Todd Brian Backus • Literary Manager

Todd is the Literary Manager of Portland Stage. He is also a director, dramaturg,  illustrator, and occasional playwright. This summer in Portland he curated, directed, and got grant funding for the second season of Too Strange to Live, Too Weird to Die a reading series for beautiful and bizarre plays, including The Zero Hour by Madeleine George, A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes by Kate Benson, and peerless by Jiehae Park. He also produced a smash-hit 33rd Annual Little Festival of the Unexpected featuring Sweet Goats and Blueberry Señoritas by Richard Blanco and Vanessa Garcia, Madeleines by Bess Welden, and Riverbank by Brendan Pelsue. In his down time he’s been hard at work behind the scenes (and in front of the microphone) with Dungeons + Drama Nerds, a podcast exploring the intersection of theater and tabletop roleplaying games, now in its third season. Todd aims to connect with a diverse array of writers, and performers in order to better reflect the beautiful, messy, and complicated picture of our increasingly interconnected lives.