With more than a decade of experience in arts management, when not onstage, RP McLaughlin (they/them) works and consults with arts organizations nationally to fill gaps, strategically expand capacity, and manage complex projects.

Professional Highlights:

  • Managed the $20M Open Studio renovation of Washington DC’s Studio Theatre

  • Supported the development of the National New Play Network’s radically restructuring 20-25 Strategic Plan.

  • Coordinated research for Triple Play, a TDF/Theatre Bay Area national research project.

  • Interim Programs Director for National New Play Network.

  • Produced International Women’s Voices Day, at the time, the largest coordinated event of readings of plays by women writers.

  • Casting Director for Mosaic Theatre Company, casting for Mark Brokaw, Philip Himberg, and Mark Wing Davey.

  • Michael Kahn’s Artist Fellow at Shakespeare Theatre Company

  • I work and consult with arts organizations nationally to fill gaps, strategically expand capacity, and manage complex projects.

    Most recently, I served as the Interim Programs Director for the National New Play Network (NNPN). Prior to that interim role, I was the Manager of Strategic Advancement at Studio Theatre where I managed a portfolio of projects including the $20 million Open Studio renovation, COVID-19 Safety, and the Apprentice program. 

    I was the Producing Associate on the 2018 Women's Voices Theater Festival and spearheaded International Women's Voices Day, a coordinated effort between the Festival, National New Play Network, and New Play Exchange garnering more than 275 readings of unproduced plays by women on the anniversary of the Women’s March on Washington. At the time, International Women's Voices Day was the largest coordinated event dedicated to new plays by women writers.

    Prior to that I was the Producer-in-Residence at the National New Play Network (NNPN) where I focused on data-driven program evaluation and participated in the development of the strategic plan. NNPN’s strategic plan included a new mission and vision, a restructured governance model, equitable membership criteria and recruitment strategies, diversified programming goals and metrics, and strengthened revenue sources. You can read about it on HowlRound. 

    In 2016, I put my love for research and data to work for Theatre Development Fund and Theatre Bay Area as the Coordinator of the Triple Play Project; a national study - the largest of it’s kind - developing and executing new models for creating and sustaining substantive conversations among theatres, audiences, and artists to increase single ticket sales and audience engagement for new plays. 

    I came to DC to be the Artistic Fellow at the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) working on shows such as the world premiere of Salomé by Yael Farber and Ed Iskandar’s re-imagining of Taming of the Shrew. Building on my experience at STC I served two seasons as Casting Director for Mosaic Theatre company.

    Before DC, I lived in Dallas where I studied Acting, Arts Management, and Arts Entrepreneurship at Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.n text goes here