As a playwright Les Hunter's work contemplates the way that theatre can shed light on emerging problems of selfhood. In the 2019/2020 season, he was an inaugural Cleveland Public Theatre Premiere Fellow for playwriting. He is the Ohio Regional Representative for the Dramatists Guild of America, and a member of the Playwrights GYM at Dobama Theatre. Hunter previously held writing residencies at Ora Lerman and Millikin University. He is past Curator of New Plays at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in New York City, was the literary director of Theatre 167, and co-founder of the Brooklyn Playwrights Collective. In 2020, Hunter was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award.
His plays include TO THE ORCHARD (Playwrights Local and JPP 2016 International Jewish Playwriting Contest...
As a playwright Les Hunter's work contemplates the way that theatre can shed light on emerging problems of selfhood. In the 2019/2020 season, he was an inaugural Cleveland Public Theatre Premiere Fellow for playwriting. He is the Ohio Regional Representative for the Dramatists Guild of America, and a member of the Playwrights GYM at Dobama Theatre. Hunter previously held writing residencies at Ora Lerman and Millikin University. He is past Curator of New Plays at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in New York City, was the literary director of Theatre 167, and co-founder of the Brooklyn Playwrights Collective. In 2020, Hunter was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award.
His plays include TO THE ORCHARD (Playwrights Local and JPP 2016 International Jewish Playwriting Contest Top 10 Finalist); DOWN BY CONTACT (Dobama Theatre and Playwrights Local); WEIMAR (Baldwin Wallace University); and with his wife Elana, APONIBOLINAYEN VISITS THE SKY (Talespinners Children’s Theatre). He also wrote for all three parts of the collaboratively written, NYC hit, THE JACKSON HEIGHTS TRILOGY (Theatre 167). His other dramatic works include an American adaptation with Turkish dramatist Ozen Yula of his play, FOR RENT (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center); a screenplay, LION (Dubai Film Connection); and a musical, ’99 (Theatre 167), with Ben Morss of the band Cake. Playscripts, Brooklyn Publishers, and Indie Theatre publish and license his plays.
His articles and reviews have appeared in "American Theatre Magazine," "The Dramatist," "Text & Presentation," "HowlRound," "Theatre Journal," "The Wallace Stevens Review," "Ecumenica," "Cutbank," "Theatre Survey," and the edited collections "Experimental O’Neill" and "Performing the Progressive Era." In 2014, he attended the Mellon School of Theater and Performance Research at Harvard University. His creative prose appears in "Fiction Southeast," "Barnhouse," and the anthology "Dating Games." Dr. Hunter is an associate professor of English at Baldwin Wallace University and the President of the Board of Playwrights Local.