After two decades of success as a commercial writer, Richard
Manley started a second career writing stage plays. Pulling from many years’
worth of personal journals, Manley rediscovered his passion for the sound of
language and its potential to provoke. When he returned to the U.S. from a
sabbatical in Europe in 2008, he sold his business and structured a lifestyle
that would allow him to write stage plays full time. Manley has written 12
full-length plays and four one acts, which have been produced off-Broadway and
a dozen other cities. He has won, or been a finalist in, more than 40 national
and international writing competitions, including the Ashland New Plays
Festival, the STAGE International Script Competition, the John Gassner Memorial
Playwriting Award (New England Theatre Conference), the Pillars Prize (Georgia
College and State University), the Getchell New Play Award (Southeastern
Theatre Conference), AACT NewPlayFest, Theatre for Young Audiences Playwriting
Competition (University of Central Missouri), YETi Season 5 (Childsplay) and
the Woodward/Newman Award (Constellation Stage & Screen). Manley’s work has
been published by Dramatic Publishing, Smith & Kraus, Ponder Review,
Spellbinder literary and art magazine, and Applause Theatre & Cinema
Books.
