Boston Playwrights’ Theatre

Derek Walcott

Founder

Founder and former Artistic Director of Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Derek Walcott is a world-renowned poet and playwright and the author of numerous books of poetry, essays, and plays. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountain received an Obie Award for the most distinguished foreign play. His plays have been produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Mark Taper Forum, the Negro Ensemble Company, the American Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, and the Guthrie Theatre, among others. His stage adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey was staged to sold-out London audiences by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1993. Born in 1930 on the island of Saint Lucia in the West Indies, Walcott graduated from the University College of the West Indies. In 1957, he received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study American drama and has continue to win numerous awards for his verse and drama, including an O'Neill Foundation-Wesleyan University Fellowship for Playwrights (1969), the Guggenheim Award (1977), the American Poetry Review Award (1979), the Welsh International Writer's Prize (1980), the Queen's Medal for Poetry (1988), and the W.H. Smith Prize (1991). Walcott was awarded a five-year MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1981. Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959 as the Little Carib Theatre Workshop. The Trinidad Theatre workshop has grown into an internationally recognized repertory company based in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. They have toured the United States, and their Boston performances include the 1995 productions at the Boston University Theatre on Huntington Avenue of Walcott's Elliot Norton Award-winning The Joker of Seville and Dream on Monkey Mountain. In 1981, when he began teaching poetry and playwriting at Boston University, with BU's help and a portion of his MacArthur Foundation Award, Walcott established Boston Playwrights' Theatre. Walcott continues to gives readings and lectures throughout the world.

Kate Snodgrass

Artistic Director, Professor of Playwriting

Kate Snodgrass is the Artistic Director of Boston Playwrights' Theatre and of the Elliot Norton Award-winning Boston Theater Marathon (which she also co-founded). She is a Professor in Playwriting at the renowned Graduate Creative Writing Department of Boston University. Kate is a former Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival's Chair of the National Playwriting Program, a former Vice President of StageSource, Inc., and a member of Actors' Equity, A.F.T.R.A., and the Dramatists' Guild. She is the 2001 recipient of the "Theatre Hero" Award from StageSource in Boston. She is a Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company.

Her play The Glider (at BPT, 2004) was nominated for the National American Critics Association's "Steinberg New Play Award" and won the 2005 IRNE Award for "Best New Play." Snodgrass is the author of the Actors' Theatre of Louisville's Heideman Award-winning and much-anthologized play Haiku. The play has been performed around the world and translated into German, Portuguese, and Gaelic, and the film "Haiku" premiered at the 1995 Boston Film Festival. Snodgrass's play Observatory Conditions (BPT, 1999) was the winner of an IRNE Award for "Best New Play", the 1998 Provincetown Theatre Company's Playwriting Award Competition, and the "Best Play Award" at the 2000 Southeast Theatre Conference. Snodgrass was a member of the former Circle Repertory Theatre Lab. Her short plays L'Air Des Alpes, Que Sera, Sera, and Critics' Circle have been published/anthologized by Cedar Press, Dramatic Publishing Company, and Bakers Plays, respectively.

As an actor, Snodgrass studied at Kansas University, The Wichita State University, The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA), and in NYC with disciples of Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner. She has appeared at Lincoln Center, in regional theatres, and on national television. Her directing credits at Boston Playwrights' Theatre include Blackout and Prayin' Hands by Tom McClellan, Michael Moss's Twosome, Kimberly Brown's Re: Pirth, Karen Zacarias's The Barechested Man, Joyce VanDyke's Love in the Gulf, and Patricia Smith's Life After Motown. Snodgrass has taught at Wellesley College, Brandeis University, M.I.T., The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard, Suffolk University and Lesley University, among others. A Virginia Center for Creative Arts fellow, she holds two B.A. degrees from Kansas University and Wichita State University, respectively, and a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Boston University. Kate is the recipient of the Leonides A. Nickole Theatre Educator of the Year Award from the New England Theater Conference, 2008, and the first recipient of the "Milan Stitt Award for Outstanding Teacher of Playwriting" from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Richard Schotter

