The following is a preliminary list of honorees, special guests and scholars currently expected to attend, present and perform during the 29th William Inge Theatre Festival, April 21-24, 2010:
More names will be added in the weeks to come. Please check this page again for the latest information.
Gigi Bolt is a theatre and musical theatre program and philanthropy consultant, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University. Ms. Bolt was Director of Theater and Musical Theater at the National Endowment for the Arts from 1995 till 2006. In 2006-2007 she served as Interim Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group. Prior to joining the Endowment, she was the Director of the Theater Program at the New York State Council on the Arts. Her tenure at the Council was preceded by work as an actor including five seasons as a member of the company of the Cleveland Play House. She serves as Board Chair of the SITI Company, on the Theatre Professional Advisory Board at the University of Kansas, and as a board member of the William Inge Festival Foundation.
Jason Bowen's Boston area credits include A CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS (Walker Lewis, Jim Wormley) for The Huntington Theatre Company; OTHELLO (Othello), THE DUCHESS OF MALFI (Antonio), THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (Lorenzo, Prince of Morocco), THE TEMPEST (Ferdinand), LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (Berowne, Katherine, Holofernes), and HAMLET (Marcellus, Fortinbras) for Actor's Shakespeare Project; GROUNDSWELL (Thami) for The Lyric Stage Co.; THE GOOD WAR (Pvt. Smalls) for Stoneham Theatre; LIFE OF GALILEO (Little Monk) for Underground Railway Theatre; A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (Demetrius) for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; and SIX ROUNDS, SIX LESSONS (Solo) for Company One. Mr. Bowen received a B.S. in theatre from Skidmore College and is a member of the resident acting company of Actor's Shakespeare Project.
Mark Brokaw directed the New York premieres of Paula Vogel's HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE and LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME, and the revival of BALTIMORE WALTZ. Other NY work includes premieres by Douglas Carter Beane, Eric Bogosian, Keith Bunin, Lisa Kron, Lisa Loomer, Kenneth Lonergan, Craig Lucas, Eduardo Machado, Patrick Marber and Wendy Wasserstein. Regional includes Yale Rep, Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Center Theatre Group, Hartford Stage, La Jolla, Steppenwolf, Berkeley Rep, Sundance and the O'Neill Conference. He has directed at London's Donmar Warehouse and Dublin's Gate Theatre, and is the Artistic Director of the Yale Institute for Music Theatre and an artistic associate of the Roundabout Theatre.
Gilbert Glenn Brown recently appeared in Paula Vogel's CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS with the Huntington Theatre (dir. Jessica Thebus), Ester Armahs FORGIVE ME featured in the Mid-Town International Theatre Festival (dir. Trezana Beverly), TOPDOG/UNDERDOG (dir. George C. Wolf Seattle Rep/Circle Theatre Group), Miss Evers Boys (National Black Theatre Festival), MALCOLM X, LIVE FROM DEATH ROW... SCOTTSBORO BOYS (Fountain Theatre), DWB in Beverly Hills (Lynne Hamilton, Matrix Theatre). Film: A Long Night, Concrete River, DreamGirls (dir. Bill Condon), Rain, Children of the Struggle, Raising the Heights, Night Falls on Manhattan (dir. Sidney Lumet). Television: Mercy, ER, The O.C., Cold Case, Shark, CSI: Miami, The Shield, as well as several commercials on camera and voiceover talent. He has received a BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; he has garnered 3 NACCP Theatre Award nominations, COLSAC Best Lead Performance Award, along with a Drama Critic and L.A.Weekly Award.
