Victoria Bailey
Victoria Bailey currently works as an educator, facilitator and consultant in the performing arts. She served as executive director of the not-for-profit Theatre Development Fund (TDF) from April 2001 to June 2023. TDF is the not-for-profit organization that sustains live theatre and dance by engaging and cultivating a broad and diverse audience and eliminating barriers to attendance. In addition to overseeing all programmatic activity, Ms. Bailey completed a national research project in partnership with Brad Erickson from Theatre Bay Area titled Triple Play, examining ways to strengthen the relationship between playwrights, theaters, and audiences as a means to increase audience appetite for new and risky work. Previously, she was instrumental in the execution of a comprehensive study of the lives of American playwrights and the production of new American Plays. The study culminated in Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play. Prior to her appointment at TDF, she had a nearly 20-year association with Manhattan Theatre Club. Ms. Bailey is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts. She served several times on the Tony Awards Nominating Committee. In June 2023 Ms. Bailey received a Tony Honor for Excellence. In addition, she received the Lucille Lortel Foundation Edith Oliver Service to Off Broadway Award in May 2023. Ms. Bailey received a BA in history from Yale College.
This Is Who We Are is a series featuring Columbia University School of the Arts’ professors, covering careers, pedagogy, and art-making. Here, we talk with Professor Victoria ‘Tory’ Bailey about loud and noisy classrooms, the challenges facing students, and the importance of bringing theatre to audiences.
Stars Behind The Stars is a bi-weekly series featuring theatre makers behind the scenes.