Charles Smith’s plays have been produced off-Broadway and at theatres from coast to
coast, as well as at the Independent Theatre in Australia. He has enjoyed nine
commissioned world premieres at Victory Gardens Theater and multiple
commissions and productions at Goodman Theatre and Indiana Repertory Theatre.
He has also been commissioned by The Acting Company, Seattle Rep and Cleveland
Playhouse. His plays have been produced by American Blues Theater, Shakespeare
& Company, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, New Federal Theatre, Penumbra
Theatre, People’s Light, Crossroads Theatre Company, Penguin Rep Theatre, Ujima
Company, Inc., The Colony Theatre, St. Louis Black Rep, The Ensemble Theatre in
Houston, Jubilee Theatre, Pegasus Theatre Chicago, The Robey Theatre Company,
Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland, Weissberger Theater Group,
HBO New Writers Project, the International Children’s Theatre Festival in
Seattle and The National Black Theatre Festival. Some of Smith’s awards include
the Joyce Award, Joseph Jefferson Award, John W. Schmid Award, Ohio Arts
Council Individual Excellence Award, Illinois Arts Council Governor’s Award, Cornerstone
National Playwriting Award, Black Theatre Alliance Award, NBC New Voices Award,
a Princess Grace Fellowship, Theodore Ward National Playwriting Award and The
National Black Theatre Festival’s August Wilson Playwriting Award. An alumnus playwright
of New Dramatists, graduate of the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and
one of the founding members of the Playwrights Ensemble at the Tony
Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, Smith is a distinguished professor
emeritus and presidential research scholar at Ohio University. He has also taught
playwriting at Northwestern University, for the Prague Summer Program in
Creative Writing in the Czech Republic and for the Center for Dramatic Art in
Croatia.
