Articles about dramaturgy by, and an interview with, Michael Bigelow Dixon can be found in these books and journals
PRODUCTION DRAMATURGY
South Coast Repertory (1982-84)
Tintypes, All In Favour Said No!, Boy Meets Girl, The Imaginary Invalid, Major Barbara, The Playboy of the Western World, The Seagull, Sally & Marsha, Angels Fall.
Alley Theatre (1984-85)
The Sorrows of Frederick, Season’s Greetings, Quartermaine’s Terms, Sweet Bird of Youth, Much Ado About Nothing, And a Nightengale Sang..., Starry Night, Extremities, Fool for Love, Open Admissions, A...My Name Is Alice, Kind Lady.
Actors Theatre of Louisville (1985–2001, also 2011)
The Misanthrope, The Royal Comedians, The Shaper, No Mercy, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Chee-Chee, The Rules of the Game, The Man with the Flower in his Mouth, Elaine’s Daughter, A Christmas Carol, Camille, The Whore and the H’Empress, Lloyd’s Prayer, Alone at the Beach, Tales of the Lost Formicans, Engaged, Taking Steps, The Bug, The Queen of the Leaky Roof Circuit, Road to Nirvana, The Tempest, Tone Clusters and The Eclipse, Zara Spook and Other Lures, Harvey, Children of the Sun, Anton–Himself, The Three Cuckolds, Speed-the-Plow, In the Eye of the Hurricane, Cementville, The Death of Zukasky, Other People’s Money, King Lear, Tales from the Vienna Woods, Romeo and Juliet, Marisol, Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of the Sign of Four, The Beaux’ Stratagem, Betty the Yeti, Slavs!, Ain’t We Got Fun?, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Watermelon Rinds and Jenine’s Diary, The Last Time We Saw Her, What We Do With It, Poof!, Evelyn and the Polka King, Hyaena, Head On, Helen At Risk, Middle-Aged White Guys, Below the Belt, Between the Lines, The Adding Machine, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Olympia, Sleuth, A Perfect Ganesh, One Flea Spare, Chilean Holiday, Jack and Jill, Trying to Find Chinatown, Contract with Jackie, The Comedy of Errors, East of Eden Parts I and II, Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage, In Her Sight, Lighting Up the Two-Year Old, Polaroid Stories, Waterbabies, The Triumph of Love, The Wizard of Oz, Wilder Rediscovered: Rivers Under the Earth and In Shakespeare and the Bible, Private Lives, Mr. Bundy, Resident Alien, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Let the Big Dog Eat, Acorn, Othello, Peter Pan, Noises Off, Hamlet, Y2K, The Cockfighter, Life Under 30: Drive Angry, Mpls., St. Paul, Labor Day, Forty Minute Finish, Heartbreak House, Home, Anton in Show Business, Big Love, Tape, Constant Star, Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage,When the Sea Drowns in Sand, Heaven and Hell (On Earth) — A Divine Comedy, Chad Curtiss, Lost Again. Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (2011)
Guthrie Theater (2001 – 2003)
Nickel and Dimed, Good Boys, Thief River, Wintertime in Guthrie Lab Theatre. Education projects include Six by Timothy Mason and Untold Crimes of Insomniacs by Janet Allard as well as new Ten-Minute Plays commissioned for The Guthrie Experience (2001-2003) and workshops: Love Lasts by Jimmy Breslin, Cornerstone Theatre/Guthrie Theater community-based project by Jeff Hatcher.
LITERARY MANAGEMENT
LITERARY ADVISOR
Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival 2012 (April – October 2011)
Read 125 scripts and consulted on play selection and theatre assignment for Humana Festival.
LITERARY DIRECTOR/ DIRECTOR OF STUDIO THEATER PROGRAMMING
The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN (2001 — 2007)
Responsibilities included planning and implementing a new play program to provide artistic programming for new Guthrie Theater complex that opened in 2006. Managed a department of eight, directed new play readings, administrated intern program and supervised staff work on dramaturgy and publications. First Studio Theater season featured Guthrie productions and presentations of Minnesota and national theater companies.
