Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play

OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE examines the lives and livelihoods of American playwrights today and the realities of new play production from the perspective of both playwrights and not-for-profit theatres. The study, drawing on six years of comprehensive research, reveals a collaboration in crisis between the people who write plays and those who produce them. It represents the most comprehensive field study in the history of the not-for-profit theatre to analyze new play production practices and the economics and culture of playwriting in America. Set against a backdrop of dwindling audiences for dramatic work, OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE makes clear the urgent need for new conversations and practices if the American play is to flourish.

TODD LONDON is in his fourteenth season as the artistic director of New Dramatists, the nation s oldest center for the support and development of playwrights, where he has worked closely with more than a hundred of America s finest playwrights and advocated nationally and internationally for hundreds more. In 2009, he was the first recipient of Theatre Communications Group s Visionary Leadership Award for his work to advance the theatre field. A former managing editor of American Theatre magazine and the author of The Artistic Home, he has written, edited, and/or contributed to eleven books. London won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for his essays in American Theatre and a Milestone Award for his first novel, The World s Room. Under his leadership, New Dramatists received both a special Tony Honor and the Ross Wetzsteon Award from the Village Voice Obies. He currently serves on the faculty of Yale University School of Drama.