@dramatistsguild @duanekelly

Who leads LORT theatre companies and university drama programs has an outsized impact on a region’s playwrights. In recent months Seattle has seen major changes in those corridors.

Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Artistic Director Jerry Manning (formerly of New York Theatre Workshop and Woolly Mammoth) died suddenly in April due to complications following a routine heart operation. The Seattle Rep’s board moved quickly and promoted the Rep’s Associate Artistic Director Braden Abraham to Acting Artistic Director with a two-year contract. Abraham, age 37, has spent nearly his entire career at Seattle Rep, having begun as an intern in 2002 just out of college. Abraham has directed more than a dozen plays for the theater. Manning and Abraham were both committed to fostering new plays. Abraham launched and led the Rep’s Writers Group and has overseen an annual staged reading of new plays. These new play development programs will remain a priority, Abraham has said.

The Rep has seen a complete change in its top leadership this year, with a new Managing Director also coming aboard. Jeffrey Herrman, after serving as Managing Director at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, D.C.) since 2007, recently joined the Rep at that position.

Across town, the University of Washington appointed Todd London as Executive Director of its School of Drama. A longtime champion of playwrights, London has served as Artistic Director of New Dramatists since 1996. London will also teach as a professor in the Drama School. Seattle has a vibrant and tight-knit theatre community. One of London’s charges is to deepen the University’s ties to that community. Accompanying London to the UW is his wife, widely respected playwright Karen Hartman. She joins the University as Senior Artist in Residence. Hartman most recently taught at Yale University and New York University. Seattle playwrights are thrilled about London and Hartman’s move to the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle playwrights could be forgiven for puffing out their chests a bit during this year’s Tony Awards ceremony as one of their own, Robert Schenkkan, won Best Play for All the Way, his new script about President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Bryan Cranston also pulled down a Tony for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play, for his portrayal of LBJ in All the Way.

Congrats are also due to three Dramatists Guild members in Seattle who this past year received Edgarton Foundation Awards which help fund first productions of new plays: Elizabeth Heffron for Bo-Nita, Steven Dietz (who divides his time between Austin and Seattle) for Rancho Mirage, and Robert Schenkkan for The Great Society, his sequel to All the Way. The Edgarton Foundation also enabled Heffron to attend this year’s TCG conference in San Diego. At the TCG conference Heffron attended a session of 200 women playwrights, which just happened to be moderated by new Seattle resident Karen Hartman.

dkelly@dramatistsguild.com