Download Playwrights in Mind A National Conversation

Dramatists Guild
of America
Playwrights
in Mind
A National
Conversation
The Dramatists Guild of America’s
First National Conference
June 9-12, 2011
HOSTED BY: THEATER OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT
AT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
SPECIAL GuILd OFFERS
world premiere
A
TIME
TO
KILL
adapted for the stage by rupert holmes
based on the book by John grisham
by special arrangement with daryl roth
directed by ethan mcsweeny
Friday, June 10 at 8:00 p.m.
Photo of Sebastian Arcelus and Dion Graham by Scott Suchman.
John Grisham’s stunning first
novel comes to the stage in this
world premiere, pre-Broadway
adaptation by Tony Award
winner Rupert Holmes.
CALL 202-488-4380 (10 a.m.-6 p.m., mOnday-Friday)
TO GET 30% OFF TICKETS
E-MAIL [email protected] to RSVP for a FREE private tour of Arena
Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater at 7 P.M., FRIdAY, JuNE 10.
Advance reservations only. This offer will not be valid at the box office
the day of the performance. This offer is limited so book early!
www.arenastage.org
ADgroups DramatistsRnd2 .indd 1
5/19/11 12:34:10 PM
Welcome
Welcome to the first national conference of the
Dramatists Guild of America. We’re so glad
you’ve joined us in Fairfax for what promises to
be an extraordinary weekend of programming,
conversation and fellowship among the
dramatists of our hundred-year old organization.
While we’ve made great gains in unifying our
membership and protecting the rights of all
dramatists, this conference -- and the exchange of thoughts and ideas
-- takes us one step closer in assuring that as a national organization,
we continue to nurture, educate, support and protect our members in
ways that will encourage their longevity in the theatre.
To our hosts at George Mason University and Theater for the First
Amendment, we extend our warmest gratitude for your care and
generosity. A sincere thank you to all of our panelists, Council
members, staff and fellow artists who will share their wisdom and
experiences with you across this weekend. And finally, thank you,
the 6200 members of the Dramatists Guild, for allowing us to guide
and advise you so you can continue to practice your art and share
your stories.
Stephen Schwartz
President,
The Dramatists Guild Council
Welcome
We’d like to welcome you to the first national conference
of the Dramatists Guild of America. A lot has changed for
our members over the last several years, but perhaps no
development has been more significant than our members’
shared desire to come together as a group in order to exchange
ideas, wisdom, experiences and triumphs with like-minded
artists trying to create theatre in America. Whether we meet
informally in pubs, or at local town hall meetings, or through
our magazine, The Dramatist, or even here, at this conference,
we know our strength as a Guild has always been in unifying
and empowering our members.
Our hope for this conference, and the workshops, seminars,
lectures and conversations of which it is comprised, is that
you’ll emerge from it with a greater understanding about
your art, your craft, your career, the business and legal issues
at play for dramatists and the intricate relationships formed
when artists collaborate to produce a new play or musical. To
that end, we hope you’ll engage each other, share your stories and plan your next steps
forward. And, most importantly, we hope you will share with us your ideas on how the
Guild can best help you to do so.
While we create our art in isolation, we realize our art in collaboration with a variety
of artists, artistic leaders, producers, business people and administrators. Creating a
conference is no less a daunting, collective task. So to our co-hosts, George Mason
University and Theater for the First Amendment, there are no words of gratitude and
appreciation to thank you for making this goal a reality. To the tireless staff of the
Dramatists Guild, thank you for jumping in head first, fearless and eager to make this
happen in all the right ways. And to the Council of the Dramatists Guild, thank you
for your ongoing support in transforming our organization into a truly national one
that protects the rights and advances the interests of dramatists everywhere.
And most importantly, thanks to you, our dedicated and committed members, for
your support, passion and encouragement along the way. You will always have the
distinction of being at the very first national conference of the Dramatists Guild of
America. We’re thrilled you’re joining us.
Ralph Sevush, Esq.
