Theater Management: Michael Barker ’10, Managing Director, Westport Country Playhouse with Emily Kling ’21

Michael Barker ’10 is the managing director of the Westport
Country Playhouse in Westport, CT. He is interviewed by
Emily Kling ’20


Prior to the Westport Country Playhouse he was the managing
director of Marin Theatre Company, the general manager of Laguna
Playhouse in Laguna Beach, CA, and managing director for the Los
Angeles classical theater ensemble, The Antaeus Company. Before
moving to California, Barker was associate managing director at
Yale Repertory Theatre and managing director of Yale Summer
Cabaret, and produced the first annual Carlotta Festival of New
Plays. He was Seattle Repertory Theatre’s 2008 Managing Director
Fellow.


Barker holds an MFA in theater management from Yale School of
Drama and an MBA from Yale School of Management. At Yale, he was
the recipient of the Daniel and Helene Sheehan Scholarship for
theater management and a Kosciusko Scholarship for outstanding
students of Polish descent. He served on the Yale School of
Management Alumni Advisory Board, and is a current Association of
Yale Alumni delegate.


He is a member of the inaugural class of artEquity diversity,
equity and inclusion facilitators as well as a member of the
vestry at St. Timothy’s on the Hill Episcopal Church in
Fairfield. Prior to graduate school, he was associate director of
marketing for Court Theatre in Chicago, and also worked with
Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, Sansculottes Theater
Company, and The Playground Theater.