Panel Discussion: Broadway: Emerging from the Pandemic

The Metropolitan College Arts Administration Program proudly presents – Broadway: Emerging From the Pandemic, a public panel discussion.

We invite the greater Boston University Community to join us for a spirited discussion on the present conditions on Broadway and the direction of the theater industry in the future. This will be a unique opportunity to interact and learn from some of the foremost leaders of the industry in New York and globally.

Saturday, November 6
6:00PM-7:30PM EDT

The College of Fine Arts – Concert Hall (Main Entrance)
855 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215

Register here.

Panelists include:

Bryan Campione, Creative Director, Playbill Magazine
Bryan Campione is Playbill’s first-ever Creative Director. For Playbill he has served the role of executive producer for the Curtain Up! Broadway is Back Festival in Times Square and Glimmer of Light, Playbill’s first ever live Pride Concert Experience, and has helped develop numerous interactive events, including The ShowBiz Quiz, Broadway Murder Mysteries, Broadway Tails with Bill Berloni, and over thirty Playbill Virtual Experiences.  He formerly served as Communications & Social Media Manager for Nederlander Worldwide, and founded Broadway Buzz, LLC, a pioneer social marketing company that develops social media strategies and events for Broadway and accredited National Touring productions.  He is also the co-founder of Rock N’ Roll Debauchery, a production company that infuses rock-n-roll with theatre arts to create high-energy productions headlined by Broadway, television, and film celebrities.  He is a graduate of the University of Dayton.

Michael Coco, General Manager of Theater Operations, The Schubert Organization
Michael Coco currently serves as General Manager of Theater Operations for The Shubert Organization, America’s oldest professional theatre company and the largest theatre owner on Broadway.  This role includes the oversight of 17 Broadway theaters and the New World Stages theatrical complex which has served as the home of Tony-Award-winning, Guinness-Record-setting, and Pulitzer-Prize-earning shows where he was the Director of Programming from 2006 – 2011. Prior to that time, he held the position of Assistant General Manager at Dodger Stages. Michael is a graduate of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

Bonnie Comley, Producer (Sunset Boulevard, On Your Feet!, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, War Horse, Sunday in the Park with George, Legally Blonde) and Co-Founder, BroadwayHD; Board President, The Drama League
Bonnie Comley is a three-time Tony Award-winning producer. She has won an Olivier Award and two Drama Desk Awards for her stage productions. She is a full member of The Broadway League and the Audience Engagement and Education Committee. Comley has produced over 40 films, winning five Telly Awards and one W3 Award.

She is the founder and CEO of BroadwayHD, the world’s premier online streaming platform delivering over 300 premium live productions to theatre fans globally. The theatre community has honored Comley for her philanthropic work; she is the recipient of The Actors Fund Medal of Honor, The Drama League Special Contribution to the Theater Award, The Paul Newman Award from Arts Horizons and The Theater Museum Distinguished Service Award. Her educational honors include the Distinguished Alumni Awards from Emerson College, the University of Massachusetts, and the business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma. The Music Theatre Program at Boston University is named in her honor, The Musical Theatre Society Room at Emerson College bears her name, the 500-seat theater at the University of Massachusetts Lowell is known as the Comley-Lane Theatre, and The Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley Stage housed within BU’s Booth Arts Complex.

She has been a keynote speaker or panelist at BroadwayCon, C2E2 (Chicago ComicCon), SXSW, Theatre Resources Unlimited (TRU) and City National Bank Women Entrepreneurs.  She has taught master classes and been a guest lecturer at Columbia University, New York University, Emerson College, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Five Towns College and the University of Massachusetts, among others. http://www.bonniecomley.com/

Stewart Lane, Producer (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Ragtime, Company) and Co-Founder, BroadwayHD
Stewart Lane is the Chief Executive Officer, President and Co-Founder of BroadwayHD, as well as Chief Executive Officer of Theater Venture Inc.  He a six- time Tony Award winning producer for Jay Johnson:  The Two & Only, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Will Rogers Follies, La Cage Aux Folles, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, and War Horse, as well as a nine-time Tony Award nominee for productions including Fiddler on the Roof (revival) starring Alfred Molina, Gypsy (revival) starring Bernadette Peters, 1776 (revival) starring Pat Hingle and Brent Spiner, The Goodbye Girl starring Martin Short and Bernadette Peters and Woman of the Year starring Lauren Bacall.

