The primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral history Project

Celebrating the visionaries who created New York's vibrant Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater.

Robyn Goodman

Robyn Goodman

Actor, Producer, Co-Founder Second Stage, Artistic Consultant, Roundabout Theatre Company, Founding Artistic Producer, Roundabout Underground

Interviewed on: Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Location: at Primary Stages
Interviewed by: Casey Childs
Interview #170
Photo Credit: Bucks County Playhouse
"When I founded my commercial theater company, Aged In Wood Productions, I brought all my years of working in and with Non-Profit theaters to bear. Without that background I would never be the creative producer I am today. The Non-Profits are the future of new play development. Commercial theater is not a place for much risk. Plays need time and gentle hands and I trust my friends who run theaters."
Robyn Goodman Highlights
Video Length: 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds
Robyn Goodman Interview
Video Length: 2 Hours, 6 Minutes

Robyn Goodman began her career as an actor in Plays like WHEN YOU COMIN’ BACK RED RYDER at Circle Rep, Lady Anne in RICHARD III at Lincoln Center and many plays at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater. She also brought new plays to London in 1976 before American plays were much seen there.  She starred in FLUX (Susan Miller) and IN THE BOOM BOOM ROOM (David Rabe) and A THOUGHT IN THREE PARTS(Wally Shawn).  In 1980 she and Carole Rothman founded Second Stage Theater on the Upper Westside of Manhattan.  In 13 years as co-Artistic Director she produced 50 plays and musicals including PAINTING CHURCHES  (Tina Howe) which moved to Broadway, SPOILS OF WAR (Broadway also) and FISHING (Michael Weller), THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF KATHY AND MO (Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney), LINDA HER AND THE FAIRY GARDEN (Harry Kondoleon) LEMON SKY and SERENADING LOUIE (Lanford Wilson), IN TROUSERS (William Finn), THE FILM SOCIETY (Jon Robin Baitz), and Jonathan Larson’s first workshop of BOHO DAYS which later became TICK TICK BOOM in a successful Off-Broadway run that she developed and produced.  Upon leaving Second Stage she became the Supervising Producer of One Life to Live on ABC TV for 4 and a half years which won 6 Emmy Awards for the first gay story on Daytime television.  She then reemerged in theater and spent 2 years at Manhattan Theater Club as Director of Artistic Development.

In 2000 she created her commercial producing company Aged In Wood Productions.  Since then she produced 9 plays and musicals on Broadway including Metamorphoses (Drama Desk Award), Avenue Q (Tony Award), In The Heights (Tony Award), Bengal Tiger at The Baghdad Zoo starring Robin Williams, and Co- Produced American IdiotAngels in America (Tony Award) Award), Company (in London garnering an Olivier Award and soon to open on Broadway), and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.  Off-Broadway she produced OUR LADY OF 121ST STREET, RED LIGHT WINTER, TICK TICK BOOM, and BAT BOY:THE MUSICAL.  In 2004 Josh Fiedler joined Aged In Wood and became her partner in 2014.  In 2019 Nicole Kramer joined her as Associate Producer.  In 2004 Goodman became a consultant at The Roundabout Theater Company where she was instrumental in creating the Underground Theater for emerging writers.  In her 13 years as Artistic Producer they debuted plays by writers like Lynn Nottage, Stephan Karam, Steven Levinson, Lindsay Ferrentino and Adam Gwon.  Upcoming shows in development are WORKING GIRL, the musical with Bridget Carpenter and Cyndi Lauper directed by Chris Ashley, JAR THE FLOOR by Cheryl West directed by Kenny Leon and NOWHERE  BOY by Chris Chibnall which will be developed in London.  “I have my Mother to thank for taking me to see Midsummer Night’s Dream when I was 5 years old where I was bitten badly by the theaterbug. My parents continued to take me and my sister to Broadway plays and musicals our entire growing up when tickets cost $15 and $20.  We are grateful to them for that and for my father telling his daughters that they could do anything they wanted with their lives,” she says.

Mentioned in Interview

David Lindsay-Abaire, John Robin Baitz, Kevin Bacon, Linda Barry, David Bottrell, Mark Brokaw, David Cale, Morris Carnovsky, Graciela Daniela, Jeff Daniels, Jill Eikenberry, Deborah Eisenberg, Marianne Elliott, Jules Feiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Alexander Fraser, Michael Greif, John Guare, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Wendy Hammond, Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Jules Irving, Len Jenkins, Jesse Jones, Kevin Kline, Harry Kondoleon, Josh Kornbluth, Fran Kumin, Nathan Lane, Jonathan Larson, Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx, Marsha Mason, Charles Moore, Michael Moriarty, Marshall Mason, Lynne Milgram, Susan Miller, Josh Mostel, Richard Nelson, John O’Keefe, Joseph Papp, Miguel Pinero, Douglas Post, David Rabe, Adam Rapp, Theresa Rebeck, Frank Rich, Carl Reiner, Carole Rothman, Amy Saltz, Jeffrey Seller, Wallace Shawn, Meg Simon, Daniel Sullivan, Steve Tesich, Diane Wiest, Michael Weller, Jeff Whitty, Robin Williams, Lanford Wilson, Mary Zimmerman, Barrow Street Theatre, Bucks County Playhouse, Circle Repertory, Eastside Playhouse, Jane Street Theatre, Lincoln Center, New World Stages, NYSF/The Public, Park Royal Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage Theater, South Street Theatre, Union Square Theatre, ALL NIGHT LONG, ALTAR BOYZ, ANTIGONE, AVENUE Q, BABA GOYA, BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL, BITS & PIECES, BLACK GIRL, COASTAL DISTURBANCES, DEARLY DEPARTED, EARTH AND SKY, THE FILM SOCIETY, FISHING, FLUX, THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF KATHY AND MO, THE GOOD TIMES ARE KILLING ME, HOME AND AWAY, IN THE BOOM BOOM ROOM, IN A PIG’S VALISE, IN TROUSERS, JERSEY CITY, JUNO’S SWANS, LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY, LAKE NO BOTTOM, LEMON SKY, LINDA HER AND THE FAIRY GARDEN, LITTLE MURDERS, LOOSE ENDS, METAMORPHOSES, MOONCHILDREN, MUSEUM, MY SISTER IN THIS HOUSE, OUR LADY OF 121ST STREET, PAINTING CHURCHES, PASTORALE, RED DIAPER BABY, RED LIGHT WINTER, THE REDTHROATS, RICH RELATIONS, RICHARD III, THE RIMERS OF ELDRICH, SERENADING LOUIE, SHIMMER, SHORT EYES, SISTER AND MISS LEXIE, SOMETHING DIFFERENT, THE SPELLING BEE, SPIKE HEELS, THE SPOILS OF WAR, SPLIT, SQUARE ONE, TICK, TICK…BOOM!, THE VIENNA NOTES, WHAT A MAN WEIGHS, WHEN YOU COMIN’ BACK RED RYDER, WINTER PLAY

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