Executive Director,
Business and Legal Affairs
Gary Garrison
Executive Director,
Creative Affairs
Welcome
Welcome to this amazing gathering, and welcome to our
home at George Mason University. Theater of the First
Amendment is the professional theater-in-residence at
Mason. As such, we are part of many things- the Great
Performances series of the Center for the Arts, the world
of academia through Theater at Mason, and the vibrant
community of professional theater companies that populate
the Washington Metropolitan region.
Our mission is to discover, develop and launch new, thought-provoking plays,
and serve as an artistic home to the next generation of playwrights. We strive
to become a nationally-recognized theater company, incubator for new play
development, and launch pad for new works onto the national stage and into the
American lexicon.
We hope during your stay you will be challenged, intrigued, curious, comforted,
and maybe even learn a thing or two. We also hope you will get a chance to
see readings of new work that are part of the conference schedule, or gather
spontaneously to share your own work with others.
We are proud to be one of only a few professional theater companies operating
in Fairfax, Virginia. TFA brings to the stage the best artists from the Washington
Metropolitan region and beyond. Since 1990, TFA has produced 44 full
productions, and numerous staged readings of new work through our annual
First Light Discovery Program. Our productions have won 12 Helen Hayes
Awards (DC’s equivalent of the Tony Awards) out of 37 nominations. Many plays
originating at TFA have been published, produced nationally and internationally,
televised and broadcast, or recorded as award-winning original soundtrack CDs.
We are glad you’re here. Have great conversations.
Paul, Heather, Rick & Kevin
Keynote Speakers
Molly Smith
Over the past 12 seasons, Molly Smith has been instrumental in
leading the re-invention of Arena Stage. From the programming
for the architecture to envisioning the new 200-seat Kogod Cradle,
Smith has focused her creative life on building the new Mead
Center for American Theater. This re-invention has been part of a
major artistic change as well: becoming a center for the production,
presentation, development and study of American theater, and
moving Arena Stage into the 21st Century.
Ms. Smith has been a passionate leader in new play development for the past 30 years
while at Arena Stage as well as at Perseverance Theatre in Alaska, the theater she founded
and led for 19 years. She has commissioned or championed numerous world premieres,
including Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned to Drive and Mineola
Twins; Tim Acito’s The Women of Brewster Place; Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations;
Charles Randolph-Wright’s Blue; Zora Neale Hurston’s lost American play, Polk County;
Karen Zacarías’ Legacy of Light; and Passion Play, a cycle by Sarah Ruhl; some of which
she has directed. She founded Arena’s downstairs series, which has read or workshopped
some 60 plays, half of which have gone on to full productions. In 2009, two shows nurtured
at Arena Stage (33 Variations and Next to Normal) moved to Broadway. Ms. Smith’s
directorial work has also been seen at the Shaw Festival in Canada, Berkeley Repertory
Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, and Centaur Theatre
in Montreal and includes classics such as South Pacific, Mack and Mabel, Anna Christie
and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Smith has served as literary advisor to Sundance Theatre Lab
and formed the Arena Stage Writers Council, composed of leading American playwrights.
An avid traveler, Ms. Smith brings artists of international renown to work at Arena Stage
and has served as a member of the board of the Theatre Communications Group as well
as the Center for International Theatre Development. She directed two feature films,
Raven’s Blood and Making Contact, and received honorary doctorates from both Towson
and American Universities
Keynote Speakers
Todd London was the first recipient of Theatre Communications
Group’s (TCG) Visionary Leadership Award, for “an individual
who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to advance the
theatre field as a whole, nationally and/or internationally.” Todd is
completing his fifteenth season as artistic director of New Dramatists,
where he has worked closely with more than a hundred of America’s
leading playwrights and advocated nationally and internationally
for hundreds more. A former Managing Editor of American Theatre
magazine and the author of The Artistic Home, published by the
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), he has written, edited, and/
or contributed to eleven books. Last fall, Theatre Development Fund (TDF) published
Outrageous Fortune, The Life and Times of the New American Play, a four-year study
of new play production in America, for which Todd served as project director and senior
writer. His particular brand of advocacy journalism has focused on both the lives and
livelihoods of individual artists and on the not-for-profit theatre movement, especially the
impact of institutionalization on the field.