Wayne Bryan has performed on Broadway (GOOD NEWS!, RODGERS AND HART, TINTYPES); and on television (M*A*S*H on CBS, Keystone on A&E, American History on PBS); and directed productions all across the country. Wayne began his professional career as both actor and director with San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, and credits at regional theatres include starring roles in The Drowsy Chaperone, How to Succeed in Business..., The Will Rogers Follies, Barnum, 1776, Where's Charley?, and Me and My Girl. As Producing Artistic Director for Music Theatre of Wichita since 1988, he has produced 111 Broadway-scale, highly acclaimed musical productions. A frequent college lecturer and writer, he is co-author with Mark Madama of the rewritten collegiate musical Good News!, which has received more than 300 productions in the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain. A frequent Inge Festival participant since 1990, Wayne especially enjoyed tributes to Stephen Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Arthur Laurents, Schmidt and Jones, Bock and Harnick, and Comden and Green.
Jackson Bryer is a Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1981, he served as a consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities and for the William Inge Archives at Independence Community College. He is the editor of The Theatre We Worked For: The Letters of Eugene O'Neill to Kenneth MacGowan (1982) and many other publications. In 1988, he published "An Interview with Robert Anderson I Studies in American Drama" and co-edited The Playwright's Art: Conversations with Contemporary American Dramatists, New Essays on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Neglected Stories and The Actor's Art: Conversations with Contemporary American Stage Performers. Recent publications include The Art of the American Musical: Conversations with the Creators and Conversations with August Wilson. His two most recent publications: as co-editor, The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder (2008) and Approaches to Teaching Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (2009). He received the Inge Festival's prestigious Jerome Lawrence Award in 2007.
Marcia Cebulska has received the Dorothy Silver Award, the Jane Chambers International Award, Kansas Arts Commission and Indiana Arts Commission Master Artist Fellowships, "Best Historical Film" (Traildance) and other honors. NOW LET ME FLY, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board, has been performed at over 3,000 venues from Topeka to Turkmenistan and filmed for a French documentary. TOUCHED was commissioned for the 25th anniversary of the Inge Festival. THROUGH MARTHA'S EYES aired nationally on PBS. Her plays have been chosen for development by the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Sundance Playwrights Lab, and Shenandoah Playwrights Retreat and produced at The Georgia Repertory Theatre, HERE (NYC), the Phoenix Theatre, Frontera at Hyde Park, Fremont Centre Theatre, The Theatre Building of Chicago, Fusion Theatre and elsewhere. She has been playwright-in-residence at The University of Georgia, Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, and The William Inge Center for the Arts.
Barbara Dana made her New York stage debut at the age of 17 in the off-Broadway production of Arthur Laurents' A CLEARING IN THE WOODS. She appeared on Broadway in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, ENTER LAUGHING, ROOM SERVICE and William Inge's WHERE'S DADDY? She was also a member of the improvisational group, Second City, appearing in Chicago and New York. Ms. Dana is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults. Her first play, WAR IN PARAMUS, premiered at Abingdon Theatre Company in New York in 2005, directed by Austin Pendelton. It has recently been published in the anthology New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2006. Her most recent book, Wider than the Sky: Essays and Meditations on the Healing Power of Emily Dickinson (Kent State University Press) has recently been released. Barbara has just completed a novel based on the young life of Emily Dickinson, which will be published by HarperCollins in February, 2009. www.barbaradana.com
Philip Dawkins has performed his play YES TO EVERYTHING! all around the country. Other plays include: YOU GONNA EAT THAT? (Healthworks); EDGAR AND ELLEN: BAD SEEDS (published with Playscripts International) and THE SKOKIE DETECTIVE CHARTER SCHOOL (Northlight Theatre Academy); UGLY BABY (Chicago Vanguard / Strawdog Theatre), A STILL LIFE IN COLOR (T.U.T.A.), THE MAN WITH A SHATTERED WORLD (Ethington Theatre), SAGUARO (Estrogen Fest, Chicago; Estrogenius Festival, NY; 16th Street Theatre, Berwyn, Illinois; Painted Filly, Dublin); PERFECT (The Side Project), and CAST OF CHARACTERS (Theatre III, Long Island). Mr. Dawkins is a Fellow of the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers in Scotland, and was a William Inge Arts Center Playwright-in-Residence in the fall of 2009. He is a founding member with Eric C. Reda of Chicago Opera Vanguard. He teaches playwriting in public schools through Chicago Dramatists. He also teaches Kung Fu to little, tiny, Chicago children. Hi-YAH!
