The Welders Hire New Creative Producer

The Welders-Washington's only playwrights' collective devoted exclusively to developing and producing new plays-are thrilled to announce the selection of Laley Lippard as their new Creative Producer. Laley makes a homecoming to Washington, D.C. with her new role. She is a nationally recognized director, producer, and advocate for inclusion in the arts who leads with a spirit of inquiry and innovation. Laley will guide the administrative and creative process of individual Welders while advancing the organization's mission to be an alternative model for new play production.

Laley will assume this leadership position on May 10, 2018, following a month of transition and training from current Acting Creative Producer Annalisa Dias. The current Welders playwrights will continue to serve in crucial administrative roles while individually leading the creative vision of their personal projects.

Acting Creative Producer Annalisa says, "We're excited to have Laley join the team at this critical juncture. We can't wait to work with her for the next two years as we finish out our cohort's tenure and prepare to pass the company on to a new generation of artists. In some ways, this unexpected leadership transition midway through Welders 2.0 is really an exciting way for us to continue to live out the 'pass it on' ethos of the company and a testament to the strength of the Founding Welders' initial vision."

Laley brings over 15 years of experience as a theater maker, director, producer, and educator to The Welders. Laley is committed to championing new work, developing new plays, and creating performances that disrupt injustice. As the daughter of a Quaker, professor, and artist, Laley was raised to live within the intersection of art making and social justice. A collagist at heart, her drive to confront invisible borders and canvas artistic practice has brought her from Southern roots in Virginia to Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland, and back. Laley's early theatrical work was based in egalitarian, devising models of creation as part of the community in San Francisco, where she worked in physical and experimental forms, produced a local playwright series with Magic Theatre, served on the advisory panel of Theatre Bay Area, and produced/directed her own investigations into new play development. While obtaining her MFA in Directing from Northwestern University under mentorship of Anna D Shapiro, Mary Zimmerman, and Michael Rohd, Laley co-founded and served as the co-executive producer of the Chicago Home Theater Festival (CHTF) for five years. CHTF is a city-wide performance and community-building event initially created to confront the hyper-segregation in Chicago and celebrate the cultural brilliance of Chicago's neighborhoods. Her commitment to just and equitable arts leadership led her to serve as the first Artistic Directing Fellow at Cleveland Play House, where she made observation of and participated directly at the highest level of artistic direction. Laley has directed across the country, helming regional and world premiere productions and development workshops at O'Neill Theater Center, American Theatre Company, Cleveland Play House, Dobama Theater, the side project, Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, Killing My Lobster, Playwright's Foundation, Just Theater, ALLIANCE THEATRE (dramaturg), Magic Theater (as Artistic Associate), foolsFURY Theater (as Company Member), and Kitchen Dog Theater (upcoming). She has collaborated with HowlRound and the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage, Guthrie Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Court Theatre, Rorschach Theater, Intersection for the Arts, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Laley is a member of the National Directing Fellowship, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, notes, "It is truly exciting to see Laley Lippard move into this position with The Welders. Her sensitivity toward writers, her desire to make the world a better place through new storytelling, and her commitment to emerging artists and their connection to community make her a wonderful producer for The Welders."

Aymar Jean Christian, founder and leader of OTV | Open Television, a research project and platform for intersectional television and an artistic producer at Chicago Home Theater Festival states, ""Laley has an unquenchable thirst for serving artists and communities. Few people in this world are willing to do the thankless work of organizing creative people and community stakeholders to make meaningful art. Not only can Laley do this, but she does so with clear direction and generosity."

On her new role, Laley says, "It is an honor to accept this position with a truly visionary team. I am ecstatic to be joining The Welders in Washington, D.C. at this moment in time of changing leadership and artistic momentum in the city at large. I look forward to being in service to the vision of the current company as we hand over the company to the next cohort of Welders 3.0 playwrights in January of 2020."

About The Welders: The Welders is a DC-based playwrights' collective whose mission is to establish an evolving, alternative platform for play development and production. The intent of that platform is to inspire and encourage members to take risks and make bold leaps in exploring the craft of playwriting; produce one performance of work created by each member playwright over the course of three years; create significant, meaningful, direct engagement between artists and members of the community; and support future generations of DC-area playwrights.

The next production by the Welders will be Brett Abelman's Switch in June 2018, followed by Hannah Hessel Ratner's In This Hope: A Pericles Project in the fall.

Visit www.thewelders.org for more information.

To post a comment, you must register and login.