Visiting Professor of Playwriting

Richard Schotter is the author of Medicine Show, Benya the King, The Wood Dancer and Taking Stock, which have been performed in New York, around the U.S., and in Europe. An opera based on The Wood Dancer (with music by Jerome Hughes) was performed at the Next Move Theatre in New York in 1996. Mr. Schotter has been an OBIE Award nominee and received a CAPS grant and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture's Berman Playwriting Award (all for Benya the King). He is also a lyricist and an alumnus of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. His short musical Duet for Shy People (music by Michael Kosarin) was performed at the 1999 Boston Theater Marathon and is included in the musical evening Plaisir d'Amour and Other Stories. Mr. Schotter has written a number of songs for the PBS children's series The Puzzle Place. He and composer Michael Kosarin recently completed a musical of Anne of Green Gables. He is currently working with composer Steve Horelick on a new full-length musical. Mr. Schotter has been a theatre critic, a Fulbright Scholar, and the Literary Manager of the American Place Theatre and holds a Ph. D. in Dramatic Literature from Columbia University. He is a Professor of English at Queens College, CUNY, where he chairs the Creative Writing Program.

Melinda Lopez

Assistant Professor of Playwriting

Melinda Lopez is a playwright and actress, and was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a "promising new voice in American Theatre." Her play Sonia Flew, which was developed and premiered by the Huntington Theatre Company, won the Elliot Norton Award for Best New Play and two IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Awards for Best Play and Best Production. It has subsequently been produced at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, Ariel Tepper's Summer Play Festival (NY), the Milagro Theatre (Portland, OR), and the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. The play has been broadcast on NPR's "The Play's The Thing!" in a production by L.A. Theatre Works with a cast that included Elizabeth Peña and Hector Elizondo. Most recently, her play Gary was produced at Steppenwolf Theatre's First Look Play Festival in Chicago and, in March 2008, at Boston Playwrights' Theatre where it was nominated for an Elliot Norton Award by the Boston Theatre Critics Association.

Ronan Noone

Assistant Professor of Playwriting

Ronan Noone emigrated from Ireland in 1994. His first play The Lepers of Baile Baiste was workshopped with Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. Noone earned his Master's in Playwriting at Boston University and the play (a Nicholl's semifinalist) went on to win the National Playwriting Award at the American College Theatre Festival. It was produced at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. It had its professional premiere in Boston with Sugan Theatre Company, where it became a critic's pick by the Boston Globe and went on to win the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) best play award. It played in Chicago, Los Angeles (at Celtic Arts Center), where it was an LA Times Critics Pick, and New York's, Phil Bosakowski theatre. His second play, The Blowin of Baile Gall opened at Boston Playwrights' Theatre and had its off-Broadway debut (Gabriel Byrne, producer) at the Irish Arts Center in New York in 2005. The play had been previously nominated by the American Theatre Critics Association for the Steinberg New Play Award and won the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script. Noone was chosen by Boston Magazine as the Best Young Playwright for 2003, and in July of 2003 he was commissioned as a playwrighting fellow by the Huntington Theatre Company under the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays. Brendan (IRNE - Best New Play) had its world premiere at the Huntington Theatre in the Fall of 2007. His monologue play, The Atheist, opened with Chris Pine in 2006, and followed with Campbell Scott playing the role at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2008, and was co-produced by The Culture Project and Ted Mann's, Circle in the Square productions at the Barrow Street Theatre in October 2008. Other recent productions have taken place in LA, Chicago, London, and The Philippines. Noone has also developed work for television with Sarah Jessica Parker's, Pretty Matches Productions, and with reality TV based productions, High Noon Entertainment.

His short plays, The Mutton Bandit Molloy, Headbanger, and Goldman Sucks are published by Baker's plays and Smith and Kraus, respectively. His full-length plays are published by Samuel French, Dramatist's Play Service and his essay on theatre, 'Being afraid to breathe' is published by Princeton University Library Chronicle LXVIII. His most recent play Little Black Dress was produced by the Exchange Theatre at Theatre at St Clement's, NYC in Spring of 2011.

