Ryan Rilette

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Ryan Rilette was presiding over his last meeting as President of the National New Play Network when the Washington Post broke the news he’d been tapped as the Producing Artistic Director of Round House Theatre. My colleagues at the table were stunned by the news they’d be losing a trusted leader and great friend from the Network. (In case you don’t know, NNPN is an alliance of theatres across the country that champions the development, production and continued life of new plays.) But I was pretty thrilled, knowing what it would mean for the Washington theatre community.

Back in January, the Post posed the question: “A Wow Decade: Now What?” I’m hoping the answer is “The Playwright Decade”. And Ryan’s move to Round House might make it happen.

If you haven’t met Ryan, you will soon, and you’ll recognize he’s a lovely gent with a great sense of humor. Professionally speaking, he’s both an extraordinary artist and an extraordinary producer. And that combination, more than anything, is what our field needs. Institution-building and artistry must go hand-in-hand if theater is to remain a dynamic, culturally-relevant experience. Ryan understands that.

He also profoundly understands the value of collaboration. Sure, we affectionately called him “Dictator” at NNPN because of his phenomenal leadership skills (his successor, Tina Parker of Dallas’ Kitchen Dog Theater, has taken the title “Tater-Tot”). But he knows how to rally artists and audiences around a vision — whether that’s Southern Rep’s community in New Orleans (where he was Producing Artistic Director for six years), or Marin Theatre Company’s (where he was Producing Director for five), or NNPN’s (imagine rallying a Board of 26 Artistic Directors around a vision: you better be supremely collaborative, the Secretary of State, insane, or a combination of all three).

He also knows how to rally artists around a vision, and he’s brought that passion to bear producing dozens of new plays. As a producer, he’s got supremely great taste. And as a director, he’s championed the work of some of the country’s great as-yet-unheralded playwrights like Steve Yockey and Zayd Dohrn, electrified the Bay Area with his directorial takes on new works like The Brother/Sister Plays and Boom, and he’s done it all while doubling the budget at Marin over five surplus-only years.

Round House will thrive with Ryan’s vision and with so many other amazing tools in place — a great Board, two spaces in the geographic sweet-spot for metro culture lovers — he’s going to add to the theatre’s reputation as a vital generator of artistic adventures in Washington and beyond. And that’s going to translate into huge gains for all of us.

Of course, new play development has had a home in the Washington area for years. NNPN’s Core Member in town, Woolly Mammoth, has been at the vanguard. NNPN arrived in 2009, the same year Arena established the New Play Institute; in 2010, Studio’s new leadership began boldly claiming world-premiere territory; Signature blew me away in 2011 with its new-musicals rep; Theater J’s Locally Grown Festival energized us in 2012 . . . and that’s all in addition to places consistently championing new work like Source, Rorschach, Theatre Alliance, Inkwell, Page to Stage, the Fringe, GALA . . . I could go on and on.

What will the next decade bring? Although difficult to predict over that long of a timeframe, I can’t wait to see what Ryan’s got in store for us in 2013-14 because I suspect he may have at least part of the answer up his sleeve.

Jason Loewith is the Executive Director of the National New Play Network, a position he has held since 2009.

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