The American Shakespeare Center (ASC) has announced that Vanessa Morosco has been appointed as its new executive director.
Morosco has worked with the ASC for more than two decades, having begun as a performer in over 25 productions since the company's inaugural season in 2002. Aside from performing, Morosco has directed productions, founded educational programs for community members, and established leadership training sessions for international executives and continuing legal education.
Beyond the ASC, Morosco co-founded the 50/50 Shakespeare Project, which is dedicated to advancing gender equity in the workplace surrounding Shakespeare's plays. Morosco has also worked in drama-based training and development, and worked toward equity, diversity, and inclusion through her organization Impact Drama.
"Vanessa Morosco’s skills as an actor, a director, and an educator helped to build the ASC," says ASC Founder and Senior Advisor Ralph Cohen in a statement. "How fitting—and how lucky for us, for our supporters, for Staunton, for our mission—that this brilliant woman is returning to lead the company she knows and loves so well. As the company’s founding executive director, I couldn’t be more hopeful about our legacy and our future than having Vanessa as my successor."
The American Shakespeare Center was founded in 1988, and was then known as the traveling Shenandoah Shakespeare Express. Now located in Staunton, Virginia, the company became the ASC in 2005, and continues to present Shakespeare's works at Staunton's Blackfriars Playhouse.
