Micky York came to Columbia to learn the management skills needed to help him run Brown Couch Theatre, the nonprofit theatre that he helped found. “We had no idea how to run a business when we started it,” explains York. “I like to tell people that I drew the short straw, so that's why I'm the one who went back to school.”

    Looking to finish his Masters of Arts Management degree during the 2005-2006 school year, York says that his studies at Columbia have “enabled Brown Couch to move beyond the expectations of a small theatre in Chicago. Artists and audiences are consistently impressed with the professional environment in which we present ourselves. Personally, I would not be able to run the company as effectively if I hadn't gone through all the marketing and accounting classes.”

      A graduate of Drake University, York and a group of his fellow alumni joined forces in 2003 to found Brown Couch Theatre. With a mission to create a comfortable environment for experiencing quality theatre, Brown Couch seeks to provide professional, yet comfortable, performance opportunities for the countless underemployed theatre workers and for younger audiences. Realizing that many people entering the theatre profession and many reluctant theatre-goers cite feeling unwelcome and uncomfortable in the current theatre environment, Brown Couch seeks to erase these concerns by creating a comfortable theatre experience for all.

      Working as a concierge at the Hyatt to help pay the bills while building up Brown Couch, York is also a freelance theatre and web designer, but his passion is the theatre.

      Currently the Managing Director of the theatre, York handles all of the day-to-day business functions, including budgeting, scheduling, and marketing. He also produces Brown Couch’s annual ten-minute play festival, a festival which showcases a variety of ten-minute long plays written by playwrights from all over the world. The third annual ten-minute play festival closed on August 13. The recipient of a Paul Berger Memorial Graduate Fellowship, York is spending the Fall semester finishing his thesis project – to aid Brown Couch.

     “It’s important for me to be emotionally involved in a project,” declares York. “rather than just stepping into a fancy job at an existing organization. Eventually, I plan to be the executive director of a company that I help to create, whether that is Brown Couch or a different incarnation.” There’s little doubt that he’ll be successful.