Todd won the prestigious George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for his
essays in American Theatre and a Milestone Award for his first novel, The World’s Room
(Steerforth Press). His new book, An Ideal Theatre: Visions That Built an American Art,
a collection of visions for American theatres in the words of their founders, is due out in
spring of 2012 from TCG. In 2001 he accepted a special Tony® Honor on behalf of New
Dramatists, and in 2005 he represented New Dramatists at the Obie Awards, where the
organization was honored with the Ross Wetzsteon Award for excellence. Todd has taught
at Harvard, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and currently serves on the faculty of Yale
School of Drama. He’s a past Literary Director of the American Repertory Theatre at
Harvard and Associate Artistic Director of CSC. Todd recently finished a six-year term on
the board of (TCG), and currently sits on the board of The John Golden Fund. He has two
sons, Guthrie and Grisha, and lives in Brooklyn with playwright Karen Hartman.
Keynote Speakers
Julia Jordan
Her work has been produced at theaters around the country
including Actors Theater of Louisville, Wellfleet Harbor Actors
Theater, The American Theater in Chicago, Salt Lake Acting
Company, La Jolla Playhouse, The Prince Theater, The Ahmanson
in L.A., Primary Stages, Soho Rep and Studio Dante. She is the
recipient of the Kleban Award, Francesca Primus Prize, Lucille
Lortel Playwriting Fellowship, Manhattan Theater Club Fellowship,
Jonathan Larson Award, Heideman Award and LeComte Nouy
Award. Her work has been developed at The O’Neill Theater Center,
Ojai Playwrights Conference, South Coast Rep, The Intiman Theater, Manhattan Theater
Club, the MacDowell Colony and the Sundance Playwrights Conference. She is Juilliard
playwriting fellow, a Manhattan Theater Club Fellow, a member of New Dramatists, a
Usual Suspect at New York Theater Workshop one of the founders of The Lilly Awards
and sits on the Council of the Dramatists Guild. She currently teaches playwriting at
Barnard College, Columbia University. Plays include Smoking Lesson, Tatjana in Color,
St. Scarlet, Boy, Dark Yellow and Jones. Musical books include Sarah Plain and Tall
and The Mice. Book and lyrics Bernice Bobs Her Hair and the upcoming Murder Ballad,
which will premiere in NYC in 2012.
Conference Schedule
THURSDAY, June 9, 2011
Time
Other
Events
3:00 – 4:00
Registration
4:00 – 4:45
Registration
Improvising
Your Play
Jeffrey Sweet
5:00 – 5:45
Registration
National SongWriter/Bookwriter
Exchange
Roland Tec
The Artist as
C.E.O.
