TheatreWorks Appoints Meredith McDonough As Director Of New Works

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, has announced that Meredith McDonough will fill the role of Director of New Works.  She replaces Kent Nicholson, who left in late 2008 to become the Director of Musical Theatre Development at Playwrights Horizons.  An ideal candidate, McDonough has been actively developing new works for the past ten years at theatres including Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Round House Theatre, The Public Theatre, LABryinth Theatre Company, Ars Nova, Women’s Project and Productions, New Georges, and the Drama League.  She spent two years as the New Works Program Director at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, and three seasons as a resident director at Actors Theatre of Louisville, famed for its annual Humana Festival of New American Plays.  She has personally directed over twenty world premiere plays and musicals.  McDonough holds an M.F.A. in Directing from University of California, San Diego, and a B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University.

“I am honored to be joining Artistic Director Robert Kelley, and the entire team at TheatreWorks,” said McDonough. “TheatreWorks is known around the country for nurturing and developing new works.  I look forward to being a part of this exciting organization and working on this summer’s expanded New Works Festival.”  Said Artistic Director Robert Kelley, “We are thrilled to have Meredith leading our New Works Initiative.  Her irrepressible energy, her extensive background in developing new works, and her skill at nurturing both playwrights and composers, make her a perfect fit for TheatreWorks. Her skills as a leader, a director, and a dramaturg will help us shape a legacy of new works for the theatre of the future.”

McDonough will have the opportunity to make her mark this summer when TheatreWorks presents its 8th Annual New Works Festival in conjunction with the launch of the company’s 40th Anniversary Season.  With the rousing world premiere musical Tinyard Hill as the festival centerpiece (July 15-August 16), this summer’s New Works Festival will feature workshops of three additional new musicals, plus three new play readings, Meet-the-Artists Forum, Bay Area Playwrights Showcase, Young Playwrights’ Showcase, and more, all open to the public.

Since its founding in 1970, TheatreWorks has become one of the nation’s leaders in cultivating and producing new musicals, developing and premiering more than 50 works by both emerging and well-established artists.  The company’s New Works Festival and Writers Retreat programs attract authors and composers of national stature (Paul Gordon, Marsha Norman, Henry Krieger, Stephen Schwartz, Duncan Sheik, Joe DiPietro, and Andrew Lippa, among many others), providing a solid place for America’s musical theatre artists to create new works. In addition, the company has developed scores of works which have gone on to both regional and Off-Broadway productions. Over the past four years, one third of the musicals presented at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals were developed at TheatreWorks. Works developed at TheatreWorks include Emma; the Broadway-bound Memphis; New York-bound Vanities, A New Musical; The Summer of ’42 and Striking 12 (both of which enjoyed successful Off-Broadway runs), and many others now being produced at regional theatres throughout the country.

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