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The reason Mitch fell in love with non-profit theater, the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare under producer Joseph Papp, was the nation's largest non-profit during the years that he worked there (1978-1986). NYSF produced 27 productions each year plus a jazz program, film restoration program, Latino Festival, experimental theatre, cabaret, and award-winning Broadway and Off-Broadway transfers (That Championship Season, For Colored Girls..., The Normal Heart, The Pirates of Penzance, Edwin Drood, I'm Getting My Act Together..., all Liz Swados' musicals, A Chorus Line, and the entire Shakespearean catalog (multiple times!). Non-stop work and we never wanted to go home. Mitch began in group sales, was promoted to Audience Development and Press, and was promoted again into the General Manager's office. from which he was apprenticed into the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers as a Company Manager.
As BSC's first managing director, Mitch balanced its budget in his first season, invested time and energy in the community, led a capital campaign to find a permanent theatre space in Pittsfield, upscaled shop equipment, solved housing issues for visiting artists, wrote and negotiated all contracts, and helped A.D. Julie Boyd send 25th Annual...Spelling Bee to Second Stage and ultimately to Bway.
Mitch general-managed Carnegie Hall's 150th Anniversary celebration: West Side Story featuring Bernstein conductor Marin Alsop, star Skylar Astin, a Broadway company of 40 plus and a support company of over 150 NYC high school students. With designers Nevin Steinberg (Hamilton) and Eugene Lee (SNL, Sweeney Todd), we were the talk of the town and Carnegie supporters!
Managed 2 Broadway transfers for Chicago's "best" nonprofit theatre company!
The Grapes of Wrath (Tony Award Best Play) and supervised the taping for PBS-TV, and Song of Jacob Zulu (Tony Award nominee Best Play) featuring South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
A nonprofit sponsoring a Clown Care Unit in children's hospitals, with urban schooling for acrobats, and a 2000-seat tent, Mitch lived and drove his own motor home, ushered in the first computer box office to control ticket sales, traveled the East Coast with elephants, horses, dogs, and a tiger (no longer!), worked with super-talented production designers and crew, and negotiated talent-trades with Cirque du Soleil.
His first 501(3)c company, he oversaw all fundraising,
casting, production, and marketing,
playing to sell-out crowds in its 3+ year history.
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