Carl Forsman (Courtesy University of North Carolina School of the Arts)

Carl Forsman, founding artistic director of New York's Keen Company, has been named the new Dean of the School of Drama at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, effective July 1.

Forsman has been Artistic Director of Keen Company in New York since 2000. Under his leadership, the company was awarded a Special Drama Desk Award in 2005 "for moving and enlightening audiences with plays that build upon our theatrical heritage." As recently reported, Jonathan Silverstein has been named the company's new artistic director.

Forsman's other New York work includes Love Child at New World Stages and Primary Stages, The Bald Soprano and The Lesson for the Atlantic Theater Company, Everythings Turning Into Beautiful and Sin (A Cardinal Deposed) for The New Group, and much more. From 2006-09, Forsman led the turnaround of the Dorset Theatre Festival, a summer professional theatre in southern Vermont, and from 1998-2000, he was the literary manager for the Blue Light Theatre Company in New York.

Forsman succeeds Gerald Freedman, Dean of the School of Drama for more than two decades, who is retiring June 30.