Padua Playwrights

Padua Playwrights Productions, or Padua, is a Los Angeles-based theater company founded in 1978 by playwright and poet Murray Mednick and John Woodruff. The company ceased operation in 1995 and re-emerged in 2001, under the direction of Guy Zimmerman.

Padua Hills Playwrights' Workshop/Festival
In 1978, Mednick received funding as part of a faculty position at La Verne University to found the Padua Hills Playwrights' Workshop at the Padua Hills estate in the San Gabriel foothills. He and five other playwrights, among them Theatre Genesis colleagues Sam Shepard and María Irene Fornés, met with nine writing students and established a pattern of exercises, rehearsals, and informal presentations. Most of those were site-specific, since the estate had plenty of outdoor spaces but no theater. Between 1984 and 1995, Padua moved around Southern California and hosted festivals at Cal Arts, Loyola Marymount University, Pacific Design Center, Cal State Northridge, Woodbury University and USC. Many prominent playwrights and actors participated in the workshop, including John Steppling, John O'Keefe, Jon Robin Baitz and Kelly Stuart.

Padua took a non-consumerist approach to playwriting. Founding member John Steppling cites this as one of the reasons Padua didn't garner as much press as he felt that it should have. Padua's focus on the artistic process, as opposed to the final product, made it difficult to market: “It’s easy to see how Padua never acquired a 'franchise,'” Steppling said, as “Padua had nothing to sell".

One overarching practice in many Padua Hills Festival plays was their site-specificity. Mednick stressed reliance on “language in relation to space” in his teaching." In 1984, a performance of Mednick's The Coyote Cycle was videotaped outdoors with Murray Mednick, Darrell Larson, Norbert Weisser, Priscilla Cohen, Christine Avila. A 1985 production of The Coyote Cycle took place from sundown to sunrise outdoors at the Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. Audience members huddled in sleeping bags were led from one part of the ranch to another by flashlight between scenes.

The Padua Hills Workshop/Theater Company ceased operations in 1995, citing financial difficulties.

Padua Playwrights Press
In 1994, Padua Playwrights Press published "Best of the West," an anthology of eight works staged between 1989-1991. They went on to publish several other works, including "Plays from the Padua Hills Playwrights Festivals" (2003), "3 Plays by Murray Mednick" (2003), "The Coyote Cycle" by Murray Mednick (2003), "Hipsters in Distress" (2005), and "Plays for a New Millennium" (2004). Padua Hills Press is distributed nationally by Theatre Communications Group. They also published "Beneath the Dusty Trees: The Gary Plays" and "Fever Dreams."

Padua Playwrights Productions
In 2001, Padua returned as Padua Playwrights Productions. Mednick appointed playwright and director, Guy Zimmerman as the artistic director. The new Padua took place indoors, but the dramatic works remained in line with the anti-institutional, pro-playwright stance of its predecessor. “[Padua means] being an outlaw and misfit within the theater community. We need Padua for artistic nourishment, ” said Roxanne Rogers, a director and original Padua participant, upon the founding of the new Padua. The revived company has staged dozens of productions and won awards from LA Weekly, Garland, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, the American Theatre Critics Association.