Playwrights Foundation Hires Managing Director Kathy Li
By: A.A. Cristi Jul. 23, 2018
The Playwrights Foundation has hired a new managing director, Kathy Li. Kathy (Ruoran) Li is a bilingual theater manager with professional experience both in the United States and in China, Kathy has recently served as Associate Managing Director for Yale Repertory Theatre and for Yale Cabaret, and has produced five plays while in graduate school. Prior to coming to the US, Kathy worked for Shanghai Cultural Exchange Agency to present international theater and dance for Shanghai International Arts Festival, and for Modern Drama Valley to organize community engagement events and support theater productions in her hometown Shanghai, China. Kathy holds an MFA in Theater Management from Yale School of Drama, and a BA from Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
"I'm thrilled to be here in time for BAPF's amazing lineup of new plays and special events this year." I'm deeply impressed by Playwrights Foundation's dedication to supporting playwrights, and I'm very excited to join this beloved organization at a time of capacity building. I look forward to working with the amazing team at Playwrights Foundation and joining the vigorous, diverse, and welcoming theater community of San Francisco Bay Area."
Amy Mueller, Artistic Director pf Playwrights Foundation:
"I am very fortunate that Kathy Li will join our staff as Managing Director and partner with me to build our administrative capacity. As a young leader of color who is dedicated to a career in the theater, she is well positioned to usher in an exciting new era in support of 21st century writers."
Markham Miller, Board President & Director of Philanthropy St. Mary's Medical Center Foundation - Dignity Health:
"I am honored to welcome Kathy Li to Playwrights Foundation as our new Managing Director. She joins an organization with a rich 40-year history dedicated to the development and career acceleration of contemporary playwrights. As a recent graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Kathy will partner with our Artistic Director, Amy Mueller to lead our organization into the next 40 years as we continue to elevate the role of the playwright as a 21st century storyteller."
Founded in 1976, Playwrights Foundation is today widely recognized as one of the top new play incubators in the U.S., dedicated to the creative development and career acceleration of contemporary playwrights. We serve emerging and mid-career playwrights,from the Bay Area and around the country. We seek to identify exceptional writers and give them space, time and professional artistic collaborators to explore new theatrical ideas, allowing them to experiment and take risks with structure, form and/or content in an environment that is free from the pressures of the marketplace. Playwrights we have worked with have won every award in the theater including the Pulitzer, the Obie, the National Critics Circle Award, and many more.
ABOUT THE BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
The BAPF is one of the oldest and most successful new play festivals for new works in their developmental stages in the US. Established in 1976 by Robert Woodruff, the festival has continuously discovered original and distinctive new voices in the theater, invested in the development of their work, and launched their careers. Among the first crop of writers at the inaugural BAPF was the young Sam Shepard - little did Woodruff know at that time how Shepard's work would shape the landscape of American theatre. Since then over 500 prize winning, nationally significant playwrights got their first professional experiences at the BAPF. Examples include Pulitzer Prize winners Nilo Cruz and Annie Baker, MacArthur Award winners Anna Deavere Smith and Sam Hunter, recent Glickman award winners Peter Nachtrieb, Liz Duffy Adams, Aaron Loeb, Chris Chen, Lauren Yee, and Marcus Gardley, as well as the early development of works by David Henry Hwang, Paula Vogel, Claire Chafee, Anne Washburn, as well as Katori Hall and Rajiv Joseph prior to their Broadway debuts, as well as many others. The BAPF's ongoing success in discovering and supporting exceptional, newly emerging writers, and launching their ground-breaking new work is its enduring legacy.
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