Teresa Eyring is Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for non-profit professional theatre. Prior to arriving at TCG in 2007, Ms. Eyring spent more than twenty years as an executive in theatres around the U.S. Positions included: managing director of the Children's Theatre Company (CTC) in Minneapolis from 1999-2007; managing director of the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia from 1994-1999; and assistant executive director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis from 1989-1993. She began her theatre career as director of development for the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C in 1983. She holds a BA in International Relations from Stanford University and an MFA in Theatre Administration from Yale School of Drama. Eyring is currently active as an executive committee member of the Performing Arts Alliance, is chair of the follow-up process for the 2008 National Performing Arts Convention, is a member of the National Advisory Council for the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh, and a member of the Tony Awards nominating committee.
Peter Franklin is from Madisonville, KY where his sense of drama had to be developed offstage, as there was no theatre there. Upon reading THE HAIRY APE at age 12, he began reading plays fervently and never stopped. After reading his way out of his home town he kept on reading, receiving a B.A. In Theatre from Western Kentucky University. He moved to New York immediately after college and, after some flailing around, he began work as a literary assistant to the legendary play agent Gilbert Parker at Curtis Brown Ltd. In 1979 he and Parker moved to the William Morris Agency where he remained (except for a brief stint at the Gersh Agency) representing playwrights, composers and lyricists for the next thirty years. He retired from agenting in 2009. His most beloved clients included Paula Vogel, Edward Albee, Terrence McNally, Arthur Laurents, Craig Lucas, Adam Guettel, A.R. Gurney, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.
Yvette Freeman has played the role of Nurse Haleh Adams on the acclaimed dramatic series ER for the past fifteen seasons. She also played the funny but slightly evil character of Evelyn Smalley on the NBC sitcom series Working. Yvette has starred in the Broadway, First National, Paris and International companies of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'. Yvette starred in the New York production DINAH WAS, based on the life of the legendary jazz singer Dinah Washington, and won the 1998 Obie for Best Actress. She also received the NAACP Award, Ovation Award, LA Weekly and a Dramalogue Award for her portrayal of Dinah Washington in the Los Angeles production of DINAH WAS. Most recently she played the role of 101 year old Dr. Bessie in HAVING OUR SAY at the acclaimed McCarter Theater. For more information on Yvette check out her website: www.yvettefreeman.com
Katori Hall is a playwright-performer hailing from Memphis, Tennessee. Her plays include Hoodoo Love, Remembrance, Hurt Village, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, The Mountaintop (Olivier Nominee for Best New Play), WHADDABLOODCLOT!?!?, The Hope Well and Pussy Valley. Her awards include the 2009-10 Lark (PONY) Fellowship, Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship, two Lecompte du Nouy Prizes from Lincoln Center, Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, NYFA Fellowship, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Recently, she was shortlisted for the London Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award and received the Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award from the William Inge Theatre Festival. She is a graduate of Columbia, Harvard and the Juilliard School. Visit www.katorihall.com.
Mary Hanes has had many plays, one-acts and sketch comedy shows produced around the country. Her sketch comedy, THE NEW ROTICS, won Best Comedy of the Year from the L.A. Weekly. Her play, THE CRIMSON THREAD, was first produced on National Public Radio and is published by Samuel French. Her play, DOIN' TIME AT THE ALAMO, won two national playwriting awards: the New Voices in American Theatre Award from the William Inge Festival and the Mildred & Albert Panowski Playwriting Award and is published by Samuel French. Mary co-developed and Executive Produced the television series Hope Island and for the past ten years has written on several television shows like Hack, Til Death Do Us Part, Doc and Dead Last. Currently, Mary is developing a series for television with her husband/co-writer, Ken Hanes.
