Richard Washer to be First Draft’s first Resident Playwright
October 21,2010 – First Draft, the play-and audience-development branch of Charter Theatre, has named Richard Washer as its first playwright-in-residence.
Washer is a veteran Washington-area playwright whose works include Missa, Of a Sunday Morning, The Fetish, Quartet and Monkeyboy (co-written with Keith Bridges and Chris Strezin). In addition, he has taught playwriting and dramaturgy at Clemson University and at several local high schools and theater schools.
His duties as playwright-in-residence will include mentoring developing playwrights, coordinating free audience-building workshops, serving as liaison with local and national writing groups, and coordinating playwriting workshops. In general, he will be charged with increasing the visibility of local playwrights in DC.
“Supporting local playwrights is a huge part of First Draft’s mission, and Richard’s extensive experience in the development of new plays and the nurturing of new playwrights makes him an excellent choice for our first ever Playwright-in-Residence,” said Leslie Kobylinski, First Draft’s Artistic Director. “We are delighted to have Richard as our ambassador to the Washington playwriting community.”
Washer has already discharged his first responsibility as playwright-in-residence: he has written a play for the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts’ advanced acting students, which will give it a full production from December 3 to 12, with Kobylinski directing . First Draft calls Washer’s work, Getting It, “a romantic comedy of errors” and has scheduled it for a reading at 7:30 on Monday, October 25, at Arlington’s Theater on the Run, 3700 South Four Mile Run in Arlington, VA.
More information about First Draft, including submission guidelines, is available here.
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