Anne Kauffman Becomes New Artistic Director of Encores! Off-Center
(© David Gordon)
New York City Center president and CEO Arlene Shuler announced today that Anne Kauffman will take over as artistic director of Encores! Off-Center for the 2019 season. Founding artistic director Jeanine Tesori will maintain her relationship with the popular summer series as creative adviser – working with Kauffman to curate programming that will conclude City Center's 75th anniversary season.
Kauffman and Tesori served as co-artistic directors for the 2018 series, which included Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World, Michael Friedman's Gone Missing, and Micki Grant's Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope.
"I am so very grateful to Michael Friedman for asking me to direct Assassins two summers ago," said Kauffman. "He introduced me to City Center and to what musical theater is and could be. Michael Friedman, Jeanine Tesori, and City Center have had an immeasurable impact on my artistic path, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue this collaboration. Off-Center provides audiences with the opportunity to experience the work of artists like Micki Grant and Vinnette Carroll alongside contemporary composers like Jason Robert Brown. I'm really looking forward to putting together the next season."
Kauffman recently made her Broadway directorial debut with the Roundabout revival of Marvin's Room in June 2017. Her other New York directing credits include Mary Jane, Hundred Days, A Life, Marjorie Prime, The Nether, Smokefall, Belleville, Detroit, You Got Older, among many others. She is an artistic associate and founding member of The Civilians, a resident director with Roundabout, a Sundance program associate, a Clubbed Thumb associate artist and co-creator of the CT Directing Fellowship, a New Georges associate artist, Artistic Council of Soho Rep, and an SDC executive board member.
Encores! Off-Center was founded in 2013 with the mission of reviving musicals that pushed creative boundaries when they were first produced. Filtered through the lens of today's artists, these shows are presented not as historical documents but as living, vital works that speak to audiences both new and old.
