Jeffrey Horowitz & Dorothy Ryan
Founder/Artistic Director & Managing Director,
Theatre for a New Audience

Their Story

Competitive advantage has a whole new meaning for Jeffrey Horowitz, Founder and Artistic Director of Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) after taking a National Arts Strategies (NAS) seminar. Finding the similarities between an organization like his and for-profit companies, Mr. Horowitz learned he couldn't solve problems by simply getting more contributions. Taking a page from other industries, seminar participants learn to make a plan putting human and financial resources to support their competitive advantage.

NAS seminars use nonprofit and for-profit cases to illustrate how important management skills apply in both sectors, and then provide a framework to make it easy to apply those ideas to your own organization. "We are now using the framework we learned in the Strategy seminar and have adjusted our staff and budget accordingly," said Mr. Horowitz. "Thinking about competitive advantage makes me operate more rigorously."

Managing Director Dorothy Ryan also attended the seminar and notes the high quality of the NAS program. "I've never participated in anything quite this rigorous or effective, and I attend lots of workshops," said Ms. Ryan. "This was graduate-quality education that pushed my thinking. For me, I now have a new standard that will measure what we do in our organization." She found the most valuable work to be the exercise that focused her team on detailing their core values and purpose. That discipline, Ms. Ryan says, shed light on each project her organization was undertaking.

Mr. Horowitz and Ms. Ryan also valued the cross section of attendees, who represented a variety of disciplines and geographic locations. Attending were board members, development directors, arts presenters and producers - all professionals with similar jobs but with helpful, different perspectives. It was large enough for diversity but small enough for a stimulating in-depth discussion about the industry environment.

"The faculty were probing, quick, and challenging and they stimulated conversation," said Mr. Horowitz. "They weren't talking heads, but instead engaged you without giving a lecture, saying that we need to speak often and openly in order to find the answers. We were also told there isn't any one answer, but were instead empowered as thinkers after being given new tools and paradigms."

In addition, the organization has integrated many of the learning's from the NAS seminars into their strategic planning process.

"We started on a strategic planning process soon after the seminar and are now planning to build our first permanent home and move our performances from Manhattan to Brooklyn," said Ms. Ryan. "With that change we needed to learn the marketplace and know ourselves and our stakeholders. The work we did with NAS provided the perfect foundation and very soon, we will have our plan."

Background

Founded in 1979 by Jeffrey Horowitz, the mission of Theatre for a New Audience is to develop and vitalize the performance and study of Shakespeare and classic drama, including modern classics, in America. Theatre for a New Audience produces for audiences Off-Broadway and has also toured nationally and internationally. Now celebrating its 28th Season, TFANA has a budget of approximately $3 million. The Theatre is planning to build its first home -- a theatre designed through a collaboration between Frank Gehry and Hugh Hardy -- in the BAM Cultural District in downtown Brooklyn (occupancy anticipated late 2009).

Theatre for a New Audience finds the contemporary heart of the classics. A reverence for language, spirit of adventure and visual boldness mark the Theatre's productions, which have earned numerous awards and nominations, including the Drama Desk, OBIE, Callaway, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and Tony Awards. In 2001, Theatre for a New Audience became the first American theatre to present Shakespeare at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, and returns to Stratford this season with The Merchant of Venice. As part of its commitment to serve a broad audience, Theatre for a New Audience runs the largest Shakespeare education program in the New York City Public Schools. More than 110,000 students have been served through the organization's in-depth programs since 1984.