At the USITT 23 Conference in St. Louis, USITT honored Elynmarie Kazle with The Joel E. Rubin Founder’s Award, which is presented to a USITT member in recognition of outstanding and continued service to the Institute. This award was named in honor of Dr. Joel E. Rubin, co-founder and the second president of the Institute. Given to USITT members in recognition of extraordinary and continued service to the Institute, the award is presented as an important highlight of the Annual Conference & Stage Expo.
Kazle, the former Chair of the Stage Managers’ Association for eight years, and current President of the recently formed Stage Managers’ Association Foundation, is a Production Manager, Fundraiser, Management Consultant and Stage Director. She is one of the youngest Fellows to be named by USITT and has designed signature stage management curricula and mentoring for a variety of institutions across the country including USITT’s Stage Management Mentoring Program. She currently serves as Vice Chair for Special Projects USITT Ohio Valley, as well as on the national Membership and Development Committees. She was named to the National Theatre Conference, prior to the pandemic pause.
Currently Kazle teaches management as an adjunct for Ohio Northern University. Recent SM gigs include Match Girl/Columbus Dance Theatre and Regional Emmy Awards for NATAS as well as director of Teacher Training for the Southeastern Summer Theatre Institute (SSTI). She consults for a variety of theatrical, educational, and business institutions, she specializes in organizational development and fundraising and is a successful grant writer and theatre manager.
Director of over 15 plays including Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists and Eric Overmeyer’s On the Verge, she directed the yet unpublished Four Women Talking about the Man Under the Sheet a play about the birth of abolition and women’s rights by Elaine Jarvik in 2022.
Previous production work includes stints for Brooklyn Academy of Music, Deaf West, Great Lakes and Cleveland Play House, Los Angeles Classical Ballet, San Diego and Opera Columbus, and three international tours, working with artists such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Phillip Glass, and Tommy Tune. She served two years as a cultural ambassador to Sweden, nine years on the Equity West Coast SM Committee, and three years working for the Stage Directors Union (SDC).
We at Stage Directions in PLSN congratulate Elynmarie Kazle on this high honor from USITT.
