Lew Michaels

Background

About Lew Michaels

Lew Michaels joined Cinestudio in September 2021 as the first full-time Executive Director in the organization's 55-year history. In this role, he has led strategic programming, community engagement, and operational initiatives to sustain and grow one of New England’s most treasured independent cinemas. Prior to Cinestudio, Lew served as General Manager of the historic Shubert Theater in New Haven, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the 1,600-seat venue. Before that, he spent 16 years at the Tony Award-winning Hartford Stage, where he held leadership roles as Facilities and Operations Manager and Accessibility Coordinator. A dedicated advocate for accessibility in the arts, Lew attended his first Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) conference in 2007, hosted by the Kennedy Center. At Hartford Stage, he played a pivotal role in launching Audio Described and Open Captioned performances, as well as leading the theater’s first Sensory-Friendly performance of A Christmas Carol in 2014. This groundbreaking initiative, in collaboration with the Theatre Development Fund (TDF), marked the first professional Sensory-Friendly performance in Connecticut. He is currently working to establish a statewide accessibility consortium for theaters. Lew’s leadership in arts accessibility earned him the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Award for Emerging Leaders in 2015. He also serves on the content planning committee for the Kennedy Center’s annual LEAD conference and has been invited to present at the event for the past four years. Before his career in theater, Lew worked in Minor League Baseball as Special Events Manager for the New Britain Rock Cats, the Double-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.