Bridin Cotton

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Brídín Clements Cotton is a UAE-based performing arts manager and higher education administrator, teacher and mentor. Brídín is currently Arts Instructor of Stage and Project Management at NYU Abu Dhabi. Most recently, Cotton served as an administrator and adjunct faculty member at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she worked with the Undergraduate Department of Drama and the Undergraduate Film & Television Department. At Tisch Drama, Cotton taught introductory stage management, led workshops in management theory and building effective teams, and developed a course titled From Concept to Curtain Call: Producing Work in New York. Cotton is the co-author of the forthcoming book Theatre Work: reimagining the labor of theatrical production (Routledge, 2024).

Other past positions include Special Assistant to the Artistic Director and Executive Director at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, Regional Field Director on a US Congressional Campaign, Business Manager for NYC’s premier hip-hop improv team North Coast, Operations Manager at technical production management firm Tinc Productions, four seasons on the production management and general management teams for the New York Musical Festival, and four seasons on the producing team for the contemporary performance festival American Realness. Cotton frequently works with the Tony Award-honored gospel choir Broadway Inspirational Voices and volunteers with organizations including Girls Write Now, How To Stand Out Mentorship Program, and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Cotton also continues to manage and produce independent performance projects. Bringing her stage and production management skills to another sphere, Cotton enjoys offering day-of coordination services for weddings.

In her own artistry, Cotton is a multidisciplinary creator with an interest in communications, interactivity, and the relationship between the natural and unnatural. Taking various shapes and forms, Cotton’s work uses color, pattern, and text, various artistic mediums, and found objects to explore these themes. Cotton owns a handmade greeting card company and frequently participates in maker initiatives and leads craft workshops.

Cotton holds a Masters in Public Administration with a focus on Public & Nonprofit Management & Policy from NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a BFA in Theatre with a focus on Stage Management and Producing. She has published writing about the barriers created by unpaid internship culture in arts administration and about gender equity in theatrical design, and is currently conducting research about stage management practices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.