Melody Brooks is the founder and Artistic Director of NPTC. She is an award-winning producer, director and dramaturg who has been working in the professional theatre and various educational institutions for 40 years. She has developed and directed a number of notable and award-winning original scripts and innovative classical productions with NPTC since its founding. Brooks was dramaturg for She Calls Me Firefly by Teresa Lotz, which won the 2019 NY Innovative Theatre Award for Best Short Play, co-produced by NPTC and Parity Productions. She was also dramaturg for NPTC’s OOBR-winning production of The Taming of the Shrew. Brooks leads NPTC’s Women’s Work Project which develops new plays by 10-15 writers per year and reclaims historical women who have written plays through the ON HER SHOULDERS program. Brooks received the 2018 “Trailblazing Women and Arts Institutions Award” from Rhythm Color Associates and the “Spirit of Hope Award” in 2015 from Speranza Theatre Company for her career-long support of women theatre artists. She is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) and a Board Member with the League of Professional Theatre Women. She has Co-chaired the triennial LPTW Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award since 2014. Brooks is a co-founder of 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists.