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Arts & Entertainment

Scott Schwartz Named Artistic Director at Bay Street Theatre

Experienced director will lead a change in direction for Sag Harbor's theater.

Bay Street Theatre is making good on its promise to change directions in 2013 with the appointment of new Artistic Director Scott Schwartz. 

Schwartz will lead the nonprofit Sag Harbor theater into its 2014 season.  He is currently directing the new musical Secondhand Lions with book by Rupert Holmes and music and lyrics by Michael Weiner and Alan Zachary at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle.
 
"Schwartz is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work has been seen on and off Broadway, across the United States, in Great Britain, and Asia," the theater stated. "Over the past 20 years, he has built a reputation for pursuing and embracing a wide range of works for the stage, from new plays to classics to musicals and opera."

He is a Harvard grad and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, according to the theater, which noted that he directed the longest running one-woman show in Broadway history, Golda’s Balcony. Further directing credits include off-Broadway's Bat Boy: The Musical at the Union Square Theatre and Jonathan Larson's tick, tick... Boom! at the Jane Street Theatre, both of which earned him nods for Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Director of a Musical. He also directed Kafka’s The Castle at Manhattan Ensemble Theatre, Rooms: A Rock Romance at New World Stages and most recently Murder for Two at Second Stage Uptown.

“We are delighted to welcome Scott Schwartz as our new artistic director," Bay Street Executive Director Tracy Mitchell and Bay Street Board of Trustees Chairwoman Ana Daniel said in a joint statement. “His remarkable talent, experience, and passion for theatre will help lead us to an incredible future of programming and new artistic alliances. We couldn’t be more thrilled.”

Schwartz said in a statement that his is deeply thrilled and honored to receive the appointment at Bay Street. “I have long admired the work done by this great company, dating back to its earliest days," he said. "I still remember how taken I was when I traveled to Sag Harbor to attend Cynthia Ozick’s Blue Light, by the excitement of seeing first-class performers doing their work so close in this intimate and beautiful theater."

Schwartz will fill a void left when Murphy Davis stepped down last year.

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