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Producing Artistic Director
Edward Stern is in his 15th season as the producing artistic director for the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. His directing credits at the Playhouse include Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure; Of Mice and Men; Stone My Heart; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; The Retreat From Moscow; Twelfth Night; Mister Roberts; One; The Smell of the Kill; Ah, Wilderness!; King Lear; Inherit the Wind; A Little Night Music; Wit; Much Ado About Nothing; Gross Indecency; The Little Foxes; Sweeney Todd; The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas; and Scotland Road, among others.
Mr. Stern has taught extensively and directed at commercial and regional theatres nationwide, such as The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Cleveland Play House, Missouri Repertory Theatre and San Jose Repertory Theatre, where productions include Richard III, M. Butterfly, The Three Musketeers, Romance Language, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rivals and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
A graduate of the University of Virginia and Indiana University, he was co-founder of the Indiana Repertory Theatre (Indianapolis) and served as its artistic director from 1972-80. At the IRT, he directed more than two dozen plays. He also has held faculty positions at both Rutgers University and the William Esper Studio in New York City. Mr. Stern is married to Annie Ward Stern and has two sons, Robert and Ward.
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Buzz Ward
Executive Director
Buzz Ward is now in his 15th year as executive director of the Playhouse in which capacity he oversees all aspects of the administrative, financial and production support operations of the theatre, generating financial surpluses yearly. From 1988-92, he was general manager for the Yale School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre and taught on the faculty of the Theatre Administration M.F.A. graduate program for four years. While there, he coordinated the finances for Yale’s Broadway production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English and theatre from Princeton University and his M.B.A. at the Harvard Business School. He serves as section secretary for his Harvard Business School class.
He is a site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts, treasurer for the League of Resident Theatres and secretary/membership chair for Ohio Citizens for the Arts. He works with Business Volunteers for the Arts and Business on Board for the Fine Arts Fund, and he also served as a member of the Theatre Advisory Panel for the Ohio Arts Council for four years. He was the keynote speaker at the Polish National Theatre Conference in Warsaw, Poland, in 1998. Mr. Ward is also an avid amateur photographer.
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Michael Evan Haney
Associate Artistic Director
Michael Haney is in his fifth year as the associate artistic director for the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. He is celebrating his 35th year in professional theatre during which time he has directed more than 60 productions and acted in more than 75. His Playhouse directing credits include Reckless, A Christmas Carol (1993-2006), Witness for the Prosecution, The Clean House, Bad Dates, A Picasso, Hiding Behind Comets, The Drawer Boy, The Syringa Tree, Proof, The Mystery of Irma Vep and The Last Night of Ballyhoo.
Internationally, Mr. Haney has directed shows at the English Theatres of Vienna and Frankfurt as well as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His regional credits include Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Meadow Brook Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Asolo Theatre Company, Sacramento Theatre Company, Monument Boulevard, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Washington Stage Guild, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Wayside Theatre, Passage Theatre Company and Pacific Resident Theatre.
He is the former artistic director of Pennsylvania's Allenberry Playhouse.