Michael Barker joined Westport Country Playhouse in September 2016 from Mill Valley, CA, where he was the managing director of Marin Theatre Company.

Previously, Barker was general manager of Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach, CA, and managing director for the Los Angeles classical theater ensemble The Antaeus Company. Before moving to California, Barker was associate managing director at Yale Repertory Theatre and managing director of Yale Summer Cabaret, where he produced the first annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays. He was Seattle Repertory Theatre’s 2008 Managing Director Fellow.

Barker holds an MFA in theater management from Yale School of Drama and an MBA from Yale School of Management. At Yale, he was the recipient of the Daniel and Helene Sheehan Scholarship for theater management and a Kosciusko Scholarship for outstanding students of Polish descent. He currently serves as vice president of the board of the Yale School of Management Alumni Association.

Prior to graduate school, he was associate director of marketing for Court Theatre in Chicago, and also worked with Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, Sansculottes Theater Company, and The Playground Theater.

Jeremy is ballsy. A risk-taker. The type of guy who won't take no for an answer (unless you mean it in which case he'll totally respect your boundaries). After growing up in Nashville, TN, studying finance at the University of Georgia and working in marketing in Dallas, Jeremy realized there is more to life than helping State Farm sell insurance, so he quit his corporate job (like a boss) and moved to New York to become a comedian. Through countless hours of grueling labor and an endless supply of Tony Robbins DVDs, he made himself a regular at clubs all over the city and sells-out venues across the country from Zanies in Nashville to Second City in Chicago. He's a writer for Funny or Die, a 6-time roast battle champion, and he currently runs the city's best monthly charity based comedy show, "Stand Up and Save the World" at the New York Comedy Club. So yeah, he's basically a hero.

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