David Binder

David Binder joined BAM as artistic director in January 2019, succeeding Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo. As artistic director—a new title which signals BAM’s plan to unite its curatorial streams—Binder will lead programming of live performances, cinema programs, education and humanities programs, visual art events, digital projects, and artistic partnerships. Binder’s artistic purview will extend to new BAM spaces currently under construction, the BAM Karen and BAM Strong, providing the institution with a broader curatorial landscape.

Binder is a Tony Award-winning producer whose credits include Broadway, off-Broadway, and festivals. 

He was the 2018 Guest Artistic Director of LIFT, the London International Festival of Theatre, featuring artists from around the world including Anna Deavere Smith, Back to Back, Faustin Linyekula, National Theatre of Korea, Anu, Taylor Mac, and Duke Riley’s Fly by Night.  

In New York, Binder produced the High Line Festival, curated by David Bowie. The festival featured performances by Arcade Fire, Laurie Anderson, Meow Meow, and, in his American stand-up comedy debut, Ricky Gervais. He also produced the Dutch New Island Festival on New York’s Governors Island, including 10 days of site-specific performance, music, theater, and dance from the Netherlands, with artists such as Anouk van Dijk, Armin van Buuren, and Ivo van Hove.

On Broadway, Binder produced Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which won four Tony Awards including Best Revival, and wrapped up a national tour at the Kennedy Center in 2017. He is the original producer of Hedwig, having mounted the production in 1997. Binder produced the record-breaking production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, starring James Franco and Chris O’Dowd—which was the first Broadway show to be filmed by NT Live—and a Tony Award-winning revival of A Raisin in the Sun starring Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, and Audra McDonald. Other credits include Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations starring Jane Fonda on Broadway and subsequently in Los Angeles with Center Theatre Group; De La Guarda, and  Fuerza Bruta. Most recently, Binder produced Network, starring Bryan Cranston, and Burn This, with Adam Driver and Keri Russell.

At the Sydney Opera House, Binder produced This Is Our Youth with Michael Cera and Kieran Culkin. He has co-produced five shows with the Donmar Warehouse, including Frost/Nixon and Mary Stuart on Broadway, Lobby Hero, A Voyage Round My Father with Derek Jacobi, and Guys and Dolls with Ewan McGregor in the West End.  

In addition to the Tony Award for Hedwig, Binder has received four Tony nominations, an Emmy nomination, and a Golden Globe nomination. He has been honored by Performance Space 122 and is the recipient of the Robert Whitehead Award for Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Theatrical Producing. Binder is originally from Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley. He has been a teaching fellow at Princeton University and was on the faculty at the Yale School of Drama for six years. He has spoken about festivals, audience development, and creativity at gatherings across Europe and the US. David Binder’s TED talk, The Arts Festival Revolution, has been seen online by more than a half million people and was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best talks about theater on the web.