Regional
Rep meeting
David Faux
Elsewhere:
The
Fulbright
and Other
Journeys
Juanita Rockwell
Meet the
Editor
of The
Dramatist
Robert Ross
Parker, Tari
Stratton
A CONVERSATION WITH
Christopher Durang,
6:00 – 7:00
Registration
7:30 – 8:15
KEYNOTE: MOLLY SMITH, Arena Stage
hosted by Jim Price*
8: 30 – 10:00
Meet/Greet DG Regional Reps
Meet/Greet the Staff of TFA
*** All programming is subject to change***
Check conference program for narrative descriptions
*Available
on New
PlayTV
Conference Schedule
FRIDAY, June 10
9:009:45
Registration
10:0010:45
Registration
11:0012:00
Registration
The Haiku
Project
Heather McDonald &
Cathy Norgren
Without An
Agent
David Faux
The Guild
Website
Unblocking
Creative Energy,
Shifting Past
Writers Block
Jane Beard
Roland Tec, with
Andrew Smith
from Commercial
Media
Demystifying
The 10-Minute
Play
Gary Garrison
Dramatists
on the Web
Roland Tec, Tim
Bauer, Andie
Arthur, hosted
by Robert Ross
Parker
12:00
LUNCH
1:00 –
1:45
Registration
KEYNOTE: Todd London – After Outrageous
Fortune*
2:00 –
2:45
Registration
Collaborations in
Musical Theatre:
3:00 –
3:45
Registration
Greg Kotis, Mark
Hollmann, Carol Hall,
Kirsten Childs, hosted
by Kaitlin Hopkins
Theatre
For Young
Audiences
One-on-One with
Todd London,
How to
Survive An
Audience
Talkback*
Legal Aspects of
Authorship in the
Theater
Regional Reps meeting
hosted by Duane Kelly
Michael Bobbitt,
Kim Peter Kovac
Ralph Sevush
Mame Hunt
4:00 –
4:45
Registration
5:00 –
5:45
Final Draft,
Software for
Dramatists
Publishers
Forum,
Synopsis Clinic
A
Conversation
With Doug
Wright,
Roland Tec
hosted by Tari
Stratton
hosted by Faye
A Conversation
with Emily
Mann*,
Fundamentals of
Copyright
Laura Lee Fisher
hosted by Andrea
Stolowitz
A Conversation
with Stephen
Schwartz,
hosted by Larry Dean
Harris
Sholiton
6:00 –
7:00
A Conversation With: Edward Albee and Emily Mann*,
hosted by David Crespy
Dinner break
6:00 Independent Theatre Excursion To Local Washington D.C. Theatre (for those who opt to go)
8:00
Theater of First Amendment
First Light Series –
Can’t Scare Me, The Story of
Mother Jones, by Kaiulani Lee
Meet DG
Staff
*** All programming is subject to change***
Check conference program for narrative descriptions
*Available on New PlayTV
Conference Schedule
SATURDAY, June 11
8:00
Registration
9:009:45
Registration
Self-Production
Primer
9-10 am:
Brass Tacks
The DG
Fund
Presentation
The Write
Brothers:
Software for
Playwrights
Self-Production
Panel
10-11 am:
War Stories
Contracts
101:
Sub-Rights
Myth Adaptation
for Playwrights:
Archetypes and
Inspiration
Self-Production
Primer
11-12 am:
Team Building
Adaptation/
Translation
Identification
Talk
Roland Tec
10:0010:45
Registration
Roland Tec, Kathleen
Warnock, Larry Dean
Harris
11:0012:00
Registration
Roland Tec
Fred Nelson, Tari
Stratton
David Faux and
Ralph Sevush
With Marsha
Norman, Doug
Wright, Carol Hall
Laura Shamas
hosted by Larry Dean
Harris
LUNCH
1:00 –
1:45
Registration
Keynote: JULIA JORDAN – Gender Parity In The
Theatre
2:00 –
2:45
Registration
Crafting
Comedy*
Other
People’s
Property in
Your Play
One-on-One with
Julie Jordan,
plus Sheri Wilner,
Laura Shamas,
Creating the
Web Drama
Series with
Susan Miller,
Writers Who
Teach, Teachers
Who Write
Internet
Piracy and
Issues for
the musical
theatre
writer*
A Conversation
with Marsha
Norman,
Ralph Sevush,
David Faux
3:00 –
3:45
Registration
hosted by Rebecca
Stump
hosted by Julie
Jensen
4:00 –
4:45
Registration
The National
New Play
Network
Jason Loweth,Gregg
Henry
5:00 –
5:45
Dreamwork for
Playwriting
David Crespy
by Guild member, Laura
Jacqmin
Stephen
Schwartz,
Crafting Musical
Theatre*
12:00
David Ives, hosted by
Jim Price
Theater of the First
Amendment, First
Light Series:
Ski Dubai,
Theater of the First
Amendment, First
Light Series:
different words for
the same thing
by Guild member, Kimber Lee
hosted by Kirsten Childs
Craig Carnelia,
Georgia Stitt hosted by Kaitlin
Hopkins
6:00 –
7:00
Roundtable With D.C. Artistic Directors,
7:309:00
A National Conversation with featured guests of the conference*,
hosted by Gregg Henry
hosted by Richard Davis, GMU
*** All programming is subject to change***
Check conference program for narrative descriptions
*Available on New PlayTV
The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. is the
professional association of playwrights, librettists,
lyricists and composers writing for the stage. With over
6,000 members around the world, the Guild is guided by
an elected Council that gives its time and support for the
benefit of dramatists everywhere and, since the Guild’s
inception in 1912, has worked to advance their rights.
