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NewDramatists Staff
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Todd
London
(Artistic Director) This summer Todd became the first recipient of Theatre
Communications Group’s (TCG) Visionary Leadership Award, for “an individual
who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to advance the theatre field
as a whole, nationally and/or internationally.” Todd is
beginning his fourteenth
season as artistic director of New Dramatists, where he has worked closely
with more than a hundred of America’s leading playwrights and advocated
nationally and internationally for hundreds more. A former Managing Editor
of American Theatre magazine and the author of The Artistic Home,
published by the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), he has written, edited,
and/or contributed to eleven books. This fall
will see the completion and publication of Theatre Development Fund’s (TDF)
New Plays and Playwrights Project, a four-year study of new play production
in America, for which Todd has served as project director and senior
writer. His particular brand of advocacy journalism has focused on both the
lives and livelihoods of individual artists and on the not-for-profit
theatre movement, especially the impact of institutionalization on the
field. His magazine essays and articles
on the theatre have been translated for publication in Russia, North and
South Africa, Scandinavia, Serbia, and Romania. Todd won the prestigious
George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for his essays in
American Theatre and a Milestone Award for his first novel, The
World’s Room, published by Steerforth Press. In 2001 he accepted a
special Tony® Honor on behalf of New Dramatists, and in 2005 he represented
New Dramatists at the Obie Awards, where the organization was honored with
the Ross Wetzsteon Award for excellence. Todd
has taught at Harvard and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and
currently serves on the faculty of Yale
School of Drama. He’s a past Literary Director of the American Repertory
Theatre at Harvard and Associate Artistic Director of CSC Rep off Broadway.
Todd just finished a six-year term
on the board of Theatre Communications Group (TCG).
He currently sits on the boards of
The John Golden Fund, and The
Talking Band. He has two sons, Guthrie and Grisha, and lives in Brooklyn
with playwright Karen Hartman. |
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Joel K. Ruark
(Executive Director) led the staff of New Dramatists from 1989 through
1992. He returned as Executive Director in 2000. Ruark served as Managing
Director of the theatre division of Wind Dancer Production Group. He also
helped to establish and served as the Chief Financial Officer for Praxis
Housing Initiatives, a nonprofit housing development agency serving the
homeless and people with AIDS. Ruark previously held positions as
Development Director of the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ,
General Manager of the Lambs Theatre in New York City and Literary Manager
of the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. He has worked in a variety of
positions at professional companies including the New Jersey Shakespeare
Festival, the Philadelphia Theatre Company, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and the
Philadelphia Festival Theatre. A graduate of Ohio University, Joel began
his theatrical career as a literary management intern at Actors Theatre of
Louisville. |
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Jennie Greer
(Director of Advancement) returned to New Dramatists in 2007, and she
oversees development and institutional communications. She previously served
as Director of Development for three and a half years. In the interim,
Jennie worked at Signature Theatre Company as the Director of Theatre
Advancement. In that position, she oversaw development and marketing
strategies, as well as the implementation of a new branding and
communications campaign. She has also
served as the Executive Director for The New Harmony Project, an
Indiana-based organization dedicated to developing new works for theatre,
film, and television. In addition to her work
at New Dramatists, Jennie is the development consultant for Soho Rep, a
board member for Ripe Time, a member of New Georges’ Kitchen Cabinet, on the
advisory board of America-in-Play, and on the Brooklyn College Alumni
Committee. She is a proud graduate of
the University of Evansville Department of Theatre and the MFA Performing
Arts Management program at Brooklyn College,
where she teaches a graduate fundraising class.
She is married to Simon Kendall and they live in Brooklyn.
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Emily Morse
(Director
of Artistic Development) is a multi-faceted theatre artist entering her
ninth year at New Dramatists. She has served as dramaturg on workshops and
productions at The Philadelphia Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of
Louisville, New York Theatre Workshop, the Wilma, Clubbed Thumb, New
Georges, the JAW/West Festival, Ripe Time, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Culture
Project/Women Center Stage, PlayPenn and 13P. Her directing work and
10-minute plays have been seen in a variety of venues in New York City and
regionally. She has also held administrative positions with Ping Chong and
Company, Lema Productions, Creative Time, and LMDA. Workshops in which she’s
participated include Choreography for Directors with Annie-B Parson, Butoh
with Dawn Akemi Saito, Viewpoints with J. Ed Araiza, Critical Response, and
Movement and Stage Composition, respectively, with Liz Lerman, and
playwriting with Eduardo Machado, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Karen Hartman. She's
studied various forms of dance including Swing, Argentine Tango, and
Flamenco. She was the dramaturg/co-adaptor of Innocents, Ripe Time’s
iteration of The House of Mirth, produced at the Ohio in 2005, and
more recently, she worked with Carol Gilligan on an adaptation of The
Scarlet Letter. She has been a guest at the Baldwin Festival of New
Work at UCSD, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the New Works Festival at
UT-Austin. She is an artistic advisor for New Georges, LCT’s Directors Lab
alumna, NYTW Usual Suspect, LMDA member, and a Board Member of The Talking
Band. |
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Ron Riley
(Director of Operations) has worked in administrative and IT capacities for
EST, Playwrights Horizons and Borough of Manhattan Community College. A
professional actor & musician, Ron is a member of Café Antarsia Ensemble
with Ruth Margraff, Nikos Brisco and Rami el Aassar. The group released
their debut CD Songs of the Table on Innova Records in 2007 and has
toured internationally. Ron has also appeared in New Dramatists alum
productions including Carlyle Brown’s play Pure Confidence at the
