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Theatre Aspen hires former Lincoln Center president Jed Bernstein

Staff report

Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, performing arts center executive and arts education advocate Jed Bernstein will take over Theatre Aspen as producing director, the nonprofit announced Tuesday.

Bernstein previously served as president and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and from 1995 to 2006 led the Broadway League, the industry trade association and co-producer of the Tony Awards telecast.

The high-profile hire brings on a permanent replacement for executive artistic director Paige Price, who left Theatre Aspen in February. Associate artistic director Markus Potter, who led the company through the summer in an interim role, will remain at Theatre Aspen in his associate role.



Bernstein began work Tuesday. He will split his time between New York and Aspen, much like Price did, working in Aspen through the summer theater season.

“It is a tremendous honor to join the Theatre Aspen team,” Bernstein said in the announcement. “I am excited to have the opportunity to integrate this institution even more deeply into the cultural fabric of this magnificent community.”




Bernstein abruptly left Lincoln Center last year after an undisclosed relationship with a staff member came to light, according to a New York Times story on his departure.

Prior to joining Lincoln Center, Bernstein was a Tony Award-winning independent Broadway producer through Above the Title Entertainment Productions.

In 2010, Bernstein partnered with the Bridge Street Foundation to purchase and renovate the historic Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The Playhouse celebrated its reopening in 2012. As producing director, Bernstein presented year-round theatrical seasons, returning this 75-year-old playhouse to the forefront of regional theater.

“To attract someone of Jed’s diverse background and stature is a real coup for our institution,” Theatre Aspen board chairwoman Kimberly Schlosser said in the announcement. “It is a testament to Theatre Aspen’s national reputation for high-quality, ambitious theatre, and is sure to guarantee an exciting future.”

For more than 30 years, Bernstein has taught and lectured on advertising, marketing and all facets of arts management at such institutions as Yale School of Management, Yale School of Drama, New York University and Columbia Business School.

“Jed’s experience as a producer and manager of both small and large venues will be critical to taking us to the next level artistically and programmatically,” said Lisa Baker, chairwoman of the company’s director search committee.

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