Membership is open to all dramatic writers, regardless
of their production history.
The Guild’s history is an illustrious one. Our current president is Stephen
Schwartz, and the Guild has been able to call upon such writers as Robert
Sherwood, Richard Rodgers, Moss Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, Alan Jay Lerner,
Sidney Kingsley, Frank Gilroy, Robert Anderson, Stephen Sondheim, and Peter
Stone to serve as President throughout its history.
From its beginning, the mission of the Guild has been to enhance recognition and
respect for each Dramatist as the owner of his or her own copyright, and as the
creator of the theatrical vision which appears on the stage. Toward that end, the
Guild provides services and institutional advocacy needed by our members, from
seminars on craft to practical business support.
The Guild’s mission includes not only the representation of writers’ interests
which arise directly in connection with theatrical production, but also those
broader concerns which affect the role of theater in society. The Guild addresses
these concerns by:
•
Formulating production contracts;
•
Promoting and protecting through these contracts the interests of
authors in their works, including their rights of property, artistic integrity and
economic compensation, and the conditions under which those works are created
and presented;
•
Speaking out as an organization, and through its individual members,
on issues which affect the role which the dramatic author plays in the theater and
in society in general;
•
Working with other theatrical institutions to educate them to the
primacy of the author in theatrical production;
•
Identifying emerging trends in the theater and responding affirmatively
and actively on an institutional basis to such trends.
The Guild is here to support writers individually and to help them speak with
a common voice to ensure the artistic and economic working conditions they
deserve. For more information about the Guild, please go to our website at www.
dramatistsguild.com.
Special Guests
Edward Albee was born on March 12, 1928, and began writing plays
30 years later. His plays include The Zoo Story (1958), The Death
of Bessie Smith (1959), The Sandbox (1959), The American Dream
(1960), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-62, Tony Award), Tiny
Alice (1964), A Delicate Balance (1966, Pulitzer Prize; 1996, Tony
Award), All Over (1971), Seascape (1974, Pulitzer Prize), Listening
(1975), Counting the Ways (1975), The Lady From Dubuque (197778), The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981), Finding the Sun (1982),
Marriage Play (1986-87), Three Tall Women (1991, Pulitzer Prize),
Fragments (1993), The Play About the Baby (1997), The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (2000,
2002 Tony Award), Occupant (2001), At Home at the Zoo: (ACT 1, Homelife. ACT 2, The
Zoo Story.) (2004), and Me, Myself & I (2008). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild
Council, and President of The Edward F. Albee Foundation. Mr. Albee was awarded the
Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in
1980. In 1996 he received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In
2005, he was awarded a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Craig Carnelia has had four shows produced on Broadway. Working
with composer Marvin Hamlisch, he wrote lyrics for Sweet Smell of
Success, written with John Guare and Imaginary Friends, written
with Nora Ephron. Hamlisch and Carnelia received Drama Desk and
Tony Award nominations for their score for Sweet Smell of Success
and Carnelia received a Drama Desk nomination for his lyrics for
Imaginary Friends. As both composer and lyricist, Craig wrote
the score for Is There Life After High School? and contributed four
songs to Studs Terkel’s Working for which he received his first Tony
nomination. Working enjoyed a major revival this season at the Broadway Playhouse in
Chicago.
Off-Broadway, he wrote the music and lyrics for Three Postcards at Playwrights Horizons.
Three Postcards, written with playwright Craig Lucas, was named one of the year’s 10Best in Time magazine and is included in the Burns-Mantle anthology Best Plays of 19861987 as Best Musical of the Season.
