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Rocco Landesman has been a long-time Broadway theatre producer. He served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from August 2009 to December 2012. The NEA is a public agency of the Federal Government with an annual budget that is directed into grants to support excellence in the arts, bring arts to all Americans and provide leadership in arts education. He is part owner of Jujamcyn Theaters, but he was a passive owner while serving in Washington.
Landesman was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, studied at Colby College in Waterville, Maine and The University of Wisconsin, and earned a doctorate in Dramatic Literature at the Yale School of Drama. At the Yale School of Drama he would become a protégé and friend of Robert Brustein. At the completion of his course work he stayed at Yale for 4 years as an Assistant Professor. While at Yale, Landesman got to know novelist Jerzy Kosinski and he worked with Kosinski on two of his novels, Being There and The Devil Tree . Landesman was involved as an editor, helping Kosinski, not a native speaker of English, with his English syntax and writing. While at Yale Landesman was also involved in managing a private mutual fund and a racehorse he had bought. In 1977 he left to focus more time on his private investment fund, which he ran for many years. He also got involved in Broadway theater and he was heavily involved in the genesis and development of "Big River", a musical based on Huckleberry Finn. Landesman's involvement included persuading Roger Miller to write the music for the show. The show ultimately won seven Tonys and ran for over 1,000 performances on Broadway over two and a half years. This success attracted the attention of James H. Binger who shared two passions with Landesman: Broadway theater and horseracing. Binger owned the Jujamcyn Theatre group of five theatres, four of which were then dark. Binger and Landesman made a deal for Landesman to become President of Jujamcyn in 1987 with the inclusion of an option for Landesman to purchase Jujamcyn upon Binger's death. After taking the helm at Jujamcyn he shifted its business model away from the historical focus of renting of theatre facilities to shows and into a more active posture as a combination of a theater owner and a developer of new plays. Other theater owners have followed this pattern. After joining Jujamcyn Landesman has produced Broadway shows, the most notable of which include: "Angels In America", and "The Producers". Landesman purchased Jujamcyn in 2005 and later sold a 50% interest to Jordan Roth.
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