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival;
The New York Fringe Festival's production of Portrait of a President
by Herman Daniel Farrell III; Keli Garrett's Uppa Creek, directed by
Dominic Taylor at Dixon Place; Keith Glover's Dark Paradise at
Cincinnati Playhouse; the Obie Award-winning Off Broadway revival production
of Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson at the New Federal
Theatre; They Still Mambo In Havana at The Flea and Partial
Complex Seizure, written and directed by Rogelio Martinez at the
Playwrights' Collective; Christopher Columbus by Nikos Kazantdakis,
directed by Lloyd Richards at the New Federal Theatre; Crocodile Eyes
written and directed by Eduardo Machado at Theatre for the New City; and
Soho Rep’s production of Skin by Naomi Iizuka. A veteran of "many
dusty, downtown productions,” he is a 1991 graduate of NYU's Tisch School of
the Arts, where he received a B.F.A. with Honors and a 1991 Founders Award. |
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John Steber
(Director
of the Playwrights’ Lab) is in his sixth season at New Dramatists where he
has overseen the presentation and casting of over 400 readings and
workshops. In New York, he has directed at HERE, The Working Theatre, HB
Playwrights Foundation, EST, New Perspectives, The West Bank, Alice’s Fourth
Floor, The Present Company, and Metro Playhouse, among others. He has
directed staged readings for Playwrights’ Horizons and New York Theatre
Workshop, and was a member of the 1996 and 1999 Lincoln Center Theatre
Director’s Lab. Additionally, he has directed for The Passage Theatre, The
Garage Theatre Group, and 12 Miles West in his home state of New Jersey. He
also directed Arthur Miller’s After the Fall for the Daylesford
Theatre at BMDS, Bermuda. From 1995 - 2001 John served as a director/dramaturg
for the Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat in Staunton, VA. John
began his career as an actor, appearing Off Broadway at INTAR, Westside
Arts, EST, and internationally at the Theatre Des Westens, Berlin (Porgy
and Bess), as well as in TV shows and commercials. |
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Morgan Allen
(General Manager) is in his fourth season on the staff of New Dramatists
where he oversees and manages bookkeeping and accounting and is responsible
for coordination of the annual Spring Luncheon, among other duties. Prior
to New Dramatists, Morgan was on the staff of Playbill.com where he edited
photos and wrote several feature articles on theater. As a theatrical
producer, he most recently worked on the world premiere of ND alum Catherine
Filloux's Killing the Boss (Cherry Lane Theatre) and the US premiere
of her play Lemkin’s House with Body Politic Theater, of which he is
a co-founder. As a playwright, he is the co-author with Mitch Montgomery of
Triumph of the Underdog, which was produced during the 2008 New York
International Fringe Festival. His short play Leap was featured as
part of Prospect Theater Company's Dark Nights Series in April 2006.
Judas Pigeon received a reading at Manhattan Ensemble Theater (dir. Jean
Randich). He directed a workshop production of his play Precious Stone
while at the Savannah College of Art & Design. He has worked in New York
City with La MaMa e.t.c., New Georges, National Asian American Theatre
Company and Theater Without Borders, among others. Morgan proudly served as
intern for New Dramatists during the summer of 2002. He lives in New York
City with his wife Heather, a financial associate at Frankel Green
Theatrical Management, and one-year old daughter Avery. Morgan holds a
Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. |
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Cara
Scarmack
(Development Associate) is proud to be entering her third season at New
Dramatists. Previously, she was the Assistant Manager of the Annual Fund at
Signature Theatre Company where she focused on Individual Giving and Special
Events. She has also worked with the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Los
Angeles. In addition to her work at New Dramatists, Cara is a director and
her work has been seen in various festivals in New York City. Her new work
Better Not Touch That, which she wrote and will direct, will premiere
in Gowanus, Brooklyn this year. She is the co-founder with Sarah Michelson
of The Pool, a theater workshop for actors and directors. Together with
mandolin player Kate Prascher, she is a member of the duo The Kacey Sisters
and plays bluegrass guitar in music venues around town. She is a graduate of
Denison University and also studied at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film
Institute in New York. Cara had the privilege to attend the LaMaMa
International Symposium for Directors in Umbria, Italy and Odin Week 2009 at
the Odin Teatret in Holstebro, Denmark. |
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Erin Detrick
(Artistic Programs Administrator) is entering her second full season at New
Dramatists and first had the pleasure of working with the organization as an
intern in 2003. Previously, she was the Publications Director for
Playscripts, Inc., where she managed the submissions and editorial
processes, and, with Keen Company, helmed the first two seasons of Keen
Teens, a program in which professional playwrights develop and write one-act
plays for production with area high school students in a professional
Off-Broadway setting. With Playscripts, she co-edited Funny, Strange,
Provocative: Seven Plays from Clubbed Thumb and three monologue
collections. Her adaptation of THE WIZARD OF OZ is published by Playscripts.
As a dramaturg, Erin’s freelance credits include work with Actors Theatre of
Louisville, Cleveland Public Theatre, the 24Seven Lab, Puerto Rican
Traveling Theatre, and a variety of workshop productions. She also
dramaturged a wide range of projects during literary internships at Actors
Theatre of Louisville and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She is a
graduate of Otterbein College. |
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Connie Hall
(Grants Administrator) joined the staff of New Dramatists in July of 2009.
Her last position was as a development associate at Theatre Communications
Group, where she spent four years raising money for the national
not-for-profit theatre sector. As an independent performer and producer,
Connie has helped to create and mount numerous new plays in New York and
abroad. She is currently the producing director of Conni’s Avant Garde
Restaurant, and she has been a contributing writer-performer with several
ensemble-based theater companies, including Knife, Inc., Saga Theatre,
SaBooge, and International WOW Company. She holds an MFA from Columbia
University. |
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This page was last updated
09/10/2009. |
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