Keene Consulting
For over 30 years, Neil has worked in non-profit theaters, performing arts centers, and for-profit businesses as Production Manager, General Manager, Producer, Special Projects Director and Director of Operations. Neil's greatest joy comes from collaborating with artists. This has motivated him to design buildings and operational systems that are cost-effective and flexible so they can support the creativity that is the core of all of our work. ...
His goal is to find a way to say YES! to big ideas.
Neil started his career in Philadelphia at the Walnut Street Theatre and The Wilma Theater. During his 11-year tenure at The Wilma, he was a leader on the team that designed and built its new home on The Avenue of the Arts. He created the final specifications for all of the theatrical systems; selected and contracted theatrical vendors; and coordinated construction between trades. From The Wilma, he moved into the for-profit fields of scenery fabrication, special event production, and museum exhibit design.
In 2006 he relocated to Sydney, Australia as Production Manager for Sydney Theater Company, the country's largest producing theater. Representing STC, he worked with the Sydney Opera House to revise their technical staffing and pricing schemes to better accommodate their resident companies. He also created a business plan for Pollard Productions to create a new division in New Zealand.
Neil returned to the U.S. in 2008 to head the Production Department for Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). During his nine-year tenure, the number of programs produced and presented on BAM's stages more than doubled as did the size of the Production Department. Neil regularly liaised with domestic and international arts organizations to bring their work to BAM, traveling to places including Paris, Moscow, Amsterdam, and London to meet with the creative and technical teams. He regularly collaborated with BAM's development, marketing, special events and education departments on grants, fundraising events, and audience experiences. Neil negotiated IATSE collective bargaining agreements; oversaw a staff of 26; and managed an annual budget of $5,000,000.
Neil created BAM's first technical workforce development program
A highlight of his time at BAM was collaboration with the capital projects team to design and build the Fisher Building -- a ground-up, 250-seat, black box, state-of-the-art theater. As part of the operating model for the BAM Fisher, Neil created a workforce development program that provides technical training and professional mentorship for underrepresented populations. Neil was also a leader on the team for a major renovation of the iconic Harvey Theater, originally conceived and designed by Peter Brook.
Since Leaving BAM, Neil has worked as a Senior Consultant for Charcoalblue, Production Manager for NYU Tisch School for the Arts and General Manager of Little Island. In early 2019, he was invited back to The Wilma Theater as Interim Managing Director. He was tasked by the Board of Directors and Founding Artistic Director Blanka Zizka to refocus the organization artistically and to rebuild the marketing, development, and finance departments to stabilize the company financially. The 'Next Chapter' debuted in February 2020 and has since been hailed nationally as a new leadership paradigm.
Neil launched Keene Consulting in 2020 with the goal of leveraging his broad experience to support cultural institutions and art professionals in new ways.
Alys has been the Director of Production for two storied institutions, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Center Theater Group, and
is also a co-author of Structural Design for the Stage, a seminal technical theater textbook based on her MFA thesis. Her other
career stops include Walt Disney Imagineering, Kodak Theatre (now Dolby Theater), Carnegie Mellon University, and the California
Institute of the Arts.
...
Her goal is to create systems that allow humans to THRIVE.
The summer stock theaters of Maine State Music Theatre and SummerFun Theater in New Jersey were fantastic early training grounds as she was earning her MFA in Technical Design and Production at the Yale School of Drama.
She has managed staffs of up to 170 people, union and non-union, and has created and implemented human centered systems at every place she has worked. The life of theatrical production manager and technical director demands people management combined with rigorous budget management and ingenious technical problem solving, all while moving forward the collective goal of creating a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable theater ecosystem.
Alys served as part of the Leadership Team for Oregon Shakespeare Festival, OSF, throughout her eleven-year tenure, and was a key leader in emergency management efforts, including OSFs responses to wildfire smoke (NYT article) and COVID. She was the lead negotiator for OSF in all the collective bargaining negotiations for the Production and Facilities workers. In 2023, as OSFs Director of Production and Solutions, she helped guide OSF through a year of tumult that featured a financial crisis and season-saving fundraising campaign as well as transitions in the Artistic Director and Executive Director positions.
As lead negotiator for OSF, Alys laid down the framework for the first CBA in OSF's history.
Alys started at Center Theater Group, CTG, in Los Angeles as the Technical Director supervising scenery and rigging in all three theaters and was subsequently promoted to become the first Director of Production in CTGs history. Her highlights at CTG include mounting Dead End, a play that featured a 10,000-gallon pool that weighed over 100,000 pounds in the orchestra pit in addition to a four-story set; the amazing renovation of the Mark Taper Forum; and negotiating many multi-year Collective Bargaining Agreements.
Throughout her career, Alys has been involved in major construction projects. The highlights include the ground up construction of the It's Tough to Be a Bug theater in Disney's California Adventure; the finishing touches on the Kodak Theater construction; and the revamp of the OSF Campus, including major renovations of the Bowmer Theater and converting the shop complex into a rehearsal center.
Originally from Texas, Alys chose theater as her career path in her third year at Williams College when she realized that she cared more about her work-study job as a theater technician than her Physical Chemistry class. It has proven to be a good choice as arts and entertainment always offers a challenge, whether it is a clever technical solve, a well-crafted sentence in a Collective Bargaining Agreement, a new technology to learn, a clear yet complicated budget spreadsheet, a moment of joy in tech, or managing an employee relations crisis!
Alys is looking forward to bringing her strategic planning, negotiation, tech geek, and project, construction, safety and emergency management skills and experience to a wider audience.