He is also the recipient of four Drama Desk Awards, a Drama Critics Circle Award, an Outer Circle Critics Award and a Drama- Lounge Award.  He has given back to the theater community by creating scholarship funds at the Columbia University Business Graduate School and the Boston University College of Fine Arts Undergraduate Program, and he has provided major support to the University of Massachusetts, Emerson College and the Fiorello H. La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts School.  Five Towns College honored him by naming their business school the Stewart F. Lane School of Business for his contributions to the World of Entertainment.   https://www.mrbroadway.com/about.html

Robert Nederlander, Jr., CEO, Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment
Robert Nederlander, Jr. is a third-generation member of the Nederlander family, one of the great dynasties of the American theatre. Founded in 2000, Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment is focused on the expansion of the Broadway and Nederlander brands into new and emerging markets globally. Today, NWE develops, manages and operates theatres worldwide, produces Broadway and related shows in domestic and international markets, and undertakes cultural and educational initiatives.  He partnered with Boston University’s Metropolitan College to design and establish the Performing Arts Enterprise Program in 2019 and works with BU to guide the program’s development.

Steven Schnepp, President, Broadway Booking Office, NYC
Steven Schnepp has more than 40 years of experience in the entertainment industry and has collaborated on more than 75 productions.  Steven began booking Les Misérables for Cameron Mackintosh in 1989 and has been booking shows ever since. Previously, he served as press agent in Dallas, house manager in Austin and touring company manager across North America. Steven was associate producer for the original The Light in the Piazza tour and a co-producer of Chicago’s OVATIONS! Concert Celebrations of Great American Musicals. A graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, Steven is a contributing writer for the book, Theatre Management: Producing and Managing the Performing Arts and developed and teaches the Global Performing Arts Presenting and Producing in BU’s Performing Arts Enterprise program.  He founded the Broadway Booking Office in 2007, a theatrical tour booking, marketing and press agency representing Broadway, London-based shows and family productions.  He is a member of The Broadway League, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals and the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers.

Harvey Young, Dean, Boston University College of Fine Arts
Harvey Young is a cultural historian whose research on the performance and experience of race has been widely published in academic journals and profiled in major newspapers and magazines. He has published nine books, including Embodying Black Experience, winner of “Book of the Year” awards from the National Communication Association and the American Society for Theatre Research. His tenth book, Theatre & Human Flourishing, will be published in early 2022 by Oxford University Press. In January 2018, he became Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, where he is also Professor of English. He is Immediate Past President of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and has served on the boards of numerous arts and educational organizations. A former Harvard and Stanford faculty fellow, Dr. Young graduated with honors from Yale and holds a Ph.D. from Cornell. In 2021, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.  

Moderated by:

Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive Director, Massachusetts Cultural Council
Michael J. Bobbitt is a theatre director, choreographer, and playwright.  He has served as the Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA and previously for twelve years as Artistic Director of Adventure Theatre-MTC in Maryland, where he established a respected theatre/training company, commissioned new works by noted playwrights, transferred two shows to Off-Broadway, built an academy, and garnered eight Helen Hayes Awards. He has served as an Associate Professor of Theatre for the Boston Conservatory and Howard University. He has directed/choreographed at Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, The Kennedy Center, and the Washington National Opera, among others. He has received the Excel Leadership Award (Center for Nonprofit Advancement), the Emerging Leader Award (County Executive’s Excellence in the Arts and Humanities), and Person of the Year Award (Maryland Theatre Guide).  As a playwright, his work has been chosen for the NYC International Fringe Festival and The New York and Musical Theatre Festival.  In 2021, he joined the Massachusetts Cultural Council as Executive Director, becoming the highest-ranking cultural official in Massachusetts.