Regional premieres include the musical Actor, Lawyer, Indian Chief at Goodspeed’s
Norma Terris Theatre and a new Studs Terkel musical at Northlight Theatre in Chicago,
The Good War, both written with playwright-director David H. Bell.
Craig has won a number of major songwriting awards, including the Johnny Mercer Award,
the first annual Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theatre Award and the prestigious
Kleban Award for distinguished lyric writing.
Recent highlights include the publication of an “Expanded Edition” of The Craig Carnelia
Special Guests
(continued)
Songbook from Hal Leonard, the premiere of a new compilation of the composer’s work,
Life On Earth at the Laurie Beechman Theater, and a beautiful recording of “Flight”
on Sutton Foster’s debut CD Wish. He is currently writing a book about acting and is
working on a new musical.
Craig has been on the council of the Dramatists Guild for the past 16 years and is married
to Broadway actress, Lisa Brescia.
Kirsten Childs Incumbent - Musical Theater Writer. Winner of
Edward Kleban, Jonathan Larson, Rockefeller and Richard Rodgers
Development Awards, Audelco, Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla and
Richard Rodgers Production Awards, Black Theatre Alliance Award;
Lucille Lortel, NAACP nominations, Drama Desk nominations for
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (produced at
Playwrights Horizons). Funked Up Fairy Tales (Barrington Stage
Company, Sundance White Oak, Sundance at BAM, Manhattan
Theatre Club). The Princess And The Black Eyed Pea (San Diego
Repertory Theater. Miracle Brothers (Vineyard Theatre) – NEA,
Larson grants, Meet The Composer and Kitty Carlisle Hart Musical Theatre awards,
Sundance Ucross. American Songbook series, Lincoln Center. Songwriter, PBS’s new
Electric Company. House Of Flowers – City Center Encores! Wasted – George Street
Playhouse. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (Amazing Grace) – Theatreworks/USA.
Guggenheim Museum – poetry of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon and NEA
chairman/poet Dana Gioia. Music design, Doris to Darlene (Playwrights Horizons).
When You Wish, Disney Cruise Lines. Professor at NYU’s Graduate Musical Theater
Writing Program, Tisch School Of The Arts. TDF Mentor in Wendy Wasserstein’s Open
Doors Program. Dramatists Guild Fund Council.
Christopher Durang has had plays on and off-Broadway including A
History of the American Film (Tony nomination), Sister Mary Ignatius
Explains It All For You (Obie award), Beyond Therapy, Baby with the
Bathwater, The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie award, Dramatists
Guild Hull Warriner Award), Laughing Wild, Betty’s Summer
Vacation (Obie award), Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge,
Miss Witherspoon (2005 Pulitzer finalist), and Adrift in Macao (book/
lyrics Durang, music by Peter Melnick). His latest play Why Torture
is Wrong, and the People Who Love premiered at the Public Theater
in 2009. In recent years, Durang won the Harvard Arts Medal; the Sidney Kingsley
Playwriting Award, and was the 2008 honoree at the William Inge Festival. Durang has
acted in movies (Butcher’s Wife, Housesitter, Mr. North, Secret of My Success) and in
his own plays. With Marsha Norman, he’s been co-chair of the Playwriting Program
at Juilliard since 1994. Presently he is working on a commission play for the McCarter
Theatre. He’s a member of the Dramatists Guild Council. www.christopherdurang.com
Special Guests
(continued)
Carol Hall Composer/Lyricist/Playwright - wrote music and lyrics for
the Tony-winning The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and contributed
songs to Sesame Street, A… My Name Is Alice, and the landmark children’s
classic Free To Be… You and Me. She wrote the off-Broadway musical
To Whom It May Concern, and the score for Max and Ruby, a children’s
musical now in its fourth year national tour. Her work has generated
Grammys, Emmys, Drama Desk and Peabody Awards, as well as the
prestigious Johnny Mercer Award, acknowledging her contribution to
American popular song. She also garnered an ASCAP Most-Performed
Country Song Award for Dolly Parton’s recording of “Hard Candy Christmas.” Her songs
have been performed by Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Chita Rivera, Barbara Cook,
Ann-Margret, Frederica von Stade and Big Bird, among others. Most recently, she wrote
lyrics to Larry Grossman’s music for Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory (book by
Duane Poole), which will have its Southern premiere with the Alabama Shakespeare
Festival in November. She sits on the Dramatists Guild Council and is Vice-president of
the Dramatists Guild Fund.
