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Laura Penn is an American producer, managing director, and an executive director. She is currently a professor at Yale University. Penn currently serves as the Executive Director for the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), the labor union for directors and choreographers.

Penn is the first female co-chair of the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds (COBUG), the co-founder and co-chair of Broadway Salutes, a member of the Tony Awards Administration Committee, and a Tony voter. The Encores! Community Service Award was given to Penn in 2013.

Early Career
Penn began her career at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage, where she served as the Assistant Subscription Manager for two years. She then became the Communications Manager for the Living Stage Theatre Company, the nationally recognized model community outreach company working with disadvantaged youth and incarcerated men and women.

Seattle Repertory Theatre
After the Living Stage Theatre Company, Penn continued her career at Seattle Repertory Theatre in Seattle, Washington, where she served as Assistant Production Manager, Special Projects Director, and finally the Associate Managing Director of the theater.

Intiman Theatre
For almost fifteen years, Penn served as the Intiman Theatre's managing director. Several of the top directors and playwrights in the nation had their works presented at the Theatre during her leadership. She founded the Intiman Theatre Foundation, She was awarded the "Seattle Distinguished Citizen" Award by Mayor Paul Schell in 2001.

The Intiman was the first regional theatre awarded the rights to produce Tony Kushner’s two-part epic Angels in America after it won the 1993 Pulitzer and Tony Award for New Play. The Theatre later shepherded the development and premiere of the Tony Award-winning Light in the Piazza. In 2004, under Penn’s watch, the Theatre was honored as Leading National Theatre by the Doris Duke Foundation and in 2006 was given the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Also, during Penn’s time as Managing Director, the Intiman received acclaim for its American Cycle series of classic American stories and outreach programs for multigenerational audiences that included free programs taking place beyond Intiman in coffee houses, youth centers, libraries, living rooms, and other unexpected places. Penn oversaw the remodel of public spaces at the Playhouse as well as the building of The Studio at Intiman, a black-box theatre and rehearsal space. She also served on the Advisory Committee/Design Team for the Seattle Center’s Opera House and Theatre District.

While in Seattle, Penn also served as Vice President of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), a two-term Chair for the Seattle Arts Commission, and the Production Manager for the Seattle/Soviet Theatre Exchange traveling to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Moscow.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
Penn currently serves as the Executive Director for the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), the labor union for directors and choreographers. Since coming to SDC in 2008, she has successfully led negotiations for SDC in many jurisdictions including Broadway, LORT, and Off-Broadway while supporting Members in complex, high-profile positions. She has forced partnerships with industry constituents, improved SDC communications capabilities, and expanded its reach and scope within the theatrical industry. Under her leadership, SDC Membership has brown 35%, largely due to a successful expansion of national jurisdiction for the union. Additionally, Penn initiated a rebranding campaign for SDC, established both the Zelda Fichandler and Gordon Davidson Awards, and launched the SDC Journal, a quarterly magazine dedicated to the craft of directors and choreographers.

In 2014, in partnership with the Academy, Penn launched the Academic Associate Membership Program – designed to support professors teaching directing or directing exclusively with the Academy. The program provides unparalleled access to the profession, support for sabbaticals, opportunities for publication, and more without requiring full Union membership. In addition, under Penn’s tenure, SDC is now a member of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).

Academic career
Penn is currently on faculty at Yale University, where she teaches Labor and Employee Relations in the MFA graduate program for arts management. She has lectured at Columbia University, Brooklyn College, University of Washington, and the National Theatre Institute, among others. She has served on panels for the Dramatists Guild, USITT, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the Commercial Theatre Institute, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), and Seattle’s Forum on Race. At Harvard, she participated in Anna Deavere Smith’s Institute for the Arts and Civic Dialogue and for ACT II, a convening of commercial and non-profit theatre leaders.