· Created the unique Guthrie New Play Program funded in 2003 with a $ 700,000 grant from the Bush Foundation,which commissioned, developed,
produced and published 108 plays in 6 years..
· 17 one-act play commissions for Minnesota State High School League One-Act Play Contest and Festival – scripts published by Playscripts, Inc.
· Ten-minute play commissions for Guthrie Experience MFA Actor Training Program – 25 plays in 3 years; published by Playscripts, Inc. & Smith and
Kraus.
· 7 one-act commissions for Guthrie/University of Minnesota BFA program.
· Full-length commissions Lee Blessing, Kevin Kling, Jane Martin, Rosanna Staffa, Steven Dietz.
· Project and commission collaborations with The Playwrights’ Center, Mixed Blood Theatre, Cornerstone Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre,
and InterAct Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company and National New Play Network.
· Co-Director, National Manifesto Project (2002) and the 2-Headed Challenge (2003-5), Guthrie Theatre and The Playwrights’ Center.
LITERARY MANAGER/ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, Actors Theatre of Louisville, KY (1985—2001)
Initiated and developed first literary department, including: national play contest, writers workshop, dramaturgical notes in program and newsletter, and study guides. Also responsible for writing annual children’s plays, play development, reading series and grant writing.
LITERARY ASSOCIATE/SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, CA (1981-84)
Responsibilities included evaluating scripts, writing program notes and newsletter articles, moderating seminars, working with playwrights-in-residence, coordinating special events, staff liaison to Board.
South Coast Repertory (1982-84)
Tintypes, All In Favour Said No!, Boy Meets Girl, The Imaginary Invalid, Major Barbara, The Playboy of the Western World, The Seagull, Sally & Marsha, Angels Fall.
Alley Theatre (1984-85)
The Sorrows of Frederick, Season’s Greetings, Quartermaine’s Terms, Sweet Bird of Youth, Much Ado About Nothing, And a Nightengale Sang..., Starry Night, Extremities, Fool for Love, Open Admissions, A...My Name Is Alice, Kind Lady.
Actors Theatre of Louisville (1985–2001, also 2011)
The Misanthrope, The Royal Comedians, The Shaper, No Mercy, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Chee-Chee, The Rules of the Game, The Man with the Flower in his Mouth, Elaine’s Daughter, A Christmas Carol, Camille, The Whore and the H’Empress, Lloyd’s Prayer, Alone at the Beach, Tales of the Lost Formicans, Engaged, Taking Steps, The Bug, The Queen of the Leaky Roof Circuit, Road to Nirvana, The Tempest, Tone Clusters and The Eclipse, Zara Spook and Other Lures, Harvey, Children of the Sun, Anton–Himself, The Three Cuckolds, Speed-the-Plow, In the Eye of the Hurricane, Cementville, The Death of Zukasky, Other People’s Money, King Lear, Tales from the Vienna Woods, Romeo and Juliet, Marisol, Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of the Sign of Four, The Beaux’ Stratagem, Betty the Yeti, Slavs!, Ain’t We Got Fun?, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Watermelon Rinds and Jenine’s Diary, The Last Time We Saw Her, What We Do With It, Poof!, Evelyn and the Polka King, Hyaena, Head On, Helen At Risk, Middle-Aged White Guys, Below the Belt, Between the Lines, The Adding Machine, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Olympia, Sleuth, A Perfect Ganesh, One Flea Spare, Chilean Holiday, Jack and Jill, Trying to Find Chinatown, Contract with Jackie, The Comedy of Errors, East of Eden Parts I and II, Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage, In Her Sight, Lighting Up the Two-Year Old, Polaroid Stories, Waterbabies, The Triumph of Love, The Wizard of Oz, Wilder Rediscovered: Rivers Under the Earth and In Shakespeare and the Bible, Private Lives, Mr. Bundy, Resident Alien, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Let the Big Dog Eat, Acorn, Othello, Peter Pan, Noises Off, Hamlet, Y2K, The Cockfighter, Life Under 30: Drive Angry, Mpls., St. Paul, Labor Day, Forty Minute Finish, Heartbreak House, Home, Anton in Show Business, Big Love, Tape, Constant Star, Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage,When the Sea Drowns in Sand, Heaven and Hell (On Earth) — A Divine Comedy, Chad Curtiss, Lost Again. Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (2011)
Guthrie Theater (2001 – 2003)
Nickel and Dimed, Good Boys, Thief River, Wintertime in Guthrie Lab Theatre. Education projects include Six by Timothy Mason and Untold Crimes of Insomniacs by Janet Allard as well as new Ten-Minute Plays commissioned for The Guthrie Experience (2001-2003) and workshops: Love Lasts by Jimmy Breslin, Cornerstone Theatre/Guthrie Theater community-based project by Jeff Hatcher.
