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Linda Levy Grossman
Executive Director, Helen
Hayes Awards Society
Baltimore native Linda Levy Grossman
created a profession for herself when she created a college curriculum to
match her interests in theater administration. Her Bachelor of Arts in
Theatre Management from Boston’s Emerson College earned her a spot working
with former Kennedy Center General Manager Alexander Morr who was
establishing his own theater management consultancy firm in the early 1980s.
It also brought her back to the Potomac Region where she has become one of
the personalities who help make the incredibly vibrant theater community
here what it is, a community. |
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Career Highlights: Hired in 1983 by the Harlequin Dinner
Theatre as public relations and marketing director, she also acted as press
representative for their national touring division. As such she was the
spokesperson for Gigi staring Louis Jordan, Oliver, Can-Can
staring Chita Rivera, The King and I, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Brigadoon
and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. In 1987 she went out on her own as a
consultant in professional management for theaters and also became
increasingly involved in the programs of the Helen Hayes Award Society then
led by Founding Executive Director Betty Brown. In May of 2001 she was named
Brown’s successor and has led the Society to the celebration of its 20th
Annual Awards cycle.
Levy
Grossman’s duties at Harlequin had included serving as a liaison between
that theater and the Helen Hayes Society which was then just beginning to
get professional theater in the region the attention it deserved. When she
established her own business, she became involved with programs and projects
involving a number of professional theater companies in the area including
Olney Theatre Center for the Arts,
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Horizons Theatre, and Washington Jewish
Theatre.
At
the Helen Hayes Awards Society, Levy Grossman oversees programs such as the
Theatre Legacy Project directed at students in grades 4 to 9, Double Play!
which offers two-for-one tickets for students and their families, programs
such as Curtain Up and the Society’s website with current theater
information, the Canadian/Washington Theatre Partnership, the Washington
Audience Development Initiative, the annual Helen Hayes Awards Benefit
Auction and, of course, the premiere professional theatre recognition
program, The Helen Hayes Awards.
Levy
Grossman is married to David Grossman who recently retired after 22 years as
an editor and senior producer for CNN. They, and their ten year old son Ben,
live in Baltimore where they took up residence after her father suffered a
stroke in 1990. They have continued to accept the lengthy commute to offices
in Washington in order to have Ben be in close proximity to his
grandparents. |
