a one-of-a-Cott website

WELCOME TO MY ONLINE HOME.

I created this website to help introduce myself to a wider community of arts & culture professionals. Please click on the navigation bar at left for details about my professional history. Over the last 26 years, I have amassed a diverse range of credits in theater, music, dance, video, media and the humanities—working as a producer, artistic director, marketer, fundraiser, strategic planner, writer, editor, graphic designer, event planner, arts educator and management consultant.

I am currently the Director of Marketing for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, now celebrating its 50th Anniversary.

In my multi-faceted career to date, I've worked on about 120 plays and musicals in Broadway and off-Broadway theaters as well as about 40 opera productions in New York.

I was a founding staff member of Lincoln Center Theater and, over its first 18 seasons, helped to establish it as one of America's leading nonprofits. More recently, I worked on the reinvention of two other Lincoln Center constituents — The Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera.

As an independent producer and management consultant, my clients have included ArtsConnection, The Metropolitan Opera Guild, The New 42nd Street, New York City Ballet, the New York Musical Theater Festival, the New York Public Library, Paper Mill Playhouse, Theater Development Fund and the Richard Tucker Music Foundation.

Along the way, I have also produced a variety of memorable special events and galas.

Christine Baranski, Stockard Channing and Edie Falco (left to right) were three of the stars who appeared in a benefit performance of Wendy Wasserstein's play The Sisters Rosensweig that I produced for Lincoln Center Theater. To read about it, click here.

I have worked on a wide range of video projects, including such TV specials as the Tony Awards and "Night of 100 Stars II," and I have produced and edited video material shown at live events. I have also overseen the production of numerous TV and radio commercials, as well as coordinated 14 original cast recordings.

Through all of these opportunities, I have been able to cultivate good relationships with some of the greatest performers, writers, composers, directors and designers, as well as theater owners, producers, funders, agents, managers, press reps, ad execs and more.

That's me, second from right, with

playwrights David Henry Hwang,

Rachel Sheinkin, Christopher Durang

and Alfred Uhry at an A.R.T./New York

panel discussion I moderated.

As an industry expert, I have been a regular moderator, speaker or panelist at a range of events. I have taught or guest lectured on arts-related issues at Yale, Columbia, NYU, Fordham, Marymount, and the Commercial Theater Institute. I have been involved in the evaluation and/or selection process for the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop, the Jonathan Larson Foundation grant program for emerging musical theater writers, NAMT's Festival of New Musicals and the New York Musical Theater Festival. I am currently in my second year of a 3-year term on the Tony Awards Nominating Committee.

That's me, second from right,at a

ASCAP Musical Theater panel with

cast album producer Brian Drutman,

author/lyricist Lynn Ahrens, and

composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz.

And last but not least -- as one theater colleague has said of me -- I am "now as well known (almost) for a daily email called 'You’ve Cott Mail,' a digest of articles published online that has virally grown to be an enormous resource for arts professionals in the U.S." If you're interested in learning more about it, please click here.

To read my complete curriculum vitae, please click here.