Charles Smith, an alumnus of New Dramatists, is playwright-in-residence at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, which has produced a number of his plays, including the recent Knock Me A Kiss.  His play Les Trois Dumas, about the life of the French-African novelist Alexandre Dumas, was commissioned by the Indiana Repertory Theatre and produced in the spring of 1998.  He received the Illinois Arts Council’s Governor’s Award for his play The Sutherland.   His play Black Star Line was commissioned by the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.  Mr. Smith’s plays have been produced by the St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre, the HBO New Writers Project, Penumbra Theatre in Minneapolis, the Henry Street Settlement in New York.  A graduate of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, Mr. Smith is the author of two Emmy Award winning teleplays: Fast Break to Glory, and Pequito.  He has received playwrighting fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the Princess Grace Foundation, and the Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust.  Mr. Smith has taught playwriting at Northwestern University, and currently teaches at Ohio University.