AMERICAN THEATRE | Amanda Susskind Named Managing Director of Shakespeare Middle Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES: Shakespeare Middle of Los Angeles (SCLA) has named Amanda Susskind to be the corporate’s managing director, succeeding Dana P. Goland within the function, and becoming a member of a management staff that features creative director Ben Donenberg. Susskind is the previous president of Educate Democracy, a nationwide civic schooling supplier, and earlier than that was the Los Angeles regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. A throughline in her profession as a lawyer and nonprofit chief has been programming for college students and lecturers in underserved communities. She started at her SCLA put up earlier this 12 months.

Susskind will oversee a transformative renovation of the SCLA downtown Los Angeles headquarters that can create a brand new 299-seat state-of-the artwork multimedia and stay performing arts and neighborhood heart. The newly renovated studio will even assist the enlargement of a variety of SCLA’s White Home-awarded youth employment packages and transitional arts employment on-the-job coaching experiences, which support town’s most severely unemployed populations.

“It’s thrilling to be a part of the transformation of a neighborhood,” mentioned Susskind in an announcement. “The brand new house will bolster the Shakespeare Middle’s lengthy historical past of offering world-class theatre and life-transforming schooling and workforce packages. We additionally see it as offering a western gateway to the downtown arts neighborhood, anchored within the Grand Avenue hall which homes the Civic Middle, Cathedral of our Woman of the Angels, Music Middle, Walt Disney Live performance Corridor, Colburn College, and the Broad and MOCA museums.”

Beneath her management at Educate Democracy, the group adopted and applied a strategic plan to broaden exterior and media relations, replace programs and tools, and enhance the efficacy and attain of packages. Among the many rapid impacts of the plan was that Educate Democracy almost doubled the proportion of girls and other people of shade on its board, created a dynamic year-round advertising and marketing and fundraising marketing campaign, and created new and reorganized employees positions.

In her 18 years on the Anti-Defamation League, Susskind oversaw a civil rights agenda encompassing anti-bias schooling and bullying prevention packages, Holocaust schooling, hate crime sufferer help, and advocacy for constitutional rights. She additionally conceived and convened L.A. For Good, a coalition of neighborhood leaders standing collectively to battle hate and create a extra unified Los Angeles. Susskind additionally performs the violin with the Culver Metropolis Symphony Orchestra.

Since 1985, the Shakespeare Middle of Los Angeles has been a hub for award-winning basic theatrical productions, packages, and occasions designed to have interaction, enrich, and empower individuals from all walks of life. As of 2022, its price range was round $1.5 million.

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