NEWS

New Essays

​Two New Articles
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Todd London has been a leading figure in the U.S. nonprofit theater for more than 35 years, in recognition of which he became the first recipient of Theatre Communications Group’s (TCG) Visionary Leadership Award for "an individual who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to advance the theatre field as a whole, nationally and/or internationally." 

Todd’s service to the field has taken many shapes: artistic director, educator, arts journalist and essayist, public speaker, theater historian, and advocate for artist-centered practices. He has been honored in each of these roles. Under his artistic leadership, New Dramatists earned a special Tony® Honor and the Obie’s Ross Wetzsteon Award. He garnered the prestigious George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for his essays, a special honor from the Dramatists Guild of America for “extraordinary work on behalf of dramatists everywhere,” and a Miss Lilly Award for his support of women in the theater. In 2016 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the DePaul University schools of theatre and music.

​Todd is also a novelist and won a Milestone Award for his debut novel, The World's Room. “Nothing I’ve read recently except poetry conveys the language of yearning the way this novel does,” claimed the judge in the best book category. “The author uses his double vision to make  us laugh and break our hearts at the same time.” ​
The World’s Room is a stunning first book. Simultaneously warm-hearted and eerie-minded, it is written as if by a spellbinding and spellbound angel.

​​ —Lorrie Moore, author of A Gate at the Stairs
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Todd spent 18 seasons as Artistic Director of New York's New Dramatists, the nation's oldest laboratory theatre for playwrights, where he worked closely with more than a hundred and fifty of America’s leading playwrights and advocated nationally and internationally for hundreds more. During his tenure he led in the creation of numerous studios, labs, and partnership opportunities for writers, including: Full Stage, experimental partnerships with theatres and communities of theatres in New York and across the nation to explore and disseminate new models of play development; PlayTime, a two-week, five-play developmental retreat; Working Sessions, an ongoing project for the support of 6-10 musical theatre works per year; Playground, a partnership with Children’s Theatre Company (Minneapolis) to encourage new work for family audiences; Interplay: Eastern Europe, a four-country/six-playwright exchange and translation project with playwrights from Serbia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic; Yale Playwrights at New Dramatists, a mentorship project between Yale School of Drama’s MFA playwrights and New Dramatists writers. 
A devotee of new plays and the playwrights who write them, London has made a career as a tireless advocate for playwrights, but his unparalleled acumen as an essayist and journalist may be his most important contribution to the theatre. His essays are a creative and intellectual gift, imploring us to create a more ethical and artist centered approach to our work.
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​—P. Carl, Senior Distinguished Artist in Residence, Department of Performing Arts, at Emerson College; author of Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition 
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Several of Todd’s books have marked seminal shifts in professional theater practice, beginning in 1988 with The Artistic Home (TCG), which brought new attention to the unique needs of artists within theaters. Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play (Theatre Development Fund, 2009), written with Ben Pesner, led to changes in the ways playwrights are compensated and new plays get developed and produced. His landmark history, An Ideal Theater (TCG, 2013), redefined the nation’s art theater movement through the diverse inspirations of its founding documents. His other books include, This Is Not My Memoir, co-authored with Andre Gregory (Farrar, Straus, Giroux); 15 Actors, 20 Years (Dutch Kills Press); The Importance of Staying Earnest: Writings from Inside the American Theatre, 1988-2013 (NoPassport Press); and The Long Revolution: Collected Writings of Zelda Fichhandler (Theatre Communications Group), which he edited. Todd’s second novel, If You See Him, Let Me Know, was published in 2020 (Austin Macauley).
Masterful, stunning storytelling. Compelling. Heartbreaking. Haunting. Extremely funny ...This wondrous novel examines what really matters in our lives as we struggle to grow up and move onward or choose to remain stubbornly locked in a painful past. "[If You See Him, Let Me Know]" was my close summer friend. Like all friends that last for a short interlude, I did not know how precious and important my time was with this brief encounter, until it was over. This is the book that made me cry. Author Todd London confirmed why I love so much to literally lose myself in books. I hugged it close when I turned the last page. I miss it.

​—Tazewell Thompson, director/playwright/librettist, for Opera News
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From 2014-18 he was the Executive Director of the University of Washington's School of Drama, where he held the Floyd U. Jones Family Endowed Chair in Drama, where he co-founded the Mellon Creative Fellowship Program and instigated producing partnerships with theaters throughout Seattle. He recently headed the MFA Playwriting Program and, from 2018-22, served on the faculty at the New School, School of Drama. He has taught extensively, including at New York University, Harvard, American University, and, for ten years, at the Yale School of Drama.
Todd London, contemporary American Theater stands on a solid foundation because of your decades of hard work developing new playwrights and theatre professionals. By blending your love of theatre and writing, you became one of the country’s most influential voices on the importance of theater and arts in our world. Your 18 years as artistic director of New Dramatists helped develop hundreds of playwrights, forever altering the landscape of contemporary American theatre…By nurturing talent, promoting education and advocating for diversity, your career reflects the Vincentian ideals of this university.

—Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, DePaul University
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A frequent keynote speaker, Todd’s speeches and essays have appeared regularly in such publications as American Theatre, The Village Voice, The World & I, The Hill Rag, The Washington Tribune, Theatre Times, and Howlround—including in his column, “A Lover’s Guide to American Playwrights”—as well as in numerous collections. He was the first managing editor of American Theatre, associate artistic director of CSC Rep in New York and New Playwrights Theater in D.C., as well as Guest Literary Director and Head of Dramaturgy at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard. Todd earned an MFA in Directing from Boston University and a Ph.D in Literary Studies from The American University.

CURRENT PROJECTS

FOUNDING DIRECTOR, THE THIRD BOHEMIA,
​A NATIONAL, INTERDISCIPLINARY RETREAT FOR ARTISTS

ARTISTIC COUNSELOR FOR THE NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN THEATER COMPANY’S (NAATCO) NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM

PROJECT DIRECTOR, THE LEGACY PLAYWRIGHTS INITIATIVE (DRAMATISTS GUILD FOUNDATION)

MEMBER OF THE NETWORK OF ENSEMBLE THEATER'S NET NEXT BRIDGE ENSEMBLE

FOUNDING CO-FACILITATOR, COUNTING TOGETHER, RESEARCH PROJECT TO "FORGE GREATER PATHWAYS TO EQUITY & INCLUSION IN THE AMERICAN THEATER"

HIGHLIGHTS

PROFILE: LONDON'S CALLING

WRITING: 15 AFTER 20

Selected Essays. Click on image to read full essay.
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