Evan Cabnet Will Be Second Stage Theater’s New Artistic Director

Evan Cabnet will be the next artistic director of the nonprofit theater company Second Stage, joining the organization in September and officially launching his first season of programming in fall 2025. Founder and current Artistic Director Carole Rothman will continue in her position through August, stepping down in the spring after 45 years with the organization. Interim Artistic Director Bennett Leak will oversee the company’s upcoming 46th season.

“I am excited and humbled to bring my passion for developing, nurturing, and championing new work to Second Stage, one of New York's most vital and influential homes for contemporary theater,” said Cabnet, currently artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3, in a statement. “As my mentor André Bishop says, we are living in a golden age of American playwriting, and Second Stage’s incredible history, and the home Carole Rothman has created for artists, sits firmly at the center of this inspiring and culturally rich moment. I hope to honor her legacy as one of the truly great leaders of the American theater, and am looking forward to helping write the next chapter for such an extraordinary organization.”

Cabnet has served as the artistic director of LCT3 since 2016 and worked as a director, on and off-Broadway, regionally and internationally, for more than 20 years. He is a former artistic associate at the Roundabout Theatre Company, a founding member of the Ars Nova Writers Group and a former Resident Artist with Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater. His first book, Directing New Work, is being published by Methuen Drama/Bloomsbury Press and will be available in October.