Jeanie O’Hare, the in-house dramaturg of the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, will be the new chair of the School of Drama’s playwriting department, the school announced in a press release Monday.

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O’Hare has been with the Royal Shakespeare Company for the last six years. During O’Hare’s tenure, the Company commissioned 75 new writers and launched 40 world premieres, including the launch of “Matilda: the Musical.”

“Jeanie has woven writers and artists into the fabric of the RSC, guided them, challenged them, and made both the new and the established artist feel at home,” said Michael Boyd, the RSC’s artistic director.

Drama School Dean James Bundy DRA ’95 convened a selection committee for the position after Paula Vogel, the program’s chair, announced she would step down in June. Vogel took over in 2008, coming to Yale after 24 years of leading an acclaimed playwriting program at Brown University.

AKBAR AHMED