Biographical Information
Colin Cabot began his association with the Skylight Opera theatre in 1974 fresh out of graduate school as assistant to Managing Director Clair Richardson. In 1977 he worked as personal assistant to Gian Carlo Menotti in both Scotland and Italy.
He returned to the Skylight as managing director the following year and remained in that capacity until 1989 when he devoted his time to planning and raising money for the creation of the Broadway Theatre Center. His family gave the lead gift that named the theatre which opened in the fall of 1993.
During his tenure at the Skylight he performed as actor, music director, stage director with not only the Skylight but also the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, the Body Politic Theatre in Chicago, Theatre X (including a tour to the Toga International Theatre in Japan).
In 1997 he and his wife, Paula Dewey Cabot, moved to rural New Hampshire to begin a career in historic preservation and environmental conservation. Though deeply immersed in issues surrounding regional sustainable farming, he has found time to return to the Skylight as Interim Artistic Director. He and Paula look forward to their show, The Long and the Short of It in the Studio Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center opening on New Year’s Eve.
For a more detailed account of his years at the Skylight please see The 30 Years War in the history section of www.skylightopera.com.
Joan Lounsbery's career in arts administration includes work at Carnegie Hall as Assistant Director for Programming and at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters as Assistant Director. In 1972 she moved to Milwaukee where she served as Executive Director of Artist Series at the Pabst.
In 1992 she became Managing Director of the Skylight, moving it into its new home in the Broadway Theatre Center in 1993. She returned to her native California in 1999 to become Executive Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony, and in 2003 became Executive Director of Music in the Vineyards, a summer chamber music festival in the Napa Valley.
She is now a free-lance arts consultant. She has served on the boards of OPERA America, Arts Midwest and the Association of California Symphony Orchestras. She has a long history with the National Endowment for the Arts as a management audit consultant, and as a panelist for both the music and opera programs. She currently serves as a reader for the NEA's Challenge Fasttrack program, and in July served on the NEA's Access to Artistic Excellence in Music panel. She looks forward to her return to Milwaukee to serve as the Skylight's Interim Managing Director.