Jim Nicola, the longtime artistic director of New York Theatre Workshop, will step down from his post on June 30, 2022.
Nicola, who has held the position since 1988, said Friday that he will see the theater through its reopening, but then will leave the position when he turns 72 years old. A successor for Nicola has not yet been announced, but the theater said it would conduct a search over the next few months.
“In July of 2022, I will reach the age of 72. In my mind, that has always been the moment to interrupt whatever patterns there might be in my life, and to leap off a cliff into reinvention. So that is my plan,” Nicola said in the press release. “My departure will be over a year from now, as I intend to see NYTW back to welcoming audiences into our theater and provide the theatre ample time to plan for a smooth transition. I look forward to new adventures and to cheering on the next Artistic Director to create NYTW’s future.”
The New York Theatre Workshop has been a frequent funnel of new works to Broadway. Recent works developed at the theater include “Slave Play,” “Sing Street,” “Hadestown” and “What the Constitution Means to Me.”
In Nicola’s tenure at New York Theatre Workshop, the theater helped in the development of Broadway shows such as “Rent,” “Once” and “Peter and the Starcatcher.” Additional works staged at the theater include David Bowie’s “Lazarus,” as well as seven other productions directed by Ivo van Hove, Sam Gold’s “Othello,” and works from artists such as Mfoniso Udofia, Rachel Chavkin, Ayad Akhtar, Amy Herzog, Lileana Blain-Cruz, Anne Kaufman, Celine Song and Lucas Hnath.
In addition to the produced works at the theater, Nicola created a number of developmental initiatives, including the 2050 Artistic Fellowship for early-career theater makers, a summer residency program with Dartmouth College and the Usual Suspects, a 600-member program of artists supported by the theater.