Mark Hollmann is a musical-theater composer and lyricist who
received the Tony Award, the National Broadway Theatre Award,
and the Obie Award for his score to Urinetown the Musical, which
itself won Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel
Awards for best musical. In addition, Urinetown was selected as one
of the season’s best plays in The Best Plays of 2000-2001: The Otis
Guernsey/Burns Mantle Theatre Yearbook. From its successful run
on Broadway, Urinetown has gone on to hundreds of productions
across the U.S. and throughout the world, including Japan, South
Korea, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the Philippines. The cast album of Urinetown
is available from RCA Victor, and vocal selections from the show have been published by
Hal Leonard. His other musicals as composer/lyricist include Yeast Nation (the triumph of
life), which will be part of this year’s New York International Fringe Festival.
Mark graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Chicago, where
he received the Louis J. Sudler Prize in the Creative and Performing Arts. In 2004, he was
honored by his Illinois high school, Belleville Township East, as one of the first inductees
of its Wall of Fame. He is a member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild of America, and
serves on the advisory board of the Dramatists Guild Fund. In 2010, he was elected to
a three-year term on the Tony Nominating Committee. He lives in Manhattan with his
wife, Jillian, and their sons Oliver and Tucker.
Special Guests
(continued)
David Ives is perhaps best known for his evenings of one-act
comedies called All In The Timing and Time Flies. His full-length
plays include The School For Lies (adapted from Moliere’s The
Misanthrope; The Liar (which is adapted from Corneille’s comedy
and won this year’s Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Best Play Award
in Washington); Venus In Fur; New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of
Baruch de Spinoza, which won the prestigious Hull-Warriner Award;
Is He Dead? (adapted from Mark Twain); Irving Berlin’s White
Christmas; Polish Joke; and Ancient History. David Ives is also the
author of three young-adult novels: Monsieur Eek, Scrib, and Voss,
and he has adapted 30 American musicals for New York City’s beloved Encores! series.
A graduate of Yale School of Drama and a former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting, he
lives in New York City.
Greg Kotis is the author of The Boring-est Poem in the World, Yeast
Nation (Book/Lyrics), The Truth About Santa, Pig Farm, Eat the
Taste, Urinetown (Book/Lyrics, for which he won an Obie Award
and two Tony® Awards), and Jobey and Katherine. His work has
been produced and developed in theaters across the country and
around the world, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, American
Conservatory Theater, American Theater Company, Henry Miller’s
Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Stage and Film,
Perseverance Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Soho Rep,
South Coast Rep, and The Old Globe, among others. Greg is a member
of the Neo-Futurists, the Cardiff Giant Theater Company, ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild,
and is a 2010-11 Lark Play Development Center Playwrights Workshop Fellow. He grew
up in Wellfleet, Massachusetts and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife Ayun Halliday, his
daughter India, and his son Milo.
Emily Mann (McCarter Theatre Center Artistic Director/Resident
Playwright) Multi-award winning Director and Playwright Emily
Mann is in her 21st season as Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre.
