Molly Smith
Molly Smith is the Artistic Director of Arena Stage. She has been a focused on new play development for the past 30 years while at Arena Stage as well as Perseverance Theatre in Alaska, the theater she founded and led for 19 years1. She founded Arena's downstairs series, which has read and workshopped some sixty plays, half of which have gone on to full productions. Smith has commissioned numerous world premieres including Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning "How I Learned to Drive" and "Mineola Twins", Tim Acito’s "The Women of Brewster Place", Moises Kaufman’s "33 Variations", Charles Randolph-Wright's "Blue", Zora Neale Hurston's lost American play "Polk County" and "Passion Play, a cycle" by Sarah Ruhl. Her directorial work has also been seen at the Shaw Festival in Canada, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, and Centaur Theatre in Montreal, and includes the shows "South Pacific", "Mack and Mabel", "Anna Christie" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."2 Smith has served as Literary Advisor to the Sundance Theatre Lab3 and formed the Arena Stage Writers Council4, comprised of leading American playwrights. Smith brings artists of international serves as a member of the Board of the Theatre Communications Group as well as the Center for International Theatre Development. She directed two feature films, Raven's Blood and Making Contact, and received Honorary Doctorates from both Towson and American Universities.
References
1. http://www.shawfest.com/web/content.asp?docid=6_2_9&id=197
2. http://www.arenastage.org/about/leadership/
3. https://www.sundance.org/theatre/
4. http://baltimore.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=14210