New Dramatists Staff
TODD LONDON (Artistic Director) is in his twelfth 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. His magazine essays and articles on the theatre have been translated for publication in Russia, North and South Africa, Scandinavia, Serbia, and Roumania. Todd won the prestigious George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for his essays in American Theatre and a Milestone Award in 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 serves on the faculty of Yale School of Drama and as project director of Theatre Development Fund’s (TDF) Playwrights Project. Before coming to New Dramatists, he was guest literary director of the American Repertory Theatre and visiting lecturer of dramatic arts at Harvard. A former chair of the New York State Council on the Arts theatre panel and National Endowment for the Arts panelist, he serves on the boards of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), The John Golden Fund, and The Talking Band. He holds an M.F.A. in directing from Boston University and a Ph.D in Literary Studies from the American University. He has two sons, Guthrie and Grisha, and lives in Brooklyn with playwright Karen Hartman.
JOEL K. RUARK (Executive Director) was Managing Director of New Dramatists from 1989 to 1992, and returned to the company in 2000 following seven years of management in the theatre and nonprofit sectors. Ruark served as Managing Director of Wind Dancer Theatre in New York, a division of Wind Dancer Productions. Prior to Wind Dancer, he served as CFO 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.
JENNIE GREER (Director of Institutional Advancement) is thrilled to return to New Dramatists, where she previously served as Director of Development for three and a half happy years. Jennie worked most recently 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 and a member of New Georges’ Kitchen Cabinet. She is a proud graduate of the University of Evansville Department of Theatre and the MFA Performing Arts Management program at Brooklyn College. She is married to actor Simon Kendall and they live in Brooklyn.
EMILY MORSE (Director of Artistic Development) is a multi-faceted theatre artist entering her seventh year on staff 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, and PlayPenn. Her directing work and 10-minute plays have been seen in a variety of venues in New York City and regionally. She also worked for Ping Chong and Company, and Lema Productions. Workshops in which she’s participated include Choreography for Directors with Annie-B Parson, Butoh with Dawn Akemi Saito, Viewpoints with J.Ed Azaira, Critical Response and Movement and Stage Composition, respectively, with Liz Lerman, and playwriting with Eduardo Machado and Suzan-Lori Parks, respectively. She's studied Swing, Argentine Tango, and Flamenco, as well as other forms of dance. Her recent collaborations include a co-adaptation of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH with Rachel Dickstein and the Ripe Time company entitled INNOCENTS, produced at the Ohio Theatre in the winter of 2005, and more recently, with Carol Gilligan on a new adaptation of THE SCARLET LETTER. She has been a guest for 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, an alumna of The LCT’s Directors Lab, a NYTW Usual Suspect, a member of LMDA, and a Board Member of The Talking Band.
RON RILEY (Director of Operations) has worked in administrative and IT capacities for Playwrights Horizons, Borough of Manhattan Community College, and WatchTec Security. A professional actor & musician, Ron is a member of Café Antarsia Ensemble with Ruth Margraff, Nikos Brisco and Rami el Aassar. The group has performed at Joe’s Pub, BAM café, PS 122, HERE, CBGB’s Gallery and has toured internationally. Their debut CD Songs of the Table will be released on the Innova Record Label in the fall of 2007. Ron has also appeared in New Dramatists alum 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 directed by Nancy Jones; Keli Garrett's UPPA CREEK, directed by Dominic Taylor at Dixon Place; Keith Glover's play DARK PARADISE at Cincinnati Playhouse; the television program "New York Undercover"; the Obie Award-winning Off Broadway revival production of JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE by August Wilson, directed by Clinton Turner Davis at the New Federal Theatre; THEY STILL MAMBO IN HAVANA at The Flea and PARTIAL COMPLEX SEIZURE, written and directed by New Dramatists' resident playwright 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 directed by John Edward McGrath. 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.
