@dramatistsguild @duanekelly

More often than not university theatre departments uphold the “ivory tower” stereotype of academia. It is all too rare when faculty climb down from their towers and wade into the muck where real theatre gets made. Seattle and its biggest college, the University of Washington (45,000 students), have been no exception, particularly in recent decades.

It has been a little over a year now since Todd London left New York and his nineteen-year position as Artistic Director of New Dramatists and moved to Seattle to lead the School of Drama at the University of Washington. At New Dramatists Todd was hip-deep in the muck, supporting writers as they developed their plays, improved their craft, and advanced their careers.

Todd arrived in Seattle with a goal of breaking down walls between the University and Seattle’s working theatre community. As it happens this current 2015-16 academic year is the 75th anniversary of the School of Drama. Graduates of the School of Drama have had a huge impact on the Northwest’s theatre scene. Angus Bowmer, founder of the famed Oregon Shakespeare Festival, was a UW alum. Faculty member Greg Falls founded ACT Theatre and another faculty member, Duncan Ross, served as an early Artistic Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Todd is using the occasion of the Drama School’s 75th anniversary to celebrate and deepen the school’s connections with Seattle’s theatre community. In place of the university’s traditional season of five or six plays, there will be a varied and diverse season that fosters new play cultivation and prominently features the creative work of women and people of color. The season includes plays by Dramatists Guild members Melissa James Gibson, Kia Corthron, Philip Kan Gotanda, Karen Hartman, Clarence Coo and Rachel Sheinkin.

Furthermore, many of these plays will be collaborations and co-productions with local theatres that have grown out of the School or been significantly impacted by the School’s alumni, including ACT Theatre, Azeotrope, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, PearlDamour, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and Washington Ensemble Theatre. Also the directors for many of the plays will come from Seattle’s theatre community rather than the University’s faculty.

On Nov. 2^nd, the School will host a half-day Seattle symposium titled “Seattle Theatres: Lost and Founded,” examining the founding visions and early struggles of the city’s stage companies. This year of celebration will culminate with an all-class reunion May 7-9.

Todd deserves plaudits for his efforts to establish closer connections between the University of Washington’s School of Drama and Seattle’s working theatre community.

dkelly@dramatistsguild.com