CAMBRIDGE, MASS.: Carole Rothman, artistic director and president of Second Stage Theater, has been elected to the 2020 class of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She is among 276 artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders elected as the Academy’s newest members.
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences was established to honor exceptionally accomplished individuals and engage them in advancing the public good. Current Academy members represent innovative thinkers in every field and profession, including more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.
Rothman founded Second Stage in 1979, operating three venues and producing a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of contemporary theatre. Second Stage is the only company on Broadway exclusively dedicated to producing works by living American playwrights. Its 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. 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.
The Academy’s new members join the company of those elected before them, including Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Frost, Martha Graham, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Antonin Scalia, Michael Bloomberg, John Lithgow, Judy Woodruff, and Bryan Stevenson. The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, and others who wanted to honor exceptionally accomplished individuals and engage them in advancing the public good.
