Jerry Manning Signs Contract At Seattle Rep, Announces New Play Program

Jerry Manning signed a two-year contract as Seattle Repertory Theatre's producing artistic director, the theatre announced today. Manning-Seattle Rep's former casting director-has held that position since August 2008, and he will remain through a national search for artistic director that will begin in the fall. Manning has indicated that he will be a candidate for the permanent artistic director position.

A Seattle resident for ten years, Manning has directed at theatres throughout the city. Most recently at Seattle Rep he helmed last season's "boom." Prior to his time in Seattle, he was based in New York and Washington D.C. where he directed at New Dramatists, New York Theatre Workshop, the Kennedy Center, The Studio Theatre, and Signature Theatre, among others. Manning has a particular interest in and commitment to developing new plays.

With the announcement of his contract at Seattle Rep, Manning is also reinstating the theatre's New Play Program, a dedicated program of new play development, started under former Artistic Director Daniel Sullivan. The program already includes commissioning works by local writers Todd Jefferson Moore and Cheryl West. Throughout the season there will be readings-including a monthly series with Northwest Playwright's Alliance-and two workshops with public performances in the spring.

The first public reading under the New Play Program umbrella will be "The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later" on Oct. 12, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in Seattle Rep's Bagley Wright Theatre. This free staged reading, directed by Manning, is an 80-minute epilogue to "The Laramie Project," the groundbreaking play by the Tectonic Theater Project about the murder of 21-year old gay man Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. The event is free and open to the general public. Seating is first-come, first-served.

The reading will be held concurrently in over 100 theatres across the globe including all 50 states, Spain, Hong Kong and Australia.

"Moisés Kaufman [writer and Tectonic Theatre Project artistic director] approached me and asked that Seattle Rep present one of these readings," said Manning. "I am deeply honored to be able to premiere this work in Seattle, and to formally re-launch the New Play Program with such a powerful piece."

The epilogue focuses on the long-term effects of the murder of Matthew Shepard on the town of Laramie. It explores how the town has changed and how the murder continues to reverberate in the community.

For an updated calendar of new play events, visit www.seattlerep.org/plays/newwork