Ron Short
Bio (download as MS Word file)

Ron Short, a native of the Appalachian Mountains of Dickenson County, Virginia, has worked at Roadside Theater for the past 26 years as a playwright, musician, composer, actor, and director. He scripted and wrote music for 15 musical plays and helped script three others, all currently in Roadside's touring repertoire. He performs in all of the company's touring productions.

Mr. Short has contributed articles to several publications, including All Of Us: Americans Talk About the Meaning of Death, (Delacorte Press, 1992) and Appalachian Mountain Religion: A History, (University of Illinois Press, 1989). An excerpt from his musical play, South of the Mountain, appears in the publication, A Southern Appalachian Reader (Appalachian Consortium Press, 1989).

His music recordings include "Cities of Gold", on the June Appal label; Roadside Theater's "Singing"; and "Wings to Fly", a compact disc of music from Singing on the Mountain and Music from Home, (Copper Creek Records, 2002.)

Mr. Short produced Roadside's three year project in collaboration with Cornell University which included developing and teaching a course, "Issues in Community Based Art" and convening a national theater symposium, "From the Ground Up: Grassroots Theater in Historical And Contemporary Perspective." In 2002, he is teaching "Story to Stage: Exploring Grassroots Theater" at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

Mr. Short produced a four-year project with Lewiston-Auburn Arts in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine that included playwriting and storytelling projects with factory workers, ethnic social clubs, an elementary school, and the police department.

He has been instrumental in developing Roadside’s cross-cultural collaborative projects which include full length, musical plays with Idiwanan An Chawe, the Zuni language theater from Pueblo Zuni, NM and Junebug Productions, the nationally recognized African American theater from New Orleans, LA. He is Roadside’s playwright and composer on Promise of a Love Song, a collaborative musical production with Junebug Productions and Teatro Pregones, the premier Puerto Rican theater from the South Bronx. Most recently, he and jazz pianist/composer Beegie Adair wrote and perform in Betsy, Roadside’s newest play, which explores the intersection of jazz and bluegrass music.

Currently, Mr. Short is a board member of Appalshop. Prior to his work with Roadside, he was the Administrator for Highlander Research and Education Center; the Administrator for the Tennessee Appalachian Child Development Project; the community organizer, program planner for Virginia's Appalachian Regional Commission of Early Childhood Development; and director of a social services nutrition program at Mountain Empire Older Citizens.

Mr. Short graduated from Clinch Valley College of the University of Virginia, now the University of Virginia's College at Wise, from which he received the 2002 Outstanding Alumni Award.

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