Leadership
Vivienne Benesch, New York, NY (Artistic Director)
Vivienne Benesch is approaching her sixth season as artistic director of CTC and her fourteenth as a member of the Company. Since 1989, when she began as a member of the Conservatory and performed the role of Rachel in Reckless for the first time (a role she reprised as part of CTC’s 25th Anniversary Season), she has returned to direct (Sick, Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure, A Soldier's Tale, New Burlington, Skin of Our Teeth, Power of Three, Love by the Water, The September 11th Project), to act (Arcadia, 100 Saints You Should Know, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Waiting for the Parade, No Exit, Lysistrata), and to teach.
As an actress, Ms. Benesch has worked extensively on and Off-Broadway, in film and television and at many of the country's most celebrated theaters. Most recently, she performed the title role in Major Barbara at The Shakespeare Theatre (directed by Ethan McSweeny). In 2007 she appeared with Maggie Smith in the London revival of Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque. In 2005 she received an OBIE Award for her performance in Lee Blessing's Going to St. Ives (which also garnered the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play). In New York, her Broadway credits include: After the Fall, Salome, Deep Blue Sea and The Heiress; Off-Broadway: Belle Epoque (Lincoln Center); Vienna: Lusthaus (New York Theatre Workshop); Pericles and All's Well That Ends Well (NYSF/Public Theater); Troilus & Cressida (Theatre for a New Audience); Ancient History (Primary Stages); and work with Classic Stage Company, MCC and Underwood. Regional work includes leading roles at The Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Alley Theatre, A.C.T. San Francisco, The Shakespeare Theatre, McCarter, Long Wharf, Westport Country Playhouse and four seasons at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. TV & film credits include Teeth, American Splendor, Tenderness, Corn, "Paradise" (a pilot for Showtime),"Six Feet Under," "Sex and the City," "The Education of Max Bickford," "The Division" and multiple episodes of "Law & Order."
As a director Benesch most recently staged Arms and the Man, The Seagull and Getting Out for the Juilliard School and a highly acclaimed production of Richard III for the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (Star Ledger, Top Ten of 2006). She is a graduate of Brown University and NYU's Graduate Acting Program and serves as chair of the theater panel for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.
Ethan McSweeny, Washington, DC (Artistic Director)
Ethan McSweeny is approaching his sixth summer as artistic director of CTC, for which he has directed The Glass Menagerie ('09), Death of a Salesman (’08), The Just ('07), The Cherry Orchard ('06), All My Sons ('05), Cobb ('03), and the New Play Workshops of Kate Fodor's 100 Saints You Should Know, Quincy Long's Aux Cops, Alex Lewin's The Further Adventures of Suzanne Monica and Rinne Groff's What Then.
His work as a director of new plays, musicals, revivals, and classics has been seen around the country on many of the nation's preeminent stages. In New York his direction includes the premieres of 100 Saints You Should Know (Entertainment Weekly and TimeOut Top Ten of 2007) and 1001 (TimeOut Top Ten of 2007), the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards), the off Broadway premiere of John Logan’s Never the Sinner (Outer Critics Circle Award), and a landmark production of Aeschylus’ The Persians for the National Actors Theatre.
Recent national highlights include revivals of A View from the Bridge at the Guthrie in Minneapolis; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at CenterStage, Baltimore; a new translation of Euripides’ Ion and a revival of Major Barbara (Helen Hayes Award nomination) for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC; the premieres of Cornelia, In This Corner and A Body of Water (SD Critics Circle Award) at the Old Globe in San Diego; 1001 (Ovation Award) at the Denver Center in Colorado; Chasing Nicolette (Barrymore nomination) in Philadelphia; and Ordinary Days and Mr. Marmalade (OCIE Award) at the South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa.
Mr. McSweeny received the first-ever undergraduate degree in theater and dramatic arts from Columbia University and has served as associate artistic director of the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey (2000-2004), resident director at New Dramatists (2001-2002) and associate director of the Shakespeare Theater Company (1993-1997). He currently sits on the executive board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, an independent national labor union.
Robert Chelimsky, New York, NY (General Manager)
Robert has worked as a theater administrator for over fifteen years. He began his management career with American Stage (St. Petersburg, FL) working in various positions between 1991 and 1993, then serving as PR Director from 1993 through 1995. In 1995, working with Artistic Director Charles R. Miller, he co-founded Gryphon Productions, where he served as Executive Director until 2003. During his tenure, the company developed from a fledgling operation to being the producer of the largest in-school arts outreach program in the state, The Bard of Education Shakespeare-in-the-Schools Tour, and the critically acclaimed Smoky Mt. Shakespeare Festival. Robert served as Managing Director of Virginia Stage Company (Norfolk, VA) from 2003 through 2004, before returning to his Native New York City in 2005. Since that time, as the founder of RNArts Consulting, he has worked as an organizational development consultant with The American National Theatre. Robert served for over 7 years on Chapter Boards for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
