about
(it's pronounced
bree-deen)
Brídín Clements Cotton is a UAE-based performing arts manager and higher education administrator, teacher and mentor. Brídín is currently Arts Instructor of Stage and Project Management at NYU Abu Dhabi. Most recently, Brídín served as an administrator and adjunct faculty member at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she worked with the Undergraduate Department of Drama and the Undergraduate Film & Television Department. At Tisch Drama, Brídín taught introductory stage management, led workshops in management theory and building effective teams, and developed a course titled From Concept to Curtain Call: Producing Work in New York. Brídín is the co-author of the forthcoming book Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production (Routledge, 2024).
Other past positions include Special Assistant to the Artistic Director and Executive Director at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, Regional Field Director on a U.S. Congressional Campaign, Business Manager for NYC’s premier hip-hop improv team North Coast, Operations Manager at technical production management firm Tinc Productions, four seasons on the production management and general management teams for the New York Musical Festival, and four seasons on the producing team for the contemporary performance festival American Realness. Brídín frequently works with the Tony Award-honored gospel choir Broadway Inspirational Voices and volunteers with organizations including Girls Write Now, How To Stand Out Mentorship Program, and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Brídín also continues to manage and produce independent performance projects. Bringing her stage and production management skills to another sphere, Brídín enjoys offering day-of coordination services for weddings.
In her own artistry, Brídín is a multidisciplinary creator with an interest in communications, interactivity, and the relationship between the natural and unnatural. Taking various shapes and forms, Brídín’s work uses color, pattern, and text, various artistic mediums, and found objects to explore these themes. Brídín owns a handmade greeting card company and frequently participates in maker initiatives and leads craft workshops.
Brídín holds a Masters in Public Administration with a focus on Public & Nonprofit Management & Policy from NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a BFA in Theatre with a focus on Stage Management and Producing. She has published writing about the barriers created by unpaid internship culture in arts administration and about gender equity in theatrical design, and is currently conducting research about stage management practices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
writing
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To address the gender inequity in theatrical design and more broadly across the performing arts industry, I recommend that producing entities partner with labor organizations to implement transparent and equitable hiring practices, adjust the production schedule, and develop support systems for working families.
If an organization is committed to building a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable industry, the resources are allotted to their internship programs should be a demonstration of these values.
So you want to do a show? Here are a few tips to creating your show's "business plan" and setting yourself on the path to getting it produced.
This literature review synthesizes the existing literature on how performing arts programs within higher education institutions can practice inclusivity for disabled students. It considers two primary areas of research: disability in theatre and disability in higher education.
A few questions to consider; for those of us who have never needed to make a video and are now being asked to shift all of our events from live to digital.
What theaters and productions are doing to making their shows available to people with sensory, social and learning disabilities, beginning long before the audience arrives at the theater.