American Century Theater Announces New "Second Decade" Board of Directors

The American Century Theater appointed a new Board of Directors at its May 6, 2006 meeting. TACT is the Arlington-based non-profit professional theater company dedicated to rescuing great 20^th Century plays and musicals from obscurity.

The new Board, pointedly dubbed "the Second Decade Board," will address the strategic and organizational actions required to move the eleven year old company to "the next level," said theater co-founder and artistic director Jack Marshall. "These are accomplished and determined people from around the nation who will help us achieve our mission," Marshall says. "While we produce in the Capital area, the artistic, historic, and cultural impacts of the plays we mount have been felt nationwide."

The new board members include:

Rebecca Christy. Christy, Arlington, VA and Newport, RI resident is an accomplished artist, designer and theatrical producer who divided her time between the performing arts and the Foreign Service. She recently returned from Brunei where her husband Gene Christy served as U.S. Ambassador. She produced the American Century Theater's acclaimed The Andersonville Trial, which received a Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Resident Play, and the Carol Burnett tribute, Laughter at Ten O'clock.

Peter Kellogg. Kellogg has two Tony nominations as playwright and lyricist for his musical version of Anna Karenina. His latest musical, Chasing Nicollette (starring Bronson Pinchot), recently premiered at the Prince Theatre in Philadelphia. He is also working on Stunt Girl, based on the life of Nellie Bly, which will be workshopped at the Village Theatre in Seattle this spring; and Desperate Measures, a western musical loosely based on Measure for Measure, which premiered last year at Lyric Stage and Casa Manana in Texas. From Chappaqua, NY.

Wendy T. Kenney. Kenney is an attorney specializing in contract and grant issues. She recently retired from the full-time practice of law to pursue other interests, including participation on the TACT Second Decade Board.  A graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, and currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Law Center's Women's Forum..  She is a trained singer and pianist, and has performed in, accompanied, or served as musical director for numerous theatrical productions and musical events.  Ms. Kenney was elected Chair of the Board. From Potomac, MD.

Jacqueline Manger. Manger is the Chief Operating Official with the D.C. investment firm West Creek Capital. As a professional actress and singer she performed in the touring companies of several Broadway musicals, and has served as choreographer, assistant director or director of numerous American Century Theater productions including the Helen Hayes nominated Danny and Sylvia, was co-author and director-choreographer of the original World War II Christmas revue If Only in My Dreams, and starred in TACT's Helen Hayes nominated revival of The Cradle Will Rock. From Montgomery County, MD.

Steven Mazzola: Assistant to the Shakespeare Theatre Artistic Director Michael Kahn and affiliated teaching artist. For TACT he has directed Tea and Sympathy, The Second Man, The Autumn Garden, Hotel Universe and A Flag is Born. Has directed The Royal Hunt of the Sun (WSC) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Keegan). In addition to teaching for Woolly Mammoth Theatre and the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Steven is on the faculty of University of Maryland University College. Named 100 Washingtonians to Watch in Washingtonian magazine. MFA in dramaturgy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. From Washington, DC.

Loren Platzman. Platzman is an educator, entrepreneur, and inventor. Following studies at the Paris Conservatory, he achieved both his undergraduate and doctorate degrees at MIT. He was a professor at the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, and founded a dot-com, On Technology, which had a successful public offering and was subsequently acquired by Symantec.  He is developing a new software startup in the area of science education. Platzman was the musical arranger for Hollywood Pinafore, the Helen Hayes Award winning Danny and Sylvia, and the upcoming Call Me Mister. Atlanta, GA.

Janet R. Reingold. Reingold is President of Reingold, Inc., a full-service strategic communications and capacity-building consulting firm. She has consulted to major national business organizations, leading corporations and their foundations, nonprofit organizations and public interest groups. Author of publications on social marketing, management, collaboration, human resources, and social policy. She has written for four presidents of the United States, two vice presidents, Cabinet secretaries, and dozens of corporate CEOs, governors, and civic leaders. Reingold was an executive in the U.S. Department of Labor, and manager of the Vice President's Task Force on Youth Employment. From Washington, DC.

Philip H. Yasinski. Yasinki is experienced managing businesses, associations, academic, and cultural institutions. Formerly Vice President of the Close Up Foundation and the White House Points of Light Foundation, he directed the President's outreach programs to increase business support for youth and community service. Previously, Mr. Yasinski served as the Senior Vice President of the National Alliance of Business; Executive Director of University Development at Georgetown University; and at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies he directed programs to attract business leadership and support to SAIS activities in Latin America, Europe, Canada, and a University Center in Nanjing, China. He has also directed worldwide fundraising and public affairs for CARE, the international aid and development organization. From Washington, DC.

Returning Board members are Jack Marshall, TACT CEO and Artistic Director, and Marketing Director David Siegel. Marshall is from Alexandria, VA and Siegel is from Fairfax County, VA. Bart Whiteman, founder of the Source Theater and the Source One-Act Theater Festival had also agreed to join the Board after working with TACT since inception. Mr. Whitman died suddenly last month.

"The Board will build on TACT's mission to keep the classic American stage repertoire before audiences and to ensure that the ideas, words, and stories of some of our greatest writers continue to teach, amuse and inspire." said Kenney. "We are a Board that is equipped, determined and ready to help the American Century Theater to meet its full potential to the community and all those who contribute their time and resources to such a worthy mission. I am honored and excited to take on this challenge.

In other actions, TACT officially announced the appointment of Robert McElwaine, screenwriter, playwright and lyricist as the American Century Theater's resident playwright. He wrote the book and lyrics for the Helen Hayes winning musical Danny and Sylvia. He served as publicist for many of Hollywood's biggest starts in the 1950's and '60's.

Ed Bishop was officially announced as a TACT Artistic Associate. He is a veteran actor, producer, teacher and director. His innovative and daring directing work for TACT includes a new production of Uncle Tom's Cabin, that received world wide attention through the Voice of America and an acclaimed production of Eugene O'Neill's expressionistic masterpiece The Emperor Jones.

The American Century Theater is a 501(c)(3) professional nonprofit theater company dedicated to producing great, important, and neglected 20th Century American plays and playwrights. TACT is funded in part by Arlington County through the Cultural Affairs Division of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources and the Arlington Commission for the Arts; the Virginia Commission for the Arts; and numerous foundations and many generous donors.