Lanny Hartley is a jazz pianist, conductor and composer who began his career as the pianist for his church in Burlington, New Jersey. With a solid gospel music background he went on to study Music Education at Indiana University. He has performed with such great Jazz artists as Wes Montgomery, Jon Hendricks, Lou Rawls, Ernestine Anderson, and others. The pop artists he has worked with include Thelma Houston, The Fifth Dimension, David Clayton Thomas and others. As musical director and arranger he has worked for Della Reese, Linda Hopkins, Sandra Reeves and with his wife, Yvette Freeman. They have an Award winning off Broadway show, DINAH WAS. He has privately taught piano and music theory for over thirty years. He is also called as a substitute teacher for Jazz classes in the local LA colleges.
Chisa Hutchinson, originally from Newark, New Jersey, is author of a number of plays. Her scripts include THE SUBJECT, commissioned by The Atlantic Theatre Company; and SHE LIKE GIRLS, and THE GOOD MOTHER, at the Lark Play Development Center. DIRT RICH was commissioned and premiered at the City Park Foundation in New York. Her #9 premiered at the Vital Theatre Company. She is a graduate of Vassar College and is currently pursuing her MFA in Dramatic Writing at New York University.
Cynthia Hyer is an actress, writer, director and fight choreographer based in Kansas City. Most recently, Cynthia directed MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at Stephens College. At last year's Inge Festival, she appeared as the Landlady in Inge's rarely produced one-act, A MURDER, directed by Karen Carpenter. Her acting credits include: Margrethe in COPENHAGEN (Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre), Becca in RABBIT HOLE (Unicorn Theatre) and Mary Meekly in UNNECESSARY FARCE (American Heartland Theatre). She had the great pleasure of originating the role of Madame Duchand in the final play written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, WHISPER IN THE MIND (Missouri Repertory Theatre). She wrote the screenplay The Werther Years about the relationship that existed between Johannes Brahms and Clara and Robert Schumann. She has choreographed fights for DESDEMONA, OR A PLAY ABOUT A HANDKERCHIEF (Actor's Theatre of Kansas City) and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Shawnee Mission Theatre in the Park). Cynthia received her MFA from the University of Washington's Professional Actor Training Program.
Esquire Jauchem has been producing, designing, and directing television and live performances across the United States and around the world for the last 35 years. Founder of the Boston Repertory Theater, Esquire also served as the Managing Director for The Big Apple Circus during its first touring season. At the Boston Rep he produced more than 45 stage productions. As Associate Director of the Opera Company of Boston with famed Director Sarah Caldwell, he was involved in more than 40 opera productions including five American premiers. He also served as the Producing Director of the American/Soviet Festival which brought the Bolshoi Ballet, Bolshoi Opera and 200 other Russian artists to performances in Boston. His television credits include over 1,000 individual shows for NBC, CBS, UPN, The Discovery Channel, Spike, Court TV and for the past three years he has been the Supervising Producer of the Style Network's hit series, Clean House, starring comedian Niecy Nash. In 2009 he was nominated for two Emmy's.
Tom Jones, the 82-year-old playwright/lyricist of THE FANTASTICKS, is busy trying to breathe life into his musical HAROLD AND MAUDE, writing a memoir, fine-tuning a musical version of THE TEMPEST, toying with a children's book and working on yet another musical. THE FANTASTICKS, the world's longest-running musical, has played 17,162 performances over 42 years at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. Now Jones is directing yet another revival in Manhattan and working with Japanese director Amon Miyamoto, who is preparing to open THE FANTASTICKS in May at the Duchess Theatre in London. THE FANTASTICKS had a successful run last December at the Arena Theatre in Washington, DC, garnering a Helen Hayes nomination for best musical. In addition to THE FANTASTICKS, Jones and Schmidt wrote nine other shows, including the 110 IN THE SHADE, I DO!, I DO, and CELEBRATION. Another new Jones musical, TEMPESTA, loosely based on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST, focuses on the magician's need to release himself from the hatred and anger that consumes him. Jones is also working on a book of essays, "Trying to Remember," a "collage of memories" about life in the theatre and his wife and sons, who are 22 and 25. He has finished a children's book, "The Boy Who Had Everything," and is an unusually long picture book, which is aimed at older children. The playwright is also working on a montage for this year's Inge Festival about time and aging and death, which includes a "lovely song" on embalming. Jones had a wonderful rapport with the audiences at the Inge Festival last year. "I felt a real sense of connection with the people," he recalled. "I'm from a similar small town in the southwest ... I found the people had a terrific sense of humor."
James Leaming James Leaming is pleased to be here at The Inge Festival for his second time. Last seen as Anatole/ Uncle Tom in JEEVES IN BLOOM (First Folio, Chicago) and everybody in the one-man show THIS WONDERFUL LIFE (Syracuse Stage, NY- 2009/ Asolo Rep, FL- 2008/ Cleveland Playhouse- 2010) and IS HE DEAD and WAIT UNTIL DARK (Peninsula Players, WI). Chicago: Steppenwolf, Northlight, Victory Gardens, Goodman, Fox Theatricals and Canamac Productions as Jake in BOTANIC GARDEN with his wife Carmen Roman, directed by Olympia Dukakis. He is a founding member of American Blues Theater (1985). Training: American Conservatory Theatre (San Francisco), Second City (Chicago). Awards: After Dark- Best Actor for THE MAN WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH THE MOON (Running With Scissors), Sarasota Magazine- Best Actor/ Best Show for THIS WONDERFUL LIFE. Film/TV: Prison Break, Early Edition, Running Scared, Code Of Silence and numerous commercials, both on-camera and voice-over.
Deirdre Lovejoy Broadway: SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, GETTING AND SPENDING, THE GATHERING. Off Broadway: Li'l Bit in HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE (Original Production), MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (Helena), MACHINAL (Public Theatre), HENRY IV (Delacourte) directed by Joseph Papp. National Tours: SIX DEGREES. Regional: MACBETH (The Lady), COMEDY OF ERRORS, THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG (Old Globe), HEARTBREAK HOUSE (Huntington), HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Nomination), NOISES OFF (Westport). 5 seasons at new York Stage and film developing new plays. Film: Step Up. Television: 5 seasons as Rhonda Pearlman on HBO's The Wire. The Forgotten, Bones, Medium, Lie to Me, The Closer, Saving Grace, The West Wing, Law & Order, L&O SVU & Criminal Intent, Nip/Tuck, and Eli Stone to name a few. BFA University of Evansville, MFA NYU. www.DeirdreLovejoy.com
Anika Noni Rose most recently performed as the voice of Princess Tiana in the Disney movie The Princess & The Frog which has been nominated for three Oscars, including Best Animated feature and Best song. Anika first appeared on Broadway in FOOTLOOSE. She followed that with Off-Broadway's Laura Nyro retrospective, ELI'S COMIN', for which she garnered an Obie Award. Her next stage project was Tony Kushner's CAROLINE OR CHANGE, which went from The Public Theater, where she earned a Lucille Lortel award for her portrayal of Emmie Thibodeaux, to Broadway, where she received the Tony Award for featured actress in a musical, The Theater World Award, The Clarence Derwent Award, and a Drama Desk nomination. Anika took the play to the west coast where she picked up The Los Angeles Critcs' Circle Award and an Ovation Award. Her next stop was the big screen, playing Lorrell Robinson in Bill Condon's Dreamgirls. The movie received an AFI ensemble award, and was nominated for a SAG award. Anika herself was nominated for an NAACP award. Anika has sung all over the world, including the 79th Annual Academy Awards, and The Vatican. Anika was classically trained at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater.
