Nan Barnett

Nan Barnett (she/her) is a new play advocate and the Executive Director of National New Play Network, the country’s alliance of more than 100 theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays.

Nan came to the Network full-time in 2013 after working on its Executive Committee to create the organization’s revolutionary Rolling World Premiere and Residency programs. She guided NNPN through the development and launch of its field-altering database, the New Play Exchange®, now home to more than 36,000 plays by living writers, for which NNPN received The Washington Post’s Award for Innovative Leadership in the Theater Community. She has quadrupled NNPN’s membership, dramatically increased both earned and unearned income, and recently led the Network through a strategic planning process that resulted in a renovation of the organization’s governance structure to achieve racial and gender parity at the Board level.

Nan was the Coordinating Producer for the 2015 and 2018 iterations of the nationally acclaimed Women’s Voices Theater Festival, serves on the Artistic Council of the O’Neill Theater Center, and was inducted into the National Theatre Conference in 2017.

She was a founding company member and Managing Director of Florida Stage, the nation’s largest regional theater producing exclusively new and developing plays and musicals. While there she won the Theatre League of South Florida’s Remy Award for service to the theatrical community, the Fallon Award for Excellence from the Florida Professional Theatre Association, and twice the Carbonell Award as an actress.

Nan regularly leads board and artist planning and training sessions across the country and is a frequent featured speaker and panelist. Recent appearances include the Theatre Communications Group, National Alliance of Musical Theaters, TYA/USA, and Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations conferences and festivals including the Humana Festival of New American Plays.