David M. White develops new works for the American stage as Artistic Director of WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory, teaches about playwriting as an Assistant Professor at Towson University, is a founding member of Generous Company and works as a playwright and a director.
In 2006 David became an Artistic Director at WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory. Since then he has overseen and produced this interdisciplinary play development laboratory providing a professional laboratory in which pre-professional playwrights craft bold experiments around their works-in progress. Under his leadership, 26 plays by writers from around the world have been developed at WordBRIDGE, including award winning plays such as George Brant's ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD (winner of the 2008 David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award and the Keene Prize for Literature), Will Fancher's THE RIVER WAS WHISKEY (winner of the Lorraine Hansberry Award), and an English version of KITCHEN translated by playwright Maksym Kurochkin and John Freedman.
With Generous Company, of which he is a founding member, he is currently directing the U.S. Premiere of Yury Klavdiev's I AM THE MACHINE GUNNER from a translation he commissioned by Moscow Times Critic John Freedman while at the 2008 Nova Drama festival in Bratislava, Slovakia. In April 2009, David received a grant from the Center for International Theatre Development (CITD) and traveled to Moscow, Russia, with actor (and UMKC alum) James Knight, to research MACHINE GUNNERand meet Yury Klavdiev. In 2010, Yury Klavdiev's I Am the Machine Gunner premiered at the Baltimore Theatre Project (September 2010), the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake, IL (October 2010) and at New Village Arts in Carlsbad, CA (November 2010).
Recently, David worked with Yury Ournov on the first English language translation of Yury Klavdiev's MARTIAL ARTS(commissioned by the Center for International Theatre Development/ Towson University New Russian Drama project) which premiered at Towson University and as part of the CITD/Towson New Russian Drama Conference (April and May 2010).
David's plays have been produced in university and regional theatres around the country, most recently, ARITHMETIC INSURRECTION: Towson University Geomatics Academy, commissioned by the Towson University Department of Mathematics and the Maryland Higher Education Commission (2009), ENOUGH: Boston Theatre Marathon (2007), ALICE IN WONDERLAND: Beck Center for the Arts, Cleveland (2007). TRASH has been produced at the University of Missouri-Columbia (2002), The York Theater, New York City (2002) and the New York International Fringe Festival (2005); AIN'T NOTHIN' QUICK 'N EASY was developed at WordBRIDGE Playwrights Lab (2003) and has been produced at the Greenbrier Valley Theater in Lewisburg, West Virginia (2004), the University of Missouri-Columbia (2004), University of Missouri-St. Louis (2004), and William Woods University (2005), and Missouri Valley College (2009).
David has taught solo performance at the National Theater Institute and worked for three seasons as Literary Manager and Director of Educational Outreach for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. He has directed readings, development projects, & Eliza Jane Schneider's SOUNDS OF SILENCE (2006 Ignite Festival NY). David holds a B.A. from New College in Sarasota, Florida; an M.A. in theatre from the University of Missouri-Kansas City; and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia. His dissertation DEVELOPING PLAYWRIGHT(S) focused on the process of developing new works for the stage. David has twice received grants from CITD to attend the Nova Drama festival in Bratislava, Slovakia and continues his work with Russia and Eastern Europe through collaborative exchanges between artists. David presents papers, responds to new works and lectures at universities and regional conferences on the topics of playwriting and new play development. In September of 2010 David will travel to the Lyubimovka Festival in Moscow, Russia to offer master classes to new Russian dramatists on the development of new works in the U.S. and in particular at WordBRIDGE.
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