Second Stage Theater Artistic Director Carole Rothman Elected To The American Academy Of Arts & Sciences

Carole Rothman, Artistic Director and President of Second Stage Theater, has been elected to the 2020 class of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Second Stage Theater was founded by Rothman in 1979 and operates three New York City venues, exclusively dedicated to producing living American Playwrights.

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, and others who believed the new republic should honor exceptionally accomplished individuals and engage them in advancing the public good.

Two hundred and forty years later, the Academy continues to dedicate itself to recognizing excellence and relying on expertise - both of which seem more important than ever.

The Academy recently announced its newest members with the election of 276 artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, non-profit, and private sectors.

The complete Class of 2020 is listed here.

Current Academy members represent today's innovative thinkers in every field and profession, including more than two hundred and fifty Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.

The new members join the company of Academy members elected before them, including Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton in the eighteenth century; Ralph Waldo Emerson and Maria Mitchell in the nineteenth; Robert Frost, Martha Graham, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the twentieth; and - in the past two decades - Antonin Scalia, Michael Bloomberg, John Lithgow, Judy Woodruff, and Bryan Stevenson.

International Honorary Members include Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Laurence Olivier, Mary Leakey, John Maynard Keynes, Akira Kurosawa, and Nelson Mandela.

Carole Rothman has been Artistic Director of Second Stage Theater since founding the company in 1979. Operating three venues and producing a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of America's best contemporary theater, Second Stage is the only company on Broadway exclusively dedicated to producing works by living American Playwrights. Second Stage's first season on Broadway at The Hayes Theater included Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Trip Cullman (Tony nominee for Best Revival of Play, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role, Michael Cera and Brian Tyree Henry) and Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee and directed by Anna D. Shapiro. Among Second Stage's 185 productions are the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis; the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey and the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes. Second Stage productions have earned 13 Tonys, including the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical (Dear Evan Hansen), eight Outer Critics Circle, 13 Drama Desk, 29 Obies, and 20 Lucille Lortel Awards, including the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. Rothman's directorial awards include an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Directing, a Tony nomination for Best Director of a Play (Coastal Disturbances), and the Rosamund Gilder Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement. She is the recipient of the Northwestern University Alumni Merit Award, a Producer of the Year Lilly Award and was included on Variety's 2018 Broadway Impact Report.

For more information about Second Stage Theater, please visit www.2ST.com