Crum comes to The Women's Project May 1 from The Drama League, where she served as executive director from 1997-2004. While at The Drama League, she produced The Brecht Centennial and Five at the Fringe, a total of 12 plays directed by Directors Project alumni during the 1998 and 2000 New York International Fringe Festivals. She was also instrumental in the development of Cite-Read, an alumni project sponsored by the Directors Project that supports the development of new translations and adaptations of plays by director-dramaturg teams.
Her dramaturgy credits include extensive work with new plays (The O'Neill Playwrights Conference, The New Harmony Project, The Bonderman Event). In New York, she served as dramaturg on Migdalia Cruz's Salt, directed by Loretta Greco, at the Actor's Studio Free Theatre and adapter-dramaturg of Nick Joaquin's Portrait of the Artist as Fillipino, produced by Ma Yi Theatre. Her regional work includes Center Stage in Baltimore, MD; McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ; Yale Repertory Theatre; Arizona Theatre Company; and Playmakers Repertory in Chapel Hill, NC.
Crum taught dramaturgy and dramatic literature at Yale College, The Catholic University of America, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her essays have been published in Dramaturgy in American Theatre; Rereading Shepard; Notable Women in the American Theater; Sam Shepard: A Casebook; George Bernard Shaw: The Neglected Plays; and Theater magazine.
Crum is a longtime member and former officer of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) and served as a panelist for the National Theatre Translation Fund. She organized a roundtable sponsored by the New York State Council on the Arts entitled "The Glass Proscenium: Advancing the Careers of Women in the Theatre." Crum is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where she studied with Richard Gilman, Gitta Honegger, Stanley Kauffmann, and Leon Katz. While at Yale, she was awarded the Kenneth Tynan Prize for Dramaturgy.
Regarding Crum's acceptance of the position, WPP's new producing artistic director, Loretta Greco said in a statement: "Jane Ann Crum is an extraordinary person of the theatre whom I've known for 15 years. She is a dynamic manager, producer, dramaturg, teacher, and playwright who has supported women in the arts her entire career. She will be an invaluable asset to this organization." Also effective May 1, Lisa McNulty will become the new associate artistic director for Women's Project. For the past four seasons McNulty was the producing associate at the McCarter Theatre, where she served as line producer for numerous main stage and second stage productions including Uncle Vanya, adapted and directed by Emily Mann; Yellowman, by Dael Orlandersmith (2002 Pulitzer Prize finalist), directed by Blanka Zizka; The Tempest, directed by Emily Mann, starring Blair Brown; and Candida directed by Lisa Peterson.
McNulty was The Women's Project literary manager from 1997-2000 and production dramaturg on projects including Karen Hartman's Gum, directed by Loretta Greco; Julie Jensen's Two-Headed, directed by Joan Vail Thorne; and Joan Vail Thorne's The Exact Center of the Universe, directed by John Tillinger.
Greco said, "Lisa McNulty has an uncanny ear for the fresh undiscovered voice and an eye for brilliance in emerging actors. She returns to the Women's Project with great insight and devotion — a savvy producer, a vital mentor, and loyal champion of artists."
Women's Project and Productions bills itself as the country's foremost theatre for female playwrights and directors. Founded by artistic director emeritus Julia Miles in 1978, Women's Project has staged 115 productions, over 400 readings and published eight anthologies of produced work by such distinguished writers as Maria Irene Fornes, Marlene Meyer, and Anna Deavere Smith. WPP's roster of directors includes Anne Bogart, Julianne Boyd, Liz Diamond, Carey Perloff, Billie Allen, Emily Mann and Evan Yionoulis.