LITERARY MANAGEMENT
LITERARY ADVISOR
Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival 2012 (April – October 2011)
Read 125 scripts and consulted on play selection and theatre assignment for Humana Festival.
LITERARY DIRECTOR/ DIRECTOR OF STUDIO THEATER PROGRAMMING
The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN (2001 — 2007)
Responsibilities included planning and implementing a new play program to provide artistic programming for new Guthrie Theater complex that opened in 2006. Managed a department of eight, directed new play readings, administrated intern program and supervised staff work on dramaturgy and publications. First Studio Theater season featured Guthrie productions and presentations of Minnesota and national theater companies.
· Created the unique Guthrie New Play Program funded in 2003 with a $ 700,000 grant from the Bush Foundation,which commissioned, developed,
produced and published 108 plays in 6 years..
· 17 one-act play commissions for Minnesota State High School League One-Act Play Contest and Festival – scripts published by Playscripts, Inc.
· Ten-minute play commissions for Guthrie Experience MFA Actor Training Program – 25 plays in 3 years; published by Playscripts, Inc. & Smith and
Kraus.
· 7 one-act commissions for Guthrie/University of Minnesota BFA program.
· Full-length commissions Lee Blessing, Kevin Kling, Jane Martin, Rosanna Staffa, Steven Dietz.
· Project and commission collaborations with The Playwrights’ Center, Mixed Blood Theatre, Cornerstone Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre,
and InterAct Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company and National New Play Network.
· Co-Director, National Manifesto Project (2002) and the 2-Headed Challenge (2003-5), Guthrie Theatre and The Playwrights’ Center.
LITERARY MANAGER/ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, Actors Theatre of Louisville, KY (1985—2001)
- New Plays: Responsible for reading/recommending scripts for annual Humana Festival of New American Plays; supervising National One-Act and National Ten-Minute Play Contests; Kentucky Playwright Development Project; new play commissions; playwright/agent relations; dramaturgy.
- Classics in Context Festival (1986-98): Foreign travel/negotiations (Moscow Art Theatre, Berliner Ensemble, Vigszinhaz, Piccolo Teatro di Milano); edit publications; development of new translations and adaptations; public speaking; curate exhibits; select films; production dramaturgy.
- Flying Solo & Friends Festival (1993-97): Project Director for annual new performance series of 4 to 7 solo performers and ensembles; solicitation, evaluation and selection/contracting of artists from 1993 to 1997.
- Administration/Literary Department: Supervised staff of 3–6; contributing editor for program and newsletter; grant writing to NEA/NEH; manage department’s annual budget of $150,000; production dramaturgy for regular season.
- Free Theatre Project (1998-present): As facilitator for ATL’s Artistic Risk Task Force, helped create new artistic programming at ATL, including Free Theatre and plans for site-specific work and company-created productions.
- Directing: Directed a mainstage, subscription season production in 1999(Nixon’s Nixon), Free Theatre production of Strindberg’s Creditors in 2000 and annual apprentice productions, including eight world premieres of ten-minute plays and numerous monologues.
Initiated and developed first literary department, including: national play contest, writers workshop, dramaturgical notes in program and newsletter, and study guides. Also responsible for writing annual children’s plays, play development, reading series and grant writing.
LITERARY ASSOCIATE/SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, CA (1981-84)
Responsibilities included evaluating scripts, writing program notes and newsletter articles, moderating seminars, working with playwrights-in-residence, coordinating special events, staff liaison to Board.