Michael Stotts

Michael Stotts is in his fifth year as managing director of Hartford Stage. During his three-year tenure as managing director at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, Mr. Stotts produced a significant number of new plays, including works by Paula Vogel, Craig Lucas, James Lapine and Julia Cho, among others. Sixteen Wounded by Eliam Kraiem moved to Broadway in 2004, and Cho’s BFE and Lapine’s Fran’s Bed with Mia Farrow subsequently transferred to or were produced at Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons.

Prior to Long Wharf he served as managing director at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and for nine years he served in the same capacity at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in Madison, New Jersey, where he successfully initiated and managed a $7.5 million capital campaign to build the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, which opened in 1998. Most recently he served as a planning consultant at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey.

Stotts began his professional career at the Manhattan Theatre Club, where he served in a number of management capacities from 1986–1990. Mr. Stotts was a co-founder and president of the Connecticut Arts Alliance, a statewide arts advocacy organization. He has recently served on the board of the National Corporate Theatre Fund and the Greater New Haven Convention and Visitors Bureau. In New Jersey, Mr. Stotts served as chairman of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, the statewide association of New Jersey’s 22 professional theatres. In addition, he served on the board of ArtPride New Jersey, the statewide arts advocacy organization. In 2005 Mr. Stotts was honored with a Distinguished Advocate Award from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.