PLAYWRITING BIO

Hartley Wright is a Missouri based writer, dramatist, and avocate for the arts.

 

He served as the Kansas City and St Louis Representative of The Dramatists Guild of America from 2013 to 2021.    

Hartley's plays have been commissioned, developed and produced at theatres and dramatic spaces in the midwest, including the University of Wisconsin—Marathon County, Arlington Dramatists of Fort Worth, Texas, Stained Glass Theatre Mid-Missouri, Stained Glass Theatre Ozark, Missouri, the University of Missouri, Talking Horse Theatre (Columbia, Missouri), and Affton High (St Louis). Hartley served as resident playwright with Stained Glass Theatre from 2000-2007, and was a contributing playwright of multiple productions for PACE (Performing Arts in Children's Education) from 2008-2010. An active member of the University of Missouri's Department of Theatre and Writing for Performance weekly salon—The Missouri Playwrights Workshop—Hartley is the author of Heart of Stone, Girl Trouble, Window Pains and Ricochét. Hartley strives to capture the authenticity of people coping with everyday conflict. This bleeds into all of his writing, and certainly is expanded beyond the world of his plays. Most recently, Hartley has had four scripts awarded, produced, and developed at the Starting Gate New Play Festival. 

 

 Beyond being a playwright, he also is highly skilled in technical production, directing and acting. 

 

In addition to his work as a playwright, Hartley's commentary can be found in The Dramatist magazine. His short film, The Prisoner , was commissioned and produced by Remove the Lens Cap Productions in 2007. Another Screenplay, Tinderbox, is being developed with Terry Morawski. 

 

Hartley has served as a contributing editor to Light in the Dark, CCM Scene and has written for the Word and Way. He has authored a three-volume script tailored as a graphic novel about Breadman, a hero he co-created with illustrator Brad Garlich, as well as several comic scripts for the potential ongoing Nick Nimble.