget of $6 million to $8 million and lead a staff of 25.
Feldman will assume the responsibility for the artistic direction of The Playhouse and will select the 2017-2018 Season.
“It is so thrilling to join such an esteemed theater as The Pasadena Playhouse with its vast and rich history and its deeply rooted ties to the community,” Feldman said. “I am humbled to carry on the legacy started by this theater’s past leaders particularly Sheldon Epps. And after six years in New York City I can’t wait to to return to my hometown to guide this historic theater towards its next chapter.”
Since 2010, Feldman has been the Managing Director/Executive Director at the Labyrinth Theater, a leading Off-Broadway theater company in New York City founded by John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Feldman led the theater to its first Broadway production, the Tony nominated The Motherf**ker With The Hat. He led a strategic effort to cultivate relationships with and engage top artists in the theater and ushered in an expanded play development program. Feldman instituted an audience development plan that resulted in more than doubling the audiences while maintaining one of the youngest and most diverse audiences in New York. He also led an effort to increase contributed income and resolve the organization’s longstanding debt.
Prior to that, Feldman joined Reprise Theatre Company in 2002 as the company’s General Manager before becoming its Managing Director in 2007. While there, he increased artistic programming, created a city-wide festival, launched a concert series featuring lesser known Broadway musicals, and created education program, giving at-risk high school students an introduction to classic American musicals for which he received the California Theater Education Teacher’s Association Award.
As an independent producer, Feldman collaborated with Tony-nominated director Kristin Hanggi, presenting the World Premiere of bare: a pop opera. bare received the 2001 Los Angeles Ovation Award for “Best Musical – Intimate Theatre” and later was produced Off-Broadway in 2004. The pop opera continues to play to audiences internationally. He also produced the West Coast Premiere of Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi, also directed by Hanggi, at the Lillian Theatre. Feldman received his B.A. in Music from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Built on a tradition of innovation and excellence, The Pasadena Playhouse is committed to continue to be the premiere theatrical experience in Southern California showcasing the most exciting theatrical entertainment in the state and being an amazing forum for launching new work onto the national stage. The Pasadena Playhouse State Theatre of California will celebrate its Centennial Anniversary in 2017.
