Wendy C. Goldberg Steps Down as Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference

 

Wendy C. Goldberg, the first female artistic director of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, has stepped down, Yahoo News reports.

According to a press release, Goldberg said, "The National Playwrights Conference plays such a special role in American theater, as well as my life, and it has been an honor to work with the O'Neill leadership, staff, and particularly the hundreds of talented playwrights over the last 18 years. To come in during such a moment of change and re-establish the company as a national leader will remain a highlight of my career. After nearly two decades, it's time for me to turn my attention toward many other artistic endeavors."

Read the original story on Yahoo News.

About Wendy C. Goldberg:

Since 2005, Wendy C. Goldberg has served as NPC's Artistic Director. Under her tenure, the O'Neill was awarded the 2010 Regional Tony Award.

At the O'Neill, she has overseen the development of more than 100 stage projects, many of which have gone on to great acclaim. Among them are the Susan Smith Blackburn Award-winning plays (Julia Cho's The Language Archive & Jennifer Haley's The Nether), American Theatre Critics Association Citation Award-winning plays (Lee Blessing's Great Falls & Deb Zoe Laufer's End Days), and a Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama, written in part as a NPC Writer-in-Residence (Lynn Nottage's Ruined). In 2005, she included playwright Samuel D. Hunter, now an Obie and MacArthur Award-winning playwright, in her first season as Artistic Director when he was still a playwriting student. Other critically acclaimed work developed at the O'Neill during her tenure includes: Jeremy O. Harris's Slave Play, Lindsey Ferrentino's Ugly Lies the Bone, Mike Lew's Tiger Style!, Deborah Zoe Laufer's Leveling Up, Adam Bock's The Receptionist, Rebecca Gilman's The Crowd You're in With, Jason Grote's 1001, and Julia Cho's Durango.

She is an award-winning director whose credits include world premieres, revivals, classics, and musicals as well as cross-over work in video games and television. Credits include: Arena Stage (where she served as Artistic Associate for five seasons), the Guthrie, the Goodman, Denver Center, the Alliance, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (where she currently serves as an Associate Artist), Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Signature Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and off-Broadway at Ars Nova, The Daryl Roth 2, and McGinn-Cazale.

Wendy is the founder of TheFrontOffice in NYC (thefrontoffice@icloud.com), an entertainment company, and has cross-over projects in development from theater to digital media. In 2020, as a result of the pandemic, the charitable arm of the company, TheFrontOffice Foundation, was established. TheFrontOffice Foundation has engaged in multiple grants, aiding theatrical workers during the industry-wide shutdown. In addition, TheFrontOffice Foundation has established new partnerships with the 1/52 Project to help diversity the Broadway design community. Wendy and TheFrontOffice continue to work with Rockstar Games (Wendy served as a performance director on the worldwide smash Red Dead Redemption 2, which recently made the top 10 Best Selling video

games of all time list), as well as projects in development with LeBron James's Spring Hill Entertainment.

She has directed work in every major play development program in the country. As Artistic Associate at Arena Stage for five seasons, she helped to create the theater's new play initiatives and led them from their inception through 2005. American Theatre magazine has described her as "one of the most promising theater artists working today." Wendy has twice served as the Jury Chair of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2021 (Hot Wing King) and 2020 (A Strange Loop) and served on the jury for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize (Fairview). She is a Master Lecturer in Boston University's MFA Directing Program and frequently advises at the Yale School of Drama. She served on the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society for 14 years. She is an honors graduate of the University of Michigan (BA) and holds a MFA in Directing from UCLA where she received the Distinguished Alumna Award in 2014.

 

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