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Dan Carter

7/21/2020

9 Comments

 
Dan Carter holds theatre degrees from Illinois State and Florida State universities, studied at the American Conservatory Theatre, apprenticed at the Alley Theatre, and made his professional debut in Theatre Company of Boston’s Richard III, starring Al Pacino. He served as President of the National Association of Schools of Theatre and the National Theatre Conference and as Dean of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. He is a recipient of the Society of American Fight Directors’ Patrick Crean Award. For twenty-two years he served as Professor and Director of the Penn State School of Theatre and Artistic Director of Pennsylvania Centre Stage. Previously, he was Associate Dean of the School of Theatre at Florida State and Chair of the Department of Theatre at Illinois State and Producing Director of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. He has been a free-lance theatre artist during this time, working in New York and throughout the country as actor, director, fight director, and stage manager. He is currently focused on dramatic writing.
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Charles Morey

7/15/2020

1 Comment

 
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.

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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/
1 Comment

Sherry Eaker

11/22/2019

3 Comments

 
Picture
Sherry Eaker is the producer of the annual Bistro Awards show, and is the former Editor-in-Chief of Back Stage (1977-2008). She compiled and edited the four editions of the “Back Stage Handbook for Performing Artists” and the “Cabaret Artists Handbook.” She serves on the board and/or is an advisor to a number of theatre-related organizations.
3 Comments

Woodie King, Jr.

9/4/2018

6 Comments

 
King was born in Mobile Alabama on July 27, 1937. At the age of five, he moved with his parents, Woodie Sr. and Ruby Johnson King, to Detroit, where he spent the rest of his youth. By the time he was 11 or 12 years old, King was supplementing his family’s income, which consisted primarily of Ruby’s housework wages, by modeling for church fans and calendars.
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King became interested in acting while in his teens, influenced particularly by Sidney Poitier’s Oscar nominated 1958 performances in the film The Defiant Ones. During his last year at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, King was offered a scholarship to the Will-O-Way School of Theatre in suburban Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. At Will-O-Way, King had the opportunity to study with such luminaries as Vincent Price and Helen Hayes, and students acted as apprentices with the stock theater affiliated with the school. Nevertheless, King was frustrated by the lack of parts well suited for black actors. With the support of one of his teachers, he undertook to educate himself in the history and state of black theater and literature.

In addition to his work at Will-O-Way, King attended Wayne State University in Detroit for two years of postgraduate study in theater. Still aggravated by the problems black actors faced in finding roles in classic plays, he teamed up with several other black theater students at Wayne State to found a new community-based black theater company, called Concept-East, based in a Detroit bar that could fit 100 seats. King served as director and manager of Concept-East from 1960 to 1963. He also turned to writing short stories.

One of the plays produced by Concept-East was Study in Color, by Reverend Malcolm Boyd, a white chaplain at Wayne State. King brought a touring production of the show to New York in 1964, where it played at Union Theological Seminary and the American Place Theatre. Rather than return to Detroit, King chose to stay in New York, where he continued working at the American Place, staging five plays there. Later that year, King was named cultural arts director of Mobilization for Youth, an antipoverty program aimed at providing arts training for minority children.

During the second half of the 1960s, King established a reputation as a leading authority on black theater. He wrote frequently for a number of periodicals on the need for more theaters serving black communities. In 1966 he produced The Weary Blues, an adaptation of Langston Hughes’s poetry for the stage. Black Quartet, which he produced in 1969, was a series of four one-act plays by dramatists of the Black Arts movement.

In 1970, King founded a new company, the New Federal Theatre, based at the Henry Street Settlement. The New Federal Theatre (NFT), named after the Harlem-based, government-funded troupe of the 1930s, remained King’s base of operations for the next thirty years. King envisioned the NFT as a community-based theater that promoted the work of writers from diverse ethnic backgrounds and offered it to the community for free admission. The no-admission policy had to be abandoned in the late 1970s, but the organization has remained committed to seeking out the work of minority playwrights, particularly new black writers, whenever possible. From Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman and Emmy Award winners S. Epatha Merkerson and Debbie Allen to a litany of Tony Award winners, including Phylicia Rashad, Leslie Uggams and Laurence Fishburne, the New Federal Theatre has been a breeding ground and a source of cultivation for many notable African American performers. Among the playwrights whose work King produced were Ron Milner, Ed Bullins, Amiri Baraka and Ntozake Shange.
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In early 2000, King was saluted with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by Wayne State University in his hometown of Detroit. By that time, he had produced some 160 plays, become a grandfather of three, and been immortalized with the creation of a drama award in St. Louis called the Woodie.

Unfortunately, the same economic forces that led King to start his own theater company to begin with— namely, the difficulty in getting deserving works by black playwrights produced in mainstream theaters— are still in place. King believes the solution today is the same as it was at the beginning of his career. “If I were to start a theater now,” he was quoted by TheaterMania.com, “it would be for the same reason: to produce plays that I don’t see being done. Aside from that, there’s no reason for doing it other than ego satisfaction.”
6 Comments

Margot Harley

9/26/2017

2 Comments

 
Margot Harley co-founded The Acting Company with the late John Houseman in 1972. She co-produced the Broadway productions of The Robber Bridegroom and The Curse of an Aching Heart with Faye Dunaway. She produced John Houseman's celebrated revival of Marc Blitzstein's musical play The Cradle Will Rock in New York and at the Old Vic Theatre in London. Off-Broadway, she produced Ten by Tennessee, a two evening retrospective of Tennessee Williams' one-act plays directed by Michael Kahn at The Lucille Lortel Theater, and the New York premiere of Eric Overmyer's On the Verge, directed by Garland Wright at The John Houseman Theater. She was Administrator of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School for its first twelve years, from 1968 to 1980. Prior to that she appeared in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions as an actress and dancer. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she attended LAMDA on a Fulbright Scholarship. 
2 Comments

Ted Herstand

8/10/2016

5 Comments

 
I thought it would be fitting to begin with the protean and erstwhile peripatetic Ted Herstand, who started the ball rolling while the subway rolled uptown.             - David Fuller, NTC Vice President

Who had the most influence on your career in the theatre and how did that influence manifest itself?
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The "who" was Esther Mullin, a wonderful actress. She headed the children's theatre program at the Cleveland Play House. This was during a period of Cleveland Play House history that brought significant national attention to it for becoming a professional theatre with a resident company of actors.
My first experience with Miss Mullin was at the age of nine or ten when I became a student in her Saturday classes, one class for the younger children, one class for the older. I started in the early class, for one dollar per year, which my parents told me they could afford. The fee was obviously not for profit, but rather to make it seem more important to the kids. As I later figured out, this was the perfect class for developing some of the child and juvenile actors used in the theatre company's major productions. Soon I learned that it also could provide training for a life in the theatre in every other aspect of theatre employment and, of course, for the development for future audience members. 

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