WATERFORD, CONN.: The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center has named Alexander Gemignani as the artistic director of its National Music Theater Conference (NMTC). Gemignani will replace founding artistic director Paulette Haupt, who will step down in August after 40 seasons with the O’Neill.

“I am deeply honored that Preston Whiteway and the board of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center have selected me to help shape the next generation of groundbreaking musicals,” said Gemignani in a statement. “The O’Neill’s stellar reputation of cultivating work that challenges, stimulates, and inspires is one I’m thrilled to continue. I have enormous respect for my predecessor, Paulette Haupt, whose passion and insight have helped make the O’Neill a safe haven for creation for the last 40 years. I’m invigorated by the challenge of honoring the foundation and legacy of the American musical, while looking ahead to include new theatremakers with bold approaches to storytelling.”

Gemignani currently stars as King George III in the Chicago company of Hamilton and has appeared on Broadway in Violet, Chicago, Les Misérables, Sweeney Todd, Assassins, The People in the Picture, and Sunday in the Park With George. He is also a composer/lyricist and is working on four new musicals at the moment. As a music director, he is working on productions at the Public Theatre and Roundabout Theatre Company. He has served on the faculty of the O’Neill’s National Theater Institute and New York University. He is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

“It gives me great pleasure to pass the baton on to Alexander Gemignani as the new leader of the National Music Theater Conference,” Haupt said in a statement. “Of course it is bittersweet to leave, but timely for me and for the O’Neill to gain new perspectives and rise to new challenges. With such a multitalented artist at the helm, I have no doubt of the conference’s continued strong legacy.”

Founded in 1964, the O’Neill is dedicated to developing new work and new voices in the American theatre, through its various programs, including the National Playwrights Conference, the National Music Theater Conference, the National Puppetry Conference, the Cabaret & Performance Conference, the National Theater Institute, and the National Critics Institute.