Charles Morey

CHARLES MOREY is a director, playwright and former artistic director with more than  fifty years experience in the professional theatre and extensive credits from coast to coast.

​PLAYWRIGHT...
He is  the author of twelve produced plays. FIGARO was commissioned and produced Off-Broadway by the Pearl Theatre Company in 2012 and was named a NY Times “Critic’s Pick.” THE GRANITE STATE was premiered by the Peterborough Players in the summer of 2014. In addition he has written LAUGHING STOCK (which has received close to two hundred productions around the world) DUMAS’ CAMILLE, THE YELLOW LEAF, THE LADIES MAN (an adaptation from Feydeau with over 70 productions to date) as well as adaptations of the 19th century classic novels, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, DRACULA and THE THREE MUSKETEERS.  His plays have been produced at numerous professional theatres including: Denver Center Theatre Company, Pioneer Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare and Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Asolo Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of  St. Louis, A Noise Within, Meadow Brook Theatre, PCPA Theaterfest, L.A.Theatreworks, Peterborough Players, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Elm Shakespeare Co., Centenary Stage Co., Creede Rep., Arvada Center, Shadowland Theatre, Sierra Rep., Theatre in the Square, Cortland Rep., Tamworth Barnstormers and many more as well as hundreds of amateur, university and international productions as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Austria, Singapore, Argentina and Israel as well as  Ireland, the U.K. and Canada.  LAUGHING STOCK has been playing continuously since 2013 in the repertory of the Arcadia Theatre in Moscow in Russian translation; since 2014 in the repertory of the Variant Drama Theatre in Pervouralsk; since May 2015 in the repertory of the Mirinisky Theatre, Yakutia,  since December 2015 in the repertory of the Ostrovsky Theatre in Seversk, joined the repertoire of the Studio Theatre in Omsk in November 2016, the Buratino Theatre in Magnitogorsk in 2019 and the Drama Theatre of Bratsk in 2020.  THE THIRD SKY  - as yet unproduced in English - received its world premiere at the Vilnius Chamber Theatre in Lithuanian translation and  will receive its premiere in Russian translation at the Wheel Theatre in Tolyatti, Russia in 2020.

FIGARO was a N.Y. Times "Critic's Pick" and a L.A. Times "Critic's Choice" in its west coast premiere at A Noise Within. LAUGHING STOCK was nominated for the American Theatre Critic's Association Steinberg Award and won the "Best New Play" citation from the New Hampshire Theatre Association and the “Readers Choice” Award for Best Play from the Sarasota Herald Tribune. In it's 2013 revival by the Peterborough Players, it won six New Hampshire Theatre Association Awards including "Best Play." DUMAS' CAMILLE  received the City Weekly "Slammy" award for Best New Play in Utah. THE LADIES MAN received the "Readers' Choice Ovation Award" from the Denver Post for Best Comedy. THE GRANITE STATE was nominated as Best New Play by the New Hampshire Theatre Awards in 2014. His, as yet un-produced play, THE SALAMANDER'S TALE, was a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Award for Drama.  DUMAS' CAMILLE was a finalist for the 2003 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and THE THIRD SKY  was a semi-finalist in 2016. 

L.A Theatreworks presented a national tour of their “LIve Radio Theatre” production of DRACULA in 2015-2016 and the original 2011 recording is re-played regularly every October on public radio stations around the U.S. He is published by both Dramatists Play Service (“Laughing Stock”, “Figaro” “The Ladies Man”) and Playscripts (“The Count of Monte Cristo”, “The Three Musketeers”.)

His current projects include a commission to write the Libretto for a Music-Theatre piece about Walter Reuther and the American Labor Movement with composer Greg Pliska, tentatively titled "A Most Dangerous Man." He is also working on the first draft of a new play, "Monadnock", the third of the "New Hampshire Plays" including "The Granite State" and "The Third Sky." 

DIRECTOR...
During his tenure as Artistic Director of the Pioneer Theatre Company from 1984 to 2012 he directed more than ninety productions including world premieres of FIND AND SIGN by Wendy MacLeod, Bess Wohl's TOUCH(ED) and IN as well as first regional theatre productions of LES MISÉRABLES, THE PRODUCERS, and THE VERTICAL HOUR; in addition to THE TEMPEST, HAMLET, CHICAGO, METAMORPHOSES, JULIUS CAESAR, HUMBLE BOY, JAMES JOYCE'S THE DEAD, CYRANO DE BERGERAC, THE REAL THING among many others. While serving as Artistic Director of the Peterborough Players from 1977 to 1988, he directed some thirty five productions including significant world premieres by Percy Granger (EMINENT DOMAIN and UNHEARD SONGS) and Poet Laureate of the United States Donald Hall’s RAGGED MOUNTAIN ELEGIES. In addition he directed a wide variety of material  ranging from Shaw, Synge, Williams, Wilder, Saroyan, Coward and Feydeau to O’Neill and Ben Jonson. As a free-lancer he has directed in New York for the Ark Theatre Company and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.  Regionally he has directed for the Contemporary American Theatre Festival (the world premiere of Bess Wohl's "Barcelona"), Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Asolo Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, MeadowBrook Theatre, the American Stage Festival, PCPA Theatrefest, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Florida Repertory Theatre, Centenary Stage Company and the Hilberry Repertory Theatre as well as having returned frequently to both the Peterborough Players and the Pioneer Theatre Company as a guest director.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR...
As artistic director from 1984 to 2012 he led the Pioneer Theatre Company in conceptualizing and implementing a new mission that fully professionalized the theatre, moving PTC from the University Resident Theatre Association contract to the League of Resident Theatres Contract and an increase in AEA contracts from an average of eighteen equity contracts per season to an average of ninety. He refocused the mission on the classics, the great plays of the contemporary theatre and produced fourteen world premieres. In close collaboration with managing director Chris Lino, he increased the theatre's annual budget five-fold to over five million dollars, while retiring a long term debt of one point five million and building a four million dollar endowment. He collaborated on two major capital campaigns during his tenure, the first significantly expanded the facilities, building new scene and costume shops, rehearsal halls and green room, sound studio and extensive new office space while renovating the existing facilities from top to bottom. The second campaign raised funds to purchase and gut renovate a nearby apartment building into a twenty unit guest artist residence. The Meldrum House (named for its principal donors, Pete and Cathie Meldrum) is one of the finest housing facilities for guest artists in the regional theatre world. In 2007, PTC was chosen to be the first American regional theatre to produce "Les Miserables" which he directed for a sold out run of ten weeks.  
 
As Artistic Director of New Hampshire's Peterborough Players (1977 to 1988)  he more than tripled the size of the Equity Company and production staff, increased the budget five-fold and more than doubled seasonal attendance. He inaugurated a highly successful New Plays Program which ultimately sent one play to Broadway and five to Off-Broadway production. During his tenure the theatre launched its first ever capital campaign resulting in major new construction, renovation and expansion of existing facilities and the creation of the theatre's first endowment while undergoing a major transition from family management to institutional structure. 

In June of 2012 he was named Artistic Director Emeritus of Pioneer Theatre Company. He currently splits his time between free-lance directing and writing projects.

He began his career as an actor working with many New York and regional theatres such as the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the New Dramatists, Ark Theatre Company, The Folger, Syracuse Stage, Peterborough Players, Theatre by the Sea and many others. He has served as both a panelist and on-site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts and on the Board of Trustees of the National Theatre Conference. He is a member of  SDC, the Dramatists Guild, AEA and SAG-AFTRA  (honorable withdrawal). He received a BA from Dartmouth College and a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the MacDowell Colony.

http://www.charlesmorey.com/