Announcing New Members of the A.R.T./New York Board of Directors
OCTOBER, 2024
A.R.T./New York is pleased to announce the appointment of five new members to our Board of Directors, serving as stewards and advocates for our organization. Sam Hood Adrian, James Clements, Priya Kamdar, Becky Leifman, and Michael Maechling bring a wealth of artistic, financial, and managerial skills to the deep bench of experience, relationships, and perspectives currently represented on the Board. A.R.T./New York is grateful to the leadership of our entire Board of Directors for supporting the field and helping New York theatremakers to thrive.
SAM HOOD ADRAIN
Sam Hood Adrain (he/him) is an actor, director, educator, and producer based in New York City.As a theatre artist, Hood Adrain has worked on stage and off at companies across the countryincluding Trinity Repertory Company, MCC Theater, Chickenshed NYC, Infinity TheatreCompany, Barrington Stage Company, Dramatist Guild Foundation, Missoula Children'sTheatre, Ithaca Shakespeare Company, Culture Lab LIC, HERE, IRT, MITU580, The Flea,Theatre Row, Strongbox Theater, and Audible to name a few. He is the recipient of the 2021BroadwayWorld Award for Best Director of a Regional Production for his direction of "The 39Steps" at Strongbox Theater. He is a published playwright whose works have been called"heartbreaking ....complex...and thought-provoking" (Theatre is Easy), have been presented inNYC at HERE, The Nuyorican Poéts Cafe, and IRT Theatre, toured to Providence and Toronto,and produced as a radio play by the Cleveland Radio Players. He is a member of the AdjunctFaculty at Marymount Manhattan College and will be an Artist-in-Residence at NYU's Centro deCulturas in the 2024/25 academic year. Recent TV credits include "Search Party" and "Law &Order" as well as a print campaign for Santander Bank. Sam is proudly a Co-Artistic Director ofWWTNS? BFA NYU: Tisch School of the Arts, Experimental Theatre Wing. www.samhoodadrain.com
JAMES CLEMENTS
James Clements is a Scottish actor, writer, theatermaker and arts educator based betweenNew York and Scotland. Clements has performed at venues including La Mama, BRIC, HEREand MITU580, and has written and directed projects at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the 92ndStreet Y, Culture Lab, Brooklyn Art Haus, The Colony Theatre (Miami), The Keegan Theatre(Washington D.C), Dundee Rep (Dundee) and the Stockwell Playhouse (London). His actinghas been called “impressive…incredibly compelling…excellent,” (BroadwayWorld), “[his]portrayal…shines brightest” (BlogCritics) and “the strongest of the cast” (My EntertainmentWorld), and his plays have been described by critics as “searing” (New York Times),"magnifying" (TimeOut), "compelling" (The Guardian), "intricate" (BroadwayWorld), "affecting"(Playbill) and "intellectual" (Theatre is Easy). He is a member of the Adjunct Faculty atMarymount Manhattan College and NYU Tisch. He is Co-Artistic Director of What Will theNeighbours Say? Theatre Company and Teaching Artist-in-Residence and EntrepreneurshipFellow with the NYU Production Lab. Previous residencies include The Cell, Culture Lab,Brooklyn Arts Council and BRIClab. His work has been recognised by the Queens Council forthe Arts, DCLA, NYFA, A.R.T./NY, NYU and Creatives Rebuild New York, amongst others. He isrepresented for film and television by Swain-Thomas Agency, and recent credits include voicinga national commercial for The Botanist Islay Gin during the Super Bowl. www.james-clements.com
BECKY LEIFMAN
Becky Leifman is the Interim Co-Executive Director of CO/LAB Theater Group. She is also theTreasurer for the Museum, Arts, and Culture Access Consortium, Director of CommunityEngagement on Broadway's How to Dance in Ohio, and a TEDxBroadway Speaker. With over a decade of experience in the theater, nonprofit, and disability industries, she is passionate about creating, promoting, and investing in a more accessible and inclusive cultural field and community-based society. She has previously worked as an educational instructor for autisticstudents, and provided one-on-one support for two individuals with disabilities. Becky has avariety of professional experience at arts organizations; she founded Two Lights TheatreCompany (Chicago) in 2007 and worked for The Acting Company and The Play Company intheir respective development departments. As a nonprofit and access consultant, Becky hasproudly worked with Trusty Sidekick Theater Company, The New Group, MCC Theater, TrinityTheatre Company, and more! In Becky's earliest NYC days, she produced shows includingSarah Ruhl’s translation of Three Sisters, Ross Mueller’s Construction of the Human Heart, andthe Off-Broadway musical, Peter & I. Becky has a BFA in Acting from Syracuse University, and aGraduate Certificate in Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University's Lilly Family School ofPhilanthropy.
PRIYA KAMDAR
Priya Kamdar is a human-centered consultant, agilist, storyteller, and facilitator at PwC. In her work in the Transformation practice within Consulting, Priya works with clients across the technology, media, sustainability, and telecommunications sectors to drive innovation, launch new products and teams, navigate change, adopt new ways of working, and build inclusive environments.
As a specialist in PwC’s BXT (Business, Experience, and Technology) methodology, Priya uses design-thinking, agile methodologies, and collaboration design models to help organizations solve complex problems and accelerate strategic transformational initiatives. Priya has worn many hats over the years and started her career in strategic policy and emerging technology. At the heart of it all, Priya is passionate about bringing people together and helping people + companies do what they do, better.
Outside of work, Priya is a proud alum of the New York University Stern School of Business. In her spare time, Priya is an avid theater goer and very proud NYC resident. Her love for people, storytelling, inclusion, and change is what draws Priya to theater, and she attends 20- 30 productions a year spanning the range of Broadway to very off-off-off-off Broadway. Priya feels strongly that art can and does change the world and that it is very important to support the non-profit theater industry in telling important stories and featuring new, diverse voices. She is very excited to be joining the A.R.T./New York board!
MICHAEL MAECHLING
Mike Maechling (he/him/his) is a Managing Director at Apollo, where he is responsible for managing Private Credit Secondaries. He has had a long career as an investment professional with AEA Investors, Investcorp International Inc., and Credit Suisse First Boston. Mike earned a B.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
After ten years living in NYC, Mike and his wife, Mary, moved to Connecticut to raise their three sons. The family makes an annual pilgrimage to NYC to enjoy a Broadway musical and they regularly enjoy shows at two local treasures: The Westport Playhouse and Ridgefield Playhouse. From cheering on friends in local productions to taking in shows on the Great White Way, theatre has created many lasting memories for the family. Mike looks forward to collaborating with A.R.T/New York and bringing his experiences and perspectives to the organization.
