Jody Feldman, producer and casting director for the Alliance Theatre, is saying goodbye after 35 years.
Feldman, who started with the Alliance back in 1991, will retire this December. According to a press release, Feldman cast more than 375 productions for both adults and children at the theater during her tenure, including “The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” “Aida,” “The Color Purple,” and “Maybe Happy Ending.”
“It’s impossible to overstate Jody’s impact on the Atlanta Theatre community in general and on the Alliance in particular,” said Tinashe Kajese-Bolden and Christopher Moses, the Alliance’s Jennings Hertz artistic directors, in a joint statement. “It’s also impossible to imagine the Alliance without her. Luckily, we won’t have to as her legacy is baked into the very fabric of this organization. The depth of love she poured into this place will continue to inspire every staff member and artist who works here for generations to come.”
When Feldman first started her career, she thought she wanted to be an actor. But something about that profession left her feeling a little bit unfulfilled. She didn’t always love going to the movies – she found it difficult to watch other actors doing what she thought she wanted to do – but liked the actress Holly Hunter. So, one day she decided to go see 1987’s “Broadcast News,” and everything changed.
“It was an epiphany,” Feldman said. “I don’t want to be Holly Hunter the actor. I want to be her character in this movie. I want to produce.”
While she didn’t want to be a news producer like Hunter’s character in the film, she finally realized that she wanted to take a step into the world of theatrical producing. She called up The Academy Theatre (now located in Hapeville), founded by Frank Wittow, and asked for a job. They were in the process of moving to a bigger facility, and she thought they could use the help.
“I’ll do anything,” she remembered saying. “I’ll clean bathrooms, I’ll sweep – whatever you want me to do!”
She started off as the assistant managing director and later became the assistant general manager, according to the release. This is also where she met Kenny Leon, the award-winning director who would go on to serve as the artistic director of the Alliance Theatre for 11 years.
Leon was instrumental in paving the way for Feldman to come on at the Alliance. She eventually left the Academy Theatre to have her first child, but she didn’t stay away from theater for long. According to Feldman, Leon called her up one day – she was standing in the kitchen, she recalls, with a baby on her hip – and asked her to come on as his assistant and casting director. She initially said no – she’d already decided to be a stay-at-home mom, and was ready to refocus all of her energy into that lane. But Leon wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“‘You will be so good at this,’” she remembered him saying to her. ‘“Just come try it part time.’ I did, and I never left. He knew things about me I guess I didn’t know.”
Feldman said she thinks her time as an actor helped prepare her to become a great casting director. By her own estimation, she was good at acting, but not great – and she quickly realized that she didn’t want to do the things she would need to do to make herself great. Pair that with a little bit of stage fright and anxiety, and you’ve got the perfect storm of obstacles.
But all that time spent around actors showed her what great acting looks and feels like and prepared her to help nurture and grow Atlanta’s acting community – something that greatly needed doing at the time. On her first day at the Alliance, she recalled, she asked to look at the theater’s actor files.
“There was just one small file drawer of just a whole bunch of headshots and resumes just thrown in there – in no particular order, no rhyme or reason to it,” she remembered. “They were just there.”
Feldman got to work – not just on organizing the file drawer, but finding the talent she knew existed in the city and giving those actors the chances they needed.
“I saw every show in town. I had many, many general auditions at the time,” she said. “There had to be a commitment to inviting actors into audition for as many shows as I could possibly get them into – just provide the opportunities.”
According to its website, the Alliance now holds two invited calls for its productions on the Coca-Cola and Hertz Stages. The first of those calls is held in Atlanta with the “intent to cast as many local actors as possible and appropriate.”
Feldman said she wanted to make sure she gave local actors the chance to audition as much as possible because she knew that an actor would never get better if they didn’t have the proper audition experience. She also made sure that every director she worked with knew that her job wasn’t just about casting one particular production, but building something greater.
“Not only are we casting shows, but we’re building a talent base,” she said. “We’re building a community of actors.”
Under the leadership of Susan V. Booth, the artistic director following Leon, Feldman added “producer” to her title.
“More than anyone else associated with this theatre, Jody has been the beating heart of The Alliance,” Booth said in a statement. “She is the embodiment of the warmth, welcome, and commitment to excellence that has always been the hallmark of this place. And on a personal note, I never could have done this job without her by my side and down the hall.”
Over the years, the Alliance has become a breeding ground for pre-Broadway shows, such as “The Prom,” “Water for Elephants,” and “Maybe Happy Ending,” which won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 2025.
Feldman said she is proud of helping to develop the Alliance’s reputation as a launchpad for Broadway.
“In addition to what I think I’ve been able to do in terms of casting and local talent, being a part of that trajectory is probably the thing I’m most proud of personally,” she said.
For the majority of her career, Feldman thought she would work forever. She saw herself as a shriveled-up old woman, still spending her days and nights cooped up in her office or at the Alliance. But, one day she realized she wanted to take some time to do a few things for herself – spend time with family, maybe take a pilates class, or take a cruise down the Danube River (this, she told her husband, is the first thing she wants to do once she’s done).
When asked what the most important thing she learned during her tenure at the Alliance was, Feldman took a moment to gather her thoughts. She’s used to working behind the scenes, she said (“I’m the worker bee! I’m not usually the one who’s articulating the ideas.”). But, when she figured out what she wanted to say, it landed with gravitas. Theater is about an ensemble, at its core – not just on stage, but everyone who works behind the scenes to bring something magical to life. And she loved being part of that.
“If you believe in something deeply enough and you are surrounded by people who have a shared belief, and you don’t lead with ego, but you lead with purpose, I believe anything is possible,” she said. “And the possibilities are so much greater than each individual who’s participating. That’s a kind of power and purpose that I am beyond grateful to have been afforded.”
