Gene Franklin Smith received his Bachelor of Arts with Honors in English and Theater from Wesleyan University, where he directed and produced the world premiere of his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is The Night. After graduation Gene moved to New York, where several of his plays were premiered: Adults In Love, Created Equal and Life Beneath The Roses, which was also a finalist for Dayton Playhouse’s FutureFest and Nebraska University’s Great Platte River Playwrights Festival and won Theatre Americana’s David James Ellis Memorial Award for Best Play.
In 1997, two of Gene’s plays were produced in Los Angeles simultaneously: Life Beneath The Roses at the Bitter Truth Theater and the world premiere of Rubicon at the Coast Playhouse, which was produced again in New York by the Wings Theater Company. The following year, Gene founded Write Act Repertory Company, a member company that developed original plays and musicals with resident actors, playwrights, directors and designers. During his tenure as Artistic Director, he developed, directed and produced the world premieres of many original full-length, one-act plays and musicals, including his critically acclaimed adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, Devil’s Consort and Transports of the Heart.
Gene moved to Toronto, Ontario in 2003 and founded the Troubled Souls Collective, which produced his sold-out productions, Haunted Masters and More Haunted Masters, nine one-act plays adapted from Victorian ghost stories uniquely staged in an historic Victorian mansion.
Back in Los Angeles, Gene served on the board of Salem K Theatre Company and co-produced its inaugural three-play season at the Matrix Theater: Poor Beast in the Rain by Billy Roche, Snake in the Grass by Alan Ackbourne and the world premiere of Gene’s play, Boise, USA, featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered”. In 2012, Gene participated in Playwrights’ Arena’s 20th year celebration, FLASH Theater LA, writing Go Thy Way With Joy and directing Michael Kearns’s A Kiss-In For Trayvon. Gene’s most recent play, Flim-Flam, was a semi-finalist in the 2013 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference.