James Houghton, former artistic director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, died on Tuesday at age 57 after battling stomach cancer.

He was the conference's second artistic director, succeeding the legendary Lloyd Richards. Houghton led the world-renowned developmental program in Waterford from 2000 to 2003, ushering in new works by John Belluso, Lee Blessing, Kia Corthron, Bill Irwin, David Lindsay-Abaire, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and August Wilson, among many more.

Houghton brought the O'Neill's founding conference back to its roots. In remarks at the time, he said he believed that the evolvement of a play should be "organic, primarily visceral, free flowing. The play is the experience; the writer at its center." He also brought back the process of inviting specific playwrights each season to the O'Neill to be a part of the conference, in addition to the O'Neill's signature Open Submission policy. That practice still continues.

Additionally, Houghton instituted a guest speaker portion to the conference. That remains to this day, as the current artistic director, Wendy C. Goldberg, continues to invite theater artists to speak to and inspire the writers each summer.

When Goldberg became artistic director in 2005, she felt welcomed and prepared to take on her new role: "It is always difficult taking over after a founding artistic director, particularly someone like Lloyd Richards, and Jim did so at the O'Neill with grace. When I started at the O'Neill, he showed his support of my tenure immediately, exposing his understanding of the complexity of leadership. His work at Signature Theater and his vision made him someone writers could trust, and that is the key ingredient in our atmosphere at the National Playwrights Conference. Eleven years later, we were happy to have his daughter, Lily, with us as an intern in our literary office working on eight new plays this summer. He has left us way too soon. We send love and light to his family and to the American Theater community who also mourns this profound loss, a community he has so deeply enriched."

O'Neill Executive Director Preston Whiteway added, "Jim re-centered the O'Neill's founding program, the National Playwrights Conference, back on the writers, and brought the program into today's landscape. His legacy will live on here at the O'Neill, with many of his initiatives still integral to NPC's ethos. His early desire to cross genres, inviting composers and puppeteers to address the NPC community, laid early groundwork for our current structure, operating multiple programs simultaneously in the summer, and having each draw strength from the others ... Jim's eager and boundless energy has helped so many artists, and the O'Neill itself, to soar, to this day."