Biography: Michael Presser
Michael Presser is the Founder and Executive Director of Inside Broadway, a New York City based non-profit professional theatre company for youth now celebrating its 25th anniversary season. The organization was originally established in 1982 at the invitation of Bernard B. Jacobs, the late president of The Shubert Organization, Inc., as an effort to create a student ticket program for the Broadway musical Cats. Today, Inside Broadway develops and produces touring musical productions as well as a wide range of educational programs that allow students to interact with professionals in the field and experience theatre hands-on in the classroom. More than 26,000 students in 75 schools in all five boroughs participate each year in Inside Broadway’s programs. The current repertoire features Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, Smokey Joe’s Café, Marlo Thomas’ Free To Be. . . You And Me, George M. Cohan’s My Hometown, Oscar Hammerstein’s All Kinds Of People, Irving Berlin’s Land That I Love, Richard Rodgers’ Broadway, Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town, Bye Bye Birdie, The Pirates of Penzance and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.
Mr. Presser has worked extensively in the commercial concert and artist management fields, having served as consultant to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, The National Theater in Prague, Theatre des Westens in Berlin, Theatre Aachen and Gaudi Musicals, Cologne. He has also served such notable artists as Karl Richter, Carlos Montoya, Peter Nero and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
He has been an active participant in New York City community affairs for over 25 years as a member of Manhattan Community Planning Board # 5 and has previously served as its Chairman. Currently he sits on the Mayor’s Midtown Citizens Committee and The Town Hall Foundation. He is the recipient of the 2000 Heart to Heart Award for service in the Times Square Theatre District and the 2005 Theatre Museum Award for Arts in Education.
He is a member of The League of American Theatres and Producers, The Producers League of Theatre for Young Audiences, Inc. (PLOTYA); The New York City Arts in Education Round Table (AIE) and the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York).
A Philadelphia native, he is a graduate of Temple University, a member of The University Club of New York, The Players Club and The Metropolitan Opera Club, and a longtime resident of Greenwich Village in New York City.
