We have some wonderful news to share about a member of the WWNY-TV family.

Craig Thornton, arts and entertainment editor at 7 News, has been named artist-in-residence at SUNY Empire State College's Central New York Center.

Beginning in the fall, Craig will offer workshops and studies as part of the center's Arts Learning Community. 

The college serves more than 2,200 students in the Central New York region.

Craig is an award-winning playwright and graduate of New York University and Goddard College.

"I want people to understand, especially new writing students, that you're not going to sit down and 20 minutes later have a novel or a play. It's always a process. It's always evolving and hard work is really the way to see yourself through a project," said Craig.

Craig studied screenwriting at the American Film Institute and his plays have been produced in New York City, Los Angeles and regionally.

The L.A. production of "Happy Birthday, Tina Marie" was pick of the week in the L.A. Reader, hailed as "brilliant and witty" by the L.A. Times and is housed in the Central L.A. Library as one of the best plays produced that year.

Every full-length play he has written has placed as a finalist in a nationally recognized contest, including "What We Hold Onto" (Eugene O'Neill National Theater Conference) and, most recently, "The High Cost of Heating" (Northern Writes New Play Festival June 2011) as a top-10 finalist in the New Works Festival at the Phoenix Theater 2012.

"In My Shoes," a docudrama about the effects on military teens of parental deployment during the recent Middle East conflicts, which he wrote while playwright-in-residence at Indian River Central High School, near Fort Drum, has seen several tours and received national attention in a story featured on CNN in 2011.

The Midwest premiere took place in May in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

As a result of the success of "In My Shoes," Craig was asked to participate in a study mandated by Congress and sponsored by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences about the effects of deployment on communities with a large military population, highlighting the therapeutic power of theater.

Craig is also a published author and an educator.

See SUNY Empire State College's full news release