The next EDC Business Forum is scheduled for Thursday, October 22, from 11:30 a.m., to 1:00 p.m., at the Guthrie Theater – Level 5 Cafe. Please note that this is the fourth Thursday of the month, as opposed to the third.
The title of this month’s event is, “Introducing Joseph Haj, New Artistic Director for the Guthrie Theater.”
The cost to attend the forum is just $20. Attendees can pay by cash or check at the door.
Please RSVP for the event by sending an email to [email protected] by no later than noon on Monday, October 19, at Noon.
FORUM DESCRIPTION
The EDC October business forum will feature the newly appointed Guthrie Theater Artistic Director Joseph Haj. Mr Haj will discuss a future vision for the Guthrie Theater’s programming and engagement with the broader community, including how the Guthrie will lead the way in accessibility and innovation in theater arts. As a bonus we have the privilege of hearing from Jennifer Halcrow, VP of Advancement at MacPhail Center for the Music, discussing Minnesota’s Creative Index and how the arts are transforming economic vitality in our region and beyond.
FORUM AGENDA
- 11:30-Noon Networking and Lunch
- Noon-12:05 pm Introductions and EDC Update by Paul Mellblom and Dan Collison
- 12:10-12:15 pm District Development Spotlight – Mortenson Liner Parcel Development by Brad Lis
- 12:15-12:25 pm Minnesota Creative Index: Jennifer Halcrow, VP of Advancement at MacPhail Center for Music
- 12:25-12:55 pm Joseph Haj Keynote Presentation
- 12:55-1:00 pm Closing Announcements by Dan Collison
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
JENNIFER HALCROW
Jennifer Halcrow is Vice President for Advancement at MacPhail Center for Music where she leads a team of 10 fundraising and marketing professionals. She has held several leadership roles with our community’s most valued education, health care and social service organizations, including St. Paul Academy and Summit School, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and Second Harvest Heartland. During her career, teams under her direction have raised more than $135 million in support of these efforts. She holds her undergraduate degree from Grinnell College and a Masters in Public Affairs from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, where she was named a Thomas Swain Fellow. She is a founding member of the Creative MN taskforce and past president of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts.
JOSEPH HAJ
Joseph Haj was named the eighth artistic director of the Guthrie Theater in February of. He comes to the Guthrie from PlayMakers Repertory Company, the LORT theater company in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has served as Producing Artistic Director since 2006. At PlayMakers, Haj presented the world premiere of Surviving Twin by Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright, III; commissioned and premiered Mike Daisey’s The Story of the Gun; commissioned and premiered UNIVERSES’ play Spring Training; and produced the premiere of The Parchman Hour by award-winning film and theatre director Mike Wiley. Under Haj’s leadership, PlayMakers hosted artist residencies or performances by David Edgar, Nilaja Sun, Taylor Mac, Lisa Kron, Rinde Eckert, SITI Company, Pig Iron, The TEAM, Rude Mechs, and others. He also directed productions of The Tempest and Metamorphoses (both co-directed with Dominique Serrand), Into the Woods, Cabaret, Henry IV & V, The Illusion, Amadeus, Pericles, Big River, As You Like It, Nicholas Nickleby, Well and Cyrano.
Haj has directed at theaters throughout the United States including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C., where his 2010 production of Hamlet was nominated for six Helen Hayes Awards, winning for Outstanding Production. Outside of traditional theaters, Haj has directed projects in a maximum-security prison in Los Angeles, in the West Bank and Gaza, and in rural South Carolina.
Upon receiving his M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina, Haj launched his career as an actor, performing with the theater’s foremost directors including Garland Wright, JoAnne Akalaitis, Anne Bogart (as an original member of SITI Company), Peter Sellars, Sir Peter Hall, Robert Woodruff and others. He made his Guthrie debut in The Screens and performed in The Skin of Our Teeth, Troilus & Cressida, Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V.
Haj was the 2014 recipient of The Zelda Fichandler Award, was named by American Theatre magazine as one of the 25 theater artists who will have a significant impact on the field over the next quarter century, and was recipient of the respected NEA/White House Council Millennium Grant awarded to 50 of America’s finest artists. He has served on the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group, and is currently a member of the LORT Diversity Task Force, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Diversity Task Force, and Under the Radar’s Director’s Circle.