David Rush has had productions of his plays at Mark Taper Forum, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theater Club, Stage Left, Chicago Dramatists and others. He's had readings and workshops at major festivals including Great Plains, Odyssey, Utah Shakespeare, and Abingdon Theater. He has won or was a finalist in several national playwriting contests including Dayton FutureFest, Fremont Center, Great Plans Theater Festival, Firehouse Theater, Ashland Shakespeare and others. His awards include several Chicago Jeff Awards, a Los Angeles DramaLogue Award, and Dayton FutureFest Best Play and two midwest Emmies. Among his plays and musicals are LEANDER STILLWELL, ONE FINE DAY, CUTTINGS, POLICE DEAF NEAR FAR, GERMINOUS SEEDS, PRAIRIE LIGHTS and recently, WOMEN OF CHOICE, a monologue collection. He is currently working on a musical and a civil war play. He has written two college textbooks on playwriting and play analysis. He currently is Head of Playwriting at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, a member of Chicago's Stage Left Theater, and a past affiliate of Chicago Dramatists.
Alan Safier continues to play to sold-out houses as George Burns in the one-man show, SAY GOODNIGHT GRACIE. His stage career has included portrayals of other celebrities — Spiro Agnew in AN EVENING WITH RICHARD M. NIXON, Truman Capote in the off-Broadway revival of NEW FACES OF 1952, Albert Einstein in the musical THE SMARTEST MAN IN THE WORLD, John Adams in 1776, and Guiteau in the L.A. premiere of Sondheim's ASSASSINS. Other recent stage credits: Michael in Mart Crowley's THE MEN FROM THE BOYS, Buddy in CITY OF ANGELS, Lou in THE SPEED OF DARKNESS, Versati in Steve Martin's THE UNDERPANTS, and Jess Sr. in Inge's THE DISPOSAL. Festival attendees will remember him from tributes to Jones & Schmidt, Chris Durang, Bock & Harnick, Arthur Laurents, and Romulus Linney. Alan has done hundreds of voiceovers (notably as the Kibbles 'n' Bits dog), and has guest-starred on dozens of TV series, most recently on The Wizards of Waverly Place. http://alansafier.com
Steven Sapp is a Founding member of the Bronx based ensemble, UNIVERSES. Playwright and acting credits include: AMERIVILLE, THE DENVER PROJECT (Curious Theatre Company, Denver CO ), ONE SHOT IN LOTUS POSITION (The War Anthology-Curious Theatre Company, Denver CO ), BLUE SUITE, RHYTHMICITY (Humana Festival), and SLANGUAGE (NY Theater Workshop). Direction credits include: THE RIDE, THE ARCHITECTURE OF LOSS (Assistant Director to Chay Yew); Will Powers' THE SEVEN; Alfred Jarry's UBU: ENCHAINED ( Teatre Polski , Poland ). Awards and Affiliations: 2008 Jazz@Lincoln Center Rhythm Road Tour, TCG Peter Zeisler Award (2008), TCG National Directors Award (2002), TCG National Theater Artist Residency Program Award (2002-2004 and 1999-2001), BRIO Awards (1998 and 2002), and the Van Lier Fel- lowship w/ New Dramatists. He is a co-Founder of The Point, and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Steven received a B.A. from BARD College in 1989. Publications: UNIVERSES- THE BIG BANG (Fall 2010 release, TCG Books), and SLANGUAGE in The Fire This Time (TCG).
Stacey Sargeant was last seen in the Yale Rep debut of ECLIPSED in the role of Helena, which she performed in the McCarter Theatre workshop. Other theater credits include LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL (1st National Tour); Passing Strange, TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (The Public Theater); THE EXONERATED (Off-Broadway); DAMN YANKEES, PURLIE (City Center Encores!); George C. Wolfe's HARLEM SONG (Harlem's Apollo Theater); LITTLE HAM (AUDELCO Award nomination); A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (McCarter Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse); KISS ME, KATE (Paper Mill Playhouse); THE COLOR PURPLE (Alliance Theater); RENT (Weston Playhouse). Her television appearances include Law & Order: SVU and Guiding Light. www.staceysargeant.com
David Savran is a specialist in twentieth and twenty-first century American theatre, popular culture, and social theory. He is the author of eight books, including Breaking the Rules: The Wooster Group; Communists, Cowboys, and Queers: The Politics of Masculinity in the Work of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams; and most recently, Highbrow/Lowdown: Theater, Jazz, and the Making of the New Middle Class. He has published two collections of interviews with playwrights, In Their Own Words and The Playwright's Voice, and has served as a judge for the Obie Awards and the Lucille Lortel Awards. He is the editor of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre and is the Vera Mowry Roberts Distinguished Professor of Theatre at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Jessica Scott Originally from California, Jessica (Wizardry 101, The Magic Forest) graduated from NYU's Gallatin School in 2003 with a concentration in Grassroots Politics and Community Arts. She's gone on to become a professional puppeteer, puppet builder and teaching artist, specializing in Wizardry 101 and The Magic Forest. She's performed with Basil Twist, John Bell, Kevin Augustine, Emily DeCola, in museums, schools, converted loft spaces, theaters and bars. Jessica loves teaching for Circus Minimus because it challenges her to bring a sense of play to everything she does. She loves working with kids because they ask the tough questions like "I know you are but what am I?" and "So what, chicken-butt?"
