CONTACT INFORMATION

John Dilworth Newman
897 East 7945 South
Sandy City, Utah 84094-0204

Phone: 801-566-2601
E-Mail: john.newman@slc.k12.ut.us
Photo credit: Lifetouch School Photography

PROFILE

I am a playwright, teacher, and new play developer at Highland High School and Artistic Director of the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts.

At Highland High, we have developed and premiered new works by award-winning playwrights from around the country, including Sandra Fenichel Asher, Doug Cooney, Elise Forier, Alicia Weinstein, Drew Chappell, Matt Omasta, and Moses Goldberg. I have adapted novels by Newbery Medalists Avi, Paul Fleischman, and Richard Peck for my students to perform. I founded and direct the Playwrights In Our Schools project for the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE), which enables adult playwrights to develop their works in schools and young people to be mentored by professional writers.

I earned my B.F.A. and M.Ed. from the University of Utah, my M.A. from the University of Texas, and my Ph.D. from New York University. My plays have received the Rocky Mountain Theatre Association Doug Christensen Playwriting Award, the American College Theatre Festival Meritorious Achievement Award, and selection for the AATE Unpublished Play Reading Project and the Bonderman Symposium. As a teacher, I have received the AATE John C. Barner Teacher of the Year Award and the first Reba R. Robertson Award from the Children's Theatre Foundation of America.

I enjoy traveling around the country to participate in workshops and see staged readings and productions of my new plays. I have completed residencies at Raritan Valley College in New Jersey, Dreamwrights Youth Theatre in Pennsylvania, and The Open Eye Theater in upstate New York.

PLAYS AVAILABLE

AWAKENING GALATIA Available from playwright Pygmalion creates his statue of the perfect woman and names her Galatia. When the artist falls in love with his artwork and the Muse of Poetry falls for the mortal sculptor, the muse assumes Galatia's form. The sculptor and living sculpture are led by Poetry's sister muses on a quest that may make her fully human and render him capable of genuine love. 8f, 1m. 90 minutes, in verse.

CROWNS AND COMMONERS Available from playwright Seven maidens are summoned to serve the King's seven daughters. When they hear that the King is slain, the seven commoners masquerade as the princesses they resemble and must hold their own against the conspirators who surround them. 8f, 3m. 75 minutes, in verse.

THE SECRET SCHOOL Available from Dramatic Publishing Photo credit: Dreamwrights Youth and Family Theatre Students in a 1975 classroom enact the story of their enigmatic new instructor. As a fourteen-year-old girl, Ida Bidson assumed the role of teacher in her 1925 one-room schoolhouse and had to prepare for her high-school entrance exams while teaching her peers in secret. Maximum 10f, 7m. Minimum 4f, 4m. 75 minutes. Adapted from the novel by Avi.

WHIRLIGIG Available from playwright Photo credit: Highland High School Theatre Brent Bishop accidentally kills a girl and is sent by the victim's mother on a journey of redemption, building whirligigs in the four corners of the country as memorials to her daughter.  The play includes four short playlets about individuals who are inspired by Brent's creations. 7 to 28 players, gender flexible. 75 minutes. Adapted from the novel by Paul Fleischman.

YEARNINGS Available from playwright Leigh is an independent young woman who has taken over the family farm. Rochelle is a young lady of means who makes a pilgrimage to Leigh's land. Fate offers them a chance to reverse their fortunes and live the opposite lives for which they've yearned. 2f, 1m. 2 hours, in verse with folksongs.

• AMERICA WRITES FOR KIDS!
• American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE)
• Dramatic Publishing