Biography
Gary Garrison is the Executive Director of the Dramatist Guild of America, the national organization of playwrights, lyricists and composers. Prior to his work at the Guild, Mr. Garrison filled the posts of Artistic Director, Producer and full-time faculty member in the Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where he produced over forty-five festivals of new work, collaborating with hundreds of playwrights, directors and actors. Mr. Garrison's plays include Verticals and Horizontals, Storm on Storm, It Belongs on Stage (and Not in My Bed), Crater, Old Soles, Padding The Wagon, Rug Store Cowboy, Cherry Reds, Gawk, Oh Messiah Me, We Make A Wall, The Big Fat Naked Truth, Scream With Laughter, Smoothness With Cool, Empty Rooms, Does Anybody Want A Miss Cow Bayou?, and When A Diva Dreams.
His work has been featured at the Boston Theatre Marathon, Primary Stages, The Directors Company, Manhattan Theatre Source, StageWorks, Fourth Unity, Open Door Theatre, African Globe Theatre Company, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, Expanded Arts and New York Rep. His recent work as guest artist or master teacher of playwriting involve such institutions as Sewanee Writer's Conference, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Inkwell in D.C., Goddard College, Texas Tech University, Southeast Theatre Conference, Northwest Theatre Conference and Boston Playwrights.
He is the author of the critically-acclaimed, The Playwright's Survival Guide: Keeping the Drama in Your Work and Out of Your Life, Perfect Ten: Writing and Producing the Ten Minute Play, two volumes of Monologues for Men by Men (all Heinemann Press), and the KCACTF's Best Student Plays of 2006.
He is the program coordinator for the Summer Playwriting Intensive for the Kennedy Center, the former National Chair of Playwriting for the Kennedy Center's American College Theater Festival and recipient of the Outstanding Teacher of Playwriting from the Association of Theatre in Higher Education.
