New York writer, producer and director named new leader of Hermitage Artist Retreat

Andy Sandberg has spent much of his life working as a playwright, actor, director and producer, but now he is going to focus on helping other artists develop new work of their own.

The 36-year-old Sandberg, who in 2009 become one of the youngest producers in Broadway history to win a Tony Award, has been named as the new artistic director and chief executive officer of the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood.

He succeeds Bruce Rodgers, who is retiring this month after 15 years as executive director of the Hermitage, which hosts a wide variety of writers, artists, dancers, choreographers, photographers and musicians to spend time at its Gulf-front historic cottages to work on new projects.

Sandberg won his Tony Award for the hit revival of “Hair.”

While the position will mark a change in the focus of his career, he said he has “always been an advocate for new work. The creation and development of new work is what I’ve done as a writer, a director or a producer. The Hermitage is about inspiring artists and creating new work and new opportunities for them.”

Artists are recommended by a National Curatorial Council made up of prominent artists in a variety of fields. Artists are invited to spend up to six weeks over two years at the Hermitage, and during their residency, they are required to take part in two public programs to introduce the local community to new work and the artists. Many participate in talks or performances held on Manasota Beach at sunset.

Sandberg said he hopes to establish new collaborations with local and national arts organization and help to raise the national and international profile of the Hermitage.

He said there are certain circles in the arts world “that know the Hermitage well and those who have a first- or second- or third-degree connection to it hold it in high esteem. But we want more people to know about it. What we are doing is leading to major theaters, galleries, symphony halls and opera houses around the world. A number of artists have credited their work as starting at the Hermitage.”

The focus has been on mid-career artists and hundreds have spent time at the Hermitage, including visual artists Sanford Biggers and Coco Fusco, playwrights Doug Wright, Craig Lucas and Romulus Linney and composers Nico Muhly and Lera Auerbach. Hermitage Fellows have included Pulitzer, Emmy, Tony and Grammy winners and MacArthur Fellowship award winners.

The Hermitage also sponsors the annual Greenfield Prize, a $30,000 commission awarded on a rotating basis to playwrights, musician/composers and visual artists.

Leslie Dignam Edwards, who recently took over as president of the Hermitage board of directors, said Sandberg was an easy choice among the four finalists.

“Bruce has built us a great foundation over the last 15 years. He’s been awesome,” she said. “Andy is very charming, talented, young. He’s very motivated and he has a lot of great contacts for great collaborations with other arts organizations. He’s very upbeat and we loved his personality from the second we met him.”

Sandberg has been performing since childhood in New York City. At Yale, where he graduated in 2005, he performed with and served as the business manager for the a capella group the Whiffenpoofs and also the Yale Alley Cats. He has directed numerous off-Broadway shows, including “Straight,” “Shida,” “Operation Epsilon and “The Last Smoker in America,” and directed and wrote (or co-wrote) “Application Pending” and “Craving for Travel.”

He said the board will give him time to continue pursuing some long-term projects he has been working on. He said he is not leaving the world of commercial theater, but “shifting my focus to something exciting. I’m not running from something. I’m running toward something.”

Sandberg said he has not been given a mandate to change the way the Hermitage works. “It’s an opportunity to look at things through a fresh lens. We want to reevaluate things, see what we want to change and what we want to expand on. I’m still in a learning phase, absorbing history and the artist experience and talking with the staff and people in the community. We want to make sure we’re representing all the communities.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies said he has known both Sandberg and Rodgers “since they were young men — in Andy’s case a very young man — and therefore take special pleasure in this development. Andy was my student when he was at Yale and impressed me with his preternatural entrepreneurial gifts. I applaud the Hermitage for recognizing in Andy a bright young leader who will build on Bruce’s accomplishments with passion and vision."

Edwards said the job title change is a reflection of what Sandberg brings to the organization. “He still has this artistic side to him and we’re welcoming that part of him and hope to do a lot of collaborations.”

The Hermitage is hosting a program to celebrate Rodgers’ tenure at 7 p.m. Monday in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $25. hermitageartistretreat.org