Anne Fausto Sterling is Professor of Biology and Gender Studies in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University. She is Chair of the Faculty Committee on Science & Technology Studies. She has served on the Brown faculty for more than 30 years. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she has received grants and fellowships in both the sciences and the humanities. Author of scientific publications in developmental genetics and developmental ecology, Pr. Fausto-Sterling has achieved recognition for works that challenge entrenched scientific beliefs while engaging with the general public. Her new work applies dynamic systems theory to the study of human development. Dynamic systems theory permits us to understand how cultural difference becomes bodily difference. Professor Fausto-Sterling's current case studies in this area examine sex differences in bone development and the emergence of gender differences in behavior in early childhood and the emergence of human sexuality.
Dan Sullivan directs the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Critics Institute and teaches journalism at the University of Minnesota. He was chief theater critic for the Los Angeles Times for twenty years, and has also reviewed for the New York Times and the Minneapolis Tribune. He was a writer-in-residence at Independence Community College in 1989 while researching the life of William Inge. He is married to Faith Sullivan, author of "Gardenias," "The Cape Ann" and other fine novels.
Paula Vogel's play, HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE, received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Lortel Prize, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Awards for Best Play, as well as winning her second OBIE.
It has been produced all over the world. Other plays include THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME, THE MINEOLA TWINS, THE BALTIMORE WALTZ, HOT'N'THROBBING, Desdemona, AND BABY MAKES SEVEN, and THE OLDEST PROFESSION. In 2004-5 she was the playwright in residence at The Signature Theatre in New York which produced three of her works. Her new play A CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS was produced at The Long Wharf Theatre in November 2008, directed by Tina Landau. This past season it was produced at Theatre Works in Palo Alto, CA and by the Huntington Theatre in Boston.
She is currently playwright in residence at the Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as an artistic associate at Long Wharf Theatre. Work in progress includes a commission for Yale Repertory (THE ANATOMY OF MAN), a work in collaboration with Stephen Flaherty, choreographer Chris Gatelli and producer Jennifer Manocherian, and a new play, JITTERBUGGING AND THE WAR EFFORT.
Theatre Communications Group has published three books of her work, THE MAMMARY PLAYS, THE BALTIMORE WALTZ AND OTHER PLAYS and THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME. A CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS will be published in Fall 2010.
Most recent awards include the 2010 William Inge Theatre Festival Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre Award (past recipients include Arthur Miller, Horton Foote, Edward Albee, and August Wilson). She will be inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center in April. Last spring, she was awarded the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theatre for lifetime achievement and excellence in teaching. She is most honored to have two awards to emerging playwrights named after her: the Paula Vogel Award, created by the American College Theatre Festival in 2003, and the Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting is given annually by the Vineyard Theatre, since 2007: its first recipient was Yale School of Drama alum Terrell McCraney.
Ms. Vogel won the 2004 Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the OBIE for Best Play in 1992, the Rhode Island Pell Award in the Arts, the Hull-Warriner Award, The Laura Pels Award, the Pew Charitable Trust Senior Award, a Guggenheim, an AT&T New Plays Award, the Fund for New American Plays, the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center Fellowship, several National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the McKnight Fellowship, the Bunting Fellowship, and the Governor's Award for the Arts. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was recently awarded a Thirtini, a most coveted award, from 13P in New York.
Paula Vogel is the Eugene O’Neill Chair of Playwriting and Chair of the Playwriting Department at the Yale School of Drama.
Ralph Voss A native Kansan, Ralph is a Professor of English at the University of Alabama, where he specializes in American Drama and Rhetoric. Voss is author of the William Inge biography, A Life of William Inge and several books and articles on American Drama and the craft of writing. Voss holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Ft. Hays State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published biographical and critical articles about Inge and Tennessee Williams in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Dictionary of American Biography, Kansas Quarterly, and Library Chronicle. He also publishes in the field of rhetoric and composition.
Jeremy Webb played The Third Man in The Signature Theatre's revival of Paula Vogel's THE BALTIMORE WALTZ directed by Mark Brokaw. Other NY credits include Ahrens & Flaherty's new musical THE GLORIOUS ONES at Lincoln Center (nominated for 5 2008 Drama Desk Awards), TABLETOP (Drama Desk Award), BFF, SUMMER '69 and 3 O'CLOCK IN BROOKLYN. He played The Schoolmaster in Kander and Ebb's new musical THE VISIT directed by Frank Galati for which he was nominated for the 2009 Helen Hayes Award for Best Supporting Actor. Recent projects include Nicholas Martin's production of SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER at the McCarter, Roger De Bris in THE PRODUCERS (nominated for 11 2009 Barrymore Awards) and Jack in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST for Playmakers Repertory. Television appearances include Law and Order, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Law and Order SVU and five years on The Guiding Light. Jeremy is a graduate of the Drama School at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Amanda White recently moved to Minneapolis from New York City, where she was the Coordinator of Planning & Development at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Amanda is currently working on the Design team at Target Corporation, and serving as a freelance theatre development consultant and grant writer. She has had the great pleasure of working with Inge Center Resident playwrights Marcia Cebulska, Anne Phelan, Elaine Romero, Jeremy Kareken, Adam Kraar, Bryan Davidson, Lisa Dillman, Evan Smith, Mickey Birnbaum, Catherine Filloux, Sheila Callaghan, Dominic Orlando, Sean Lewis and Philip Dawkins, in addition to countless visiting artists. In Minneapolis, she has worked so far with Workhaus Collective, Mechanical Division, Walking Shadow Theatre Company and Yellow Tree Theatre. She is a proud member of Actors' Equity, and a graduate of Columbia University's Program in Arts Administration and the School at Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Elizabeth Wilson studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Her Broadway debut was in PICNIC in 1952. Since then she has appeared on Broadway in WAITING IN THE WINGS; A DELICATE BALANCE and AH, WILDERNESS; among others. She won a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actress in MORNINGS AT SEVEN, and a Tony Award for her performance in the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of STICKS AND BONES. She won Obie Awards for TAKEN IN MARRIAGE and ANTIROOM and was given the Drama Desk Award for SOLONIKA. She has various film and television credits as well including: The Graduate; The Addams Family; Grace Quigley with Katherine Hepburn; and Child is Waiting with Judy Garland. She was recently inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.
Chay Yew's directing credits include – New York: DURANGO and LOW (Public Theater); THE ARCHITECTURE OF LOSS (New York Theatre Workshop); THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA (National Asian American Theatre Company); LAST OF THE SUNS (Ma Yi Theatre Company). Regional Theatre: Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre, Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, Huntington Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cornerstone Theatre Company, East West Players, Northlight Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Gala Hispanic Theatre, Empty Space, etc. International Theatre: Singapore Repertory Theatre. Opera credits: World premieres of Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang's AINADAMAR (co-production with Tanglewood Music Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Los Angeles Philharmonic) and Rob Zuidam's RAGE D'AMORS (Tanglewood). He is the recipient of the OBIE Award and Dramalogue Award for Direction. An alumnus of New Dramatists, he also serves on the Executive Board on the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.