LaRonika Thomas is a Baltimore-based dramaturg and writer, and a former Vice President for Regional Activity and board member of Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). She is also an Assistant Professor at Loyola University, Maryland, and a doctoral candidate in the Theatre and Performance Studies program at the University of Maryland, College Park. As a scholar, her research interests include performances of urban planning, cultural space and cultural policy, particularly in 21st century Chicago, online archiving and databases in the new play world, and technology and performance. She also currently serves as the Electronic Communications Co-Chair for ATHE’s Dramaturgy Focus Group.

LaRonika has worked in arts education, literary management, and dramaturgy in Chicago and in the Baltimore/DC area for a decade before returning to school for her doctorate. She has worked in various capacities in Chicago with Stage Left Theatre (Literary Manager & Ensemble Member), the Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Writers’ Theatre (Director of Education), Neo-Futurists, Silk Road Theatre Project, Lifeline Theatre, Greasy Joan and Co., and Chicago Dancemakers Forum, among others. Beyond Chicago she has worked with, or read scripts with, Centerstage, The Public Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Playwright’s Center, Source Festival (Associate Producer, Full-Length Plays), Active Cultures (Festivals Director), America-in-Play, Syracuse Stage, TADA! Youth Theatre, Artists Bloc, the Baltimore Playwrights Festival, and the ATHE New Play Development Workshop, among others.

LaRonika has helped to develop more than 30 new works for the stage, is a recipient of an LMDA residency grant as well as three City of Chicago CAAP grants for her individual work, and multiple grants from the University of Maryland. She has an MA in Theatre from Purdue University and a BA in Theatre and Anthropology from Indiana University. Her chapter, “Digital Dramaturgy and Digital Dramaturgs” is included in The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy.