Tom Smith (born in 1969 in
Rochelle, Illinois) is an American
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
,
theatre director
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...
, and professor of theatre arts. Originally trained as an improvisational comedian, Smith founded Walla Walla TheatreSports in 1988.
Smith's published plays include
Drinking Habits',
Drinking Habits 2: Caught in the Act',
The Odyssey', ''The Pathmaker'',
A Christmas Carol',
Dangerous' (a contemporary gay treatment of Les Liaisons Dangereuses),
', and
Marguerita's Secret Diary' in addition to edited versions of ''
Much Ado About Nothing
''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...
'', ''
The Comedy of Errors
''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play ...
'', ''
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1589 and 1593. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as showing his first tentative steps in laying ...
'' and ''
Love's Labours Lost''. Additionally, he has many plays published by YouthPLAYS, including
Johnny and Sally Ann: the true-life tall-tales of Johnny Appleseed and Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind', which ran for 2 years with LA's traveling company Enrichment Works;
ESL',
The Wild and Wacky Rhyming Stories of Miss Henrietta Humpledowning' and
'What Comes Around...'. Unpublished plays receiving productions include ''Aunt Raini'', which received a reading at Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton and its professional premiere at Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company; ''Anna's Mother''; ''Love's Memory: Eurydice and Orpheus'';''Small Things, Every Day''; and various 10-minute plays. In January, 2009, Kendall Hunt Publishing published his book on long and short form improvisation, The Other Blocking: Teaching and Performing Improvisation.
His plays have won national and regional awards, including the Robert J. Pickering Award for Excellence in Playwriting, the ATHE Playworks Award, the Orlin R. Corey Outstanding Regional Playwright Award, and the Richard Odlin Award.
Smith has directed plays staged in Kansas City, Missouri; Seattle, Washington; Creede, Colorado; Forestburgh, NY; and Las Cruces, New Mexico.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Tom
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
Living people
American theatre directors
Whitman College alumni
University of Missouri–Kansas City alumni
People from Rochelle, Illinois
1969 births