Photo Flash: Chisa Hutchinson Speaks as Part of Dramatists Guild Fund's Traveling Masters Program

As part of the Dramatists Guild Fund's Traveling Masters Program, Playwright Chisa Hutchinson (Dead and Breathing, Dirt Rich, She Like Girls, This Is Not the Play, Sex on Sunday) led writing workshops and a public Q&A at the Frank Center during the Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University. Scroll down for photos!

The Dramatists Guild Fund's Traveling Masters Program is a national outreach program that brings prominent dramatists into communities across the country to lead master classes, workshops, talkbacks, and other public events. In partnership with leading regional theaters like the Contemporary American Theater Festival, Traveling Masters creates local programming that gives local writers, theater professionals, and the public first-hand experience with these renowned artists. For more information on the program, go to www.dgfund.org.

Chisa Hutchinson joins over 30 esteemed dramatists who have participated in the Traveling Masters Program. Other 2016 Traveling Masters have included Anna Ziegler (Photograph 51, The Last Match) in Pittsburgh, PA; Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once On This Island) in Kaneohe, HI; Madeleine George (The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence) in Charleston, SC; Laura Jacqmin (Dental Society Midwinter Meeting, Residence) in Ashland, OR; Lauren Yee (King Of The Yees, The Hatmaker's Wife) in Kansas City, MO; and Terrence McNally (Master Class, Love! Valour! Compassion!) in Buffalo, NY.

"The idea that, even at a point in my career where I feel like I still have so much to learn, I might actually have something to offer in the way of craft or advice... that's incredibly humbling and validating all at once. What a great way to keep practicing writers, who are always so concerned with what happens next, connected with what's happening now," Hutchinson said.

Her play "The Wedding Gift" is having its world premiere at the Contemporary American Theater Festival now through July 31, 2016. For tickets and information about the current season, visit atf.org.

Chisa has earned a B.A. in Dramatic Arts from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU. She's landed some pretty cool gigs since then, such as writing and performing with the New York NeoFuturists and being a Staff Writer for Blue Man Group. She is also a proud member of New Dramatists, a Humani­tas New Voices Fellow and a Resident at Second Stage Theater in New York thanks to the generosity of the Tow Foundation. As Chisa tends to write plays about underrepresented folks that require a minimum of five actors, she doubts that you'll see any of her plays on Broadway any time soon, but encourages you to support the intrepid companies that have presented her work, which include the Lark Play Development Center, City Parks' Summerstage, the New York NeoFuturists, Partial Comfort, Mad Dog Productions, Atlantic Theater Company, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, New Dramatists, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, Midtown Direct Rep, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Second Stage Theater, Forward Flux The­ater, the Working Theater and FilmGym.

Photo Credit: Seth Freeman

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