Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater’s Artistic Director Molly Smith announced that D.C.-area arts manager and artist David Snider will become the company’s Director of Artistic Programming. Snider will be leaving Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT), where he has served since 2005 as producing artistic director and CEO, to bring his multi-faceted, award-winning talents to the artistic team of Arena Stage.

“I’m extremely excited to bring David aboard,” Smith said. “He came out of a field of over 70 applicants nation-wide and brought with him a wealth of experience as an artistic leader and manager. David is a deep thinker with a strong spirit.”

As Director of Artistic Programming, Snider will report directly to Smith and be responsible for implementing the artistic vision of Arena Stage by helping to develop the strategy and programming in order to advance the theater’s position artistically, financially and in the field. He will lead the efforts of Arena Stage’s Artistic Development department, which includes the American Voices New Play Institute, dramaturgy, casting and audience enrichment activities.

“I’m thrilled to join Molly, Edgar and the entire team in leading this legendary organization into its next great stage of artistic growth and innovation,” Snider said. “Zelda Fichandler was my mentor at NYU and so arriving at Arena feels like a kind of homecoming. After seven successful seasons of growth, I’m so proud of the company we have built at Young Playwrights’ Theater. YPT is in extraordinarily good hands and I can’t wait to see what they do next.”

One of Snider’s most notable and recent accomplishments with YPT includes leading the company to be named one of five finalists for The Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management by the Center for Nonprofit Advancement.

Snider has more than 20 years of experience as a director, educator, producer, administrator and actor. As Producing Artistic Director and CEO of Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT), he has received the Meyer Foundation’s $100,000 Exponent Award for visionary leadership of a nonprofit, the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Hands On Greater DC Cares’ Essence of Leadership Award.

He is a Directing Fellow of the Drama League of New York, the immediate past President of the League of Washington Theatres and a member of the National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program.

–By Julia Suszynski

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