Lincoln Center Theater Producing Artistic Director André Bishop has set an exit from the institution, with his 33-year tenure set to close at the end of the company's 2024-2025 season, which will also mark LCT's 40th anniversary.
Bishop joined the company as artistic director in 1992, becoming producing artistic director in 2013. During his tenure, Bishop has overseen an expansion of the company's footprint along with 15 Tony-winning productions. Among the notable New York, U.S., and world premieres Bishop has programmed at the institution are Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, The Invention of Love, and Arcadia; Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced; Sarah Ruhl's The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play, and The Clean House; Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza; John Guare's A Free Man of Color; Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig; Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown's Parade; Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's A Man of No Importance; War Horse; and Dominique Morisseau's Pipeline.
“My years at Lincoln Center Theater have been happy ones, and I will miss working with all my friends and colleagues," says Bishop in a statement. "But the time has come, as it inevitably does, for the next generation to step in and step up. I look forward to that. LCT has always been a welcoming home for artists, and I know that tradition will continue. I thank the Board for their continued support, and I look forward to collaborating on a seamless transition."
"André has accomplished so much and touched so many," adds LCT Board Chairman Kewsong Lee. "His leadership and artistic vision can be credited for Lincoln Center Theater’s longstanding success and impact, and our high stature among the preeminent not-for-profit performing arts organizations in America. On behalf of the Board, I express our deepest gratitude for his devotion, insight, and care in guiding the institution. As Lincoln Center Theater prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary, we look forward to continuing in the tradition André helped establish and welcome new leadership to guide the next era of achievement and growth."
Before his time with LCT, Bishop served as artistic director of Playwrights Horizons for 10 years, which followed a six-year tenure as the company's literary manager. Among the works he helped premiere on that stage were the Pulitzer-winning The Heidi Chronicles, Driving Miss Daisy, and Sunday in the Park With George.
News of Bishop's impending departure is the second such announcement this week, following earlier news that Second Stage Artistic Director Carole Rothman will depart that company next year.
LCT is readying to premiere Michael John LaChiusa's The Gardens of Anuncia, directed and co-choreographed by Graciela Daniele, at its Off-Broadway Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Performances begin October 19. Visit LCT.org.
