National New Play Network Adds Three to At Large Board

The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country's alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces three new At Large Board Members: Mark Bly, Gary Heisserer, and Manny Strauss will join the thirty-two member Board of Directors effective immediately.

"We are so delighted to add Gary, Mark, and Manny to our At Large Board," says Nan Barnett, Executive Director of NNPN. "They are wonderful additions to our cadre of arts advocates and new play visionaries, which include Stanford Center for New Plays Director and NNPN founder David Goldman, New York philanthropist Jane Munson Harrison, attorney Donna Willis of Atlanta, Dallas gallerist and arts advocate Susan Albritton, and new works supporter Dr. Ram Koppaka of the Center for Disease Control."

ABOUT Mark Bly
Mark Bly is the Director of the MFA Playwriting Program at Hunter College. He was the Chair of the Playwriting Program at the Yale School of Drama from 1992-2004 while being the Associate Artistic Director at the Yale Rep. Over the past thirty years he has served as a Dramaturg, Director of New Play Development, and Associate Artistic Director at such theatres as the Arena Stage, Alley Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, Seattle Rep, and Yale Rep, dramaturging and producing over 150 plays. He has dramaturged on Broadway Emily Mann's Execution of Justice (1985), Moises Kaufman's 33 Variations (2009), and lbsen's An Enemy of the People (2012). Bly has served as the Dramaturg for the world premieres of plays by Rajiv Joseph, Suzan Lori-Parks, Tim Blake Nelson, Sarah Ruhl, and Moises Kaufman and has worked with such artists as Dan Sullivan, Doug Hughes, Molly Smith, Peter Sellars, Zelda Fichandler, Liviu Ciulei, Eric Overmyer, Don Cheadle, HAl Holbrook, David Hyde Pierce, Richard Thomas, Jane Fonda, and Judd Hirsch. Bly has written for numerous publications: Yale Theatre as Contributing Editor and Advisory Editor, Theatre Forum, American Theatre, and LMDA Review. He is the Editor of Production Notebooks: Theatre in Process: Volumes I & II (1996, 2001), and Special Editor for Yale Theatre, "Return of the Dramaturgs," Summer, 1986. In 2010 Bly received the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas G.E. Lessing Career Achievement Award, only the fourth time the award was bestowed in the organization's history.

ABOUT GARY HEISSERER
Gary Heisserer is the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Graceland University, a small, private liberal arts college in Lamoni, Iowa. Gary also recently served as Board President for the Unicorn Theatre. Gary has a M.S. in educational technology from Boise State University and a Ph.D. in theatre from the University of Wisconsin. Gary has directed a wide variety of plays over the years; most recently, directed William Missouri Down's

The Exit Interview. Graceland was the first university to produce this NNPN-showcased play. Gary has taught many different theatre courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, including courses in directing, playwriting, dramatic literature and theatre history. Prior to his current position, Gary served as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Park University. Gary also serves as a Peer Evaluator for The Higher Learning Commission.

ABOUT MANNY STRAUSS
Manny Strauss has been a resident of the Washington area since 1988. From 2003-2007, he copublished Washington Theater Review with Betsy Karmin. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors for The Inkwell since March of 2011, Manny currently is on the Advisory Council of No Rules Theatre Company. He previously served as Special Advisor to the President of theatreWashington (where he was the initial Managing Editor of theatreWashington.org), a Trustee at Round House Theatre (where he is now on the Advisory Board), a member of Theater J's Council, and a member of the Board of Act Two Performing Arts (now Act Two @ Levine). Manny has been a securities lawyer for more than twenty-five years, having practiced with global law firms, in large public companies, and at the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is a graduate of Cornell University (B.A.) and the Cornell Law School where he was a member of the Cornell Law Review.

NNPN's Core Member theaters are: Actor's Express Theatre (Atlanta), Actor's Theatre of Charlotte (Charlotte, NC), Borderlands Theater (Tucson), Contemporary American Theater Festival (Shepherdstown, WV), Curious Theatre Company (Denver), Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota), Fountain Theatre (LA), Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas), Magic Theatre (San Francisco), Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA), Mixed Blood Theatre Company (Minneapolis), New Jersey Repertory Company (Long Branch), New Repertory Theatre (Watertown, MA), New Theatre (Coral Gables, FL), Orlando Shakespeare Theater (Orlando), Performance Network Theatre (Ann Arbor, MI), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis), Playwright's Theatre of New Jersey (Madison), Prop Thtr Group (Chicago), Riverside Theatre (Iowa City, IA), Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City), San Diego REP (San Diego), Southern Rep (New Orleans), Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, DC).