Dan Hunter

Lecturer

Dan Hunter is a founding partner of Hunter Higgs, LLC, an advocacy and communications firm specializing in cultural non-profits. He is the former executive director of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH) a statewide advocacy and education group. An award-winning playwright, songwriter and humorist, Hunter also has 25 years’ experience in politics and arts advocacy, serving as Director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (a cabinet appointment requiring Senate confirmation) and running a successful advertising and political consultancy firm in Des Moines. As director of MAASH, Hunter successfully campaigned for cultural facilities funding and an increase of 70% in cultural funding during a time when the total state budget increased by only 14%. Hunter is the author of two books, Let’s Keep Des Moines a Private Joke and The Search for Iowa (& We Don’t Grow Potatoes). He has written several plays including Un Tango en La Noche and La Mujer Sin Cara (The Woman Without a Face). His play The Monkey King was a finalist for the 2004 Heideman Award from the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Hunter’s play, Red Elm, was produced to critical acclaim in December 2005 at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, one of three plays nominated for the Best New Play of the Year award by the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE). The Massachusetts Association of Arts Educators named Hunter the Friend of Arts Education for 2010. Hunter was managing director of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre at Boston University from 1999 to 2002. Hunter has taught playwriting at Boston University since then, and has had one-act plays published in Baker’s Plays, including Mirror Man, Internal Medicine and The Monkey King. He is the composer and writer of Picture Postcard Musicale, based on the texts of picture postcards from 1906-1910. Hunter has performed a one-man show of topical humor in original song, and has made numerous radio and television appearances including ABC’s Good Morning America, National Public Radio, BBC, and CNN Nightly News. Hunter previously served in the Iowa State Governor’s cabinet as Director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. On his departure, The Des Moines Register wrote in an editorial: “[Hunter] instilled a renewed vigor in a neglected area of state government. He made people think about art as a way of life…He was able to hopscotch across the state with a message, not from a bureaucrat, but from someone intimately involved with the arts, someone who understands the nuances of the arts community and of those who support the arts.” From 1980 to 1997, Hunter owned and operated Dan Hunter Creative Services. He earned his B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, and his M.A. from Boston University. In August 2005, he also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD.

Joshua Goldstein

Lecturer

Jacob Strautmann

Managing Director, Creative Writing teacher

Jacob Strautmann is Managing Director at Boston Playwrights' Theatre where he is actively involved in helping to run the Graduate Playwriting Program at Boston University. He also teaches an Introduction to Creative Writing class to BU undergraduates. Originally from West Virginia, where he received a BA in History and English from Wheeling Jesuit University, Jake has lived in Boston for seven years. He received an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University in 2000. Since then, he has called Boston Playwrights' Theatre his home. His poems have appeared in Perihelion Magazine, on Webdelsol, and in Agni Magazine Online. His one-act plays have been featured twice in the Boston Theater Marathon, and his one-act Roseby's Rock was produced by The Bridge Theatre Company. He is currently working on a full-length play, Upon Stony Places. He lives in Greater Boston with his wife and children.

Marc Olivere

Production Manager, Technical Director

Marc Olivere is Production Manager at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, as well as a playwright, fiction writer, and lighting designer. His lighting design credits include West Side Story and Evita at the Seacoast Repertory in Portsmouth, The Man Who Came To Dinner, Sing for Your Supper, and Our Country's Good at the Lyric Stage, Sweeney Todd at the Turtlelane Playhouse, and Falsettos at the Vineyard Playhouse in Martha's Vineyard. At BPT, he designed Joyce Van Dyke's A Girl's War and Love in the Gulf, Kate Snodgrass's Observatory, Melinda Lopez's Scenes from a Bordello, Karmo Sanders' Humpin' Glory Bay, Karen Zacarías's The Sins of Sor Juana and The Barechested Man (for which he also served as set designer), Sinan Ünel's Single Lives, The Vorse House, and The Three of Cups, Kimberly Brown's Re: Pirth, Payne Ratner's Repossession, and Chapin Garner's Confessions. When he's not building a set, Marc is also responsible for bringing the Boston Theater Marathon in "on time."

Michael Duncan Smith

Marketing Coordinator

Michael Duncan Smith is the Marketing Coordinator at Boston Playwrights' Theatre and is responsible for all graphic design and website content. When not at BPT, Mike is an actor, director and graphic designer.  Favorite acting roles include: The Comedy of Errors (Antipholus of Syracuse), Our Town (George Gibbs), As You Like It (Touchstone), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Nick Bottom), Romeo and Juliet (The Nurse) and The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Father Donnally). Directing credits include: Loaves and Fishes at the Boston Theater Marathon, Macbeth and The Tempest  with Gurnet Theatre Project and The Bald Soprano. Mike earned a Master of Science in Arts Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Fundraising Management from Boston University in 2011 and lives in Lexington with his wife and daughter.