JOHN STEBER (Director of the Playwrights’ Lab) is in his fourth season at New Dramatists where he has overseen the presentation and casting of over 200 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. John began his career as an actor, appearing Off Broadway at INTAR (WELCOME BACK TO SALAMANCA), Westside Arts (THE CITY SUITE), EST (NEW LIVING NEWSPAPER) and internationally at the Theatre Des Westens, Berlin (PORGY AND BESS), as well as in TV shows and commercials. John was a member of the NYU Dramatic Writing Program directing company, and from 1995 - 2001 served as a director/dramaturg for the Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat in Staunton, VA. He has directed live corporate industrial shows, and speech coaches corporate executives. John is an associate member of the SSDC, and is particularly proud to work with the 52nd Street Project, a New York program that pairs inner city children with theatre professionals.
MORGAN ALLEN (General Manager) is in his second season at New Dramatists. Previously, he served on the staff of Playbill.com as Photo Editor/Editorial Assistant. He has produced the United States premiere of New Dramatists alum Catherine Filloux’s play LEMKIN’S HOUSE for 78th Street Theatre Lab and Body Politic Theater, and will produce the World Premiere of her play KILLING THE BOSS in January/February 2008. Additionally, he served as an Associate Producer for Andrew Gerle and Maryrose Wood’s THE TUTOR with Prospect Theater Company while spending the 2005-06 season as a Producing Associate with that company. He has worked in New York City with La MaMa e.t.c., New Georges and National Asian American Theatre Company, among others. As co-founder and Board president of Body Politic Theater (www.bodypolitictheater.org), he focuses on supporting and fully producing new plays and playwrights, while presenting stories of social responsibility. As a playwright, his short play LEAP was featured as part of Prospect’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. In addition to his artistic and administrative work, he volunteers as a core member for Theatre Without Borders (www.theatrewithoutborders.com), an informal group of individual theatre artists around the world who are committed to international exchange. 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 assistant at Richard Frankel Productions, and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
CARA SCARMACK (Development Associate) is a development associate by day and a director by night. She recently worked at Signature Theatre Company as the Assistant Manager of the Annual Fund. She has also worked at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in sunny Los Angeles. Cara is a native of Ohio where she received a BFA in Theatre from Denison University. She has also studied at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and had the privilege to attend the LaMaMa International Symposium for Directors in Umbria, Italy. New York directing credits include Scott T. Barsotti's "Tenacity" and "The Revenants" and Mercedes Sanchez's "The Doubtful Dead." As assistant director, Cara worked with Gisela Cardenas on her workshop of "Ajax: A Furious Study of Humanity" at Target Margin Theater and “The Kiss of the Spider Woman” at the Vortex Theatre. She is delighted to join the staff and playwrights of New Dramatists!
ERIN DETRICK (Artistic Programs Administrator) is delighted to be joining the staff and playwrights of New Dramatists, after having first worked 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 has co-edited Funny, Strange, Provocative: Seven Plays from Clubbed Thumb, and three upcoming monologue collections. Erin has served as a dramaturg on a wide range of projects during literary internships at Actors Theatre of Louisville (where she worked on many of the 2004 Humana Festival plays), and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her freelance work includes stints at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Cleveland Public Theatre, as well as a variety of workshop productions. Her short play The Unconscious Hours has been produced at Actors and by Point B productions in NYC, and her adaptation of The Wizard of Oz is published by Playscripts, Inc. She is a graduate of Otterbein College.
MICHAEL LEW (Administrative Associate) is honored to work for New Dramatists. Michael is a resident playwright for Youngblood (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab (Ma-Yi Theatre), and the Old Vic New Voices New York club (Old Vic). His one-woman play YIT, NGAY (ONE, TWO) is published in Plays and Playwrights 2006. Pending publications include THE ROOSEVELT COUSINS, THOROUGHLY SAUCED (Sam French), MAGICIAN BEN VS. THE WIZARD MERLIN (Smith & Kraus), and excerpts from YIT, NGAY in The Best Women’s Monologues of the Millennium (Applause). He won the 2007 Sam French Festival and the 2007 Battle of the Bards and is the recipient of a Sloan Foundation commission. He was also a Westinghouse Finalist for his work on MOUSE HOMEOBOX GENES. Yale College, 2003