Under Ms. Mann’s leadership, McCarter was honored with the 1994
Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater. Directing credits
include this season’s world premiere of Sarah Treem’s The How
and the Why with Mercedes Ruehl and Bess Rous; Nilo Cruz’s
Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics with Jimmy Smits (also
on Broadway); the world premiere of Christopher Durang’s Miss
Witherspoon with Kristine Nielsen (also at Playwrights Horizons offBroadway); Uncle Vanya with Amanda Plummer (also adapted); All Over with Rosemary
Harris and Michael Learned (also off-Broadway at The Roundabout; 2003 Obie Award
for Directing); The Cherry Orchard with Jane Alexander, John Glover, and Avery Brooks
(also adapted); Three Sisters with Frances McDormand, Linda Hunt, and Mary Stuart
Special Guests
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Masterson; A Doll House with Cynthia Nixon; and The Glass Menagerie with Shirley
Knight. Her plays include Execution of Justice (supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship;
winner of Helen Hayes and Joseph Jefferson awards; nominated for Drama Desk, Pulitzer
and Outer Circle awards); Still Life (six Obie Awards); Greensboro (A Requiem); and
Annulla, An Autobiography. Ms. Mann wrote and directed Having Our Say, adapted
from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth (Tony,
Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; winner of NAACP and Joseph Jefferson
awards). For the Having Our Say screenplay Ms. Mann won Peabody and Christopher
Awards) A winner of the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award and the Edward Albee
Last Frontier Directing Award, she is a member of the Dramatists Guild and serves on
its Council. A collection of her plays, Testimonies: Four Plays, has been published by
Theatre Communications Group, Inc. Her latest play, Mrs. Packard, was the recipient of
the 2007 Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award and was published by
TCG in spring 2009. Most recently, Ms. Mann directed her latest adaptation, A Seagull
in the Hamptons, a free adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, with Brian Murray and
Maria Tucci; Mrs. Warren’s Profession, with Suzanne Bertish; and the world premiere of
Edward Albee’s Me, Myself & I (with Tyne Daly and Brian Murray at McCarter Theatre
and with Elizabeth Ashley at Playwrights Horizons in New York).
Susan Miller is an Executive Producer/writer of the award winning
webseries Anyone But Me, now in its third season with over 8 million
views worldwide. She is a Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting and
two time Obie winner for My Left Breast and Nasty Rumors And
Final Remarks. Miller also won the coveted Susan Smith Blackburn
Prize for her play, A Map Of Doubt and Rescue. Her work has been
produced by The Public Theatre, Second Stage, The Mark Taper
Forum, and Naked Angels, among others. A consulting producer/
writer on The L Word and Thirtysomething, Miller was honored
as one of Power Up’s 2009 “Amazing Gay Women In Show Business.” She is also the
creator/writer of Bestsellers, a new webseries sponsored by SFN group. For her work
on Anyone But Me, Miller, along with creative partner Tina Cesa Ward, won the Writers
Guild of America Award for Outstanding Achievement in Writing Original New Media,
the first of its kind ever presented. Her articles have appeared in O, Oprah Magazine, The
Dramatist, American Theatre and the new online theatre journal, HowlRound. She is an
active member of the Dramatist Guild of America and co-runs the prestigious Fellows
Program.
Special Guests
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Marsha Norman Librettist/lyricist: The Color Purple (Broadway,
2005, Tony Award Nominee for book); The Secret Garden
(Broadway, 1991, Tony Award for book); The Red Shoes. Playwright:
‘Night, Mother (Pulitzer Prize, Hull-Warriner Award, Susan Smith
Blackburn Prize), Getting Out (Gassner Medallion and the Newsday
Oppenheimer Award), Third And Oak, The Laundromat, The Pool
Hall, The Holdup, Traveler In The Dark and Sarah and Abraham,
Loving Daniel Boone, Last Dance, Trudy Blue, The Master Butchers
Singing Club. Novelist: The Fortune Teller. Recipient of grants
from the National Endowment, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Recipient of 2011 William Inge
Theater Festival’s Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre Award. Member
Dramatists Guild Steering Committee since 1986.
Jeffrey Sweet Since 1979, Jeffrey has been a constant presence
in Chicago, mostly at his home theatre, the Tony-winning Victory
Gardens (including Porch, The Value of Names, Flyovers, The Action
Against Sol Schumann, Bluff and Court-martial at Fort Devens, all
of which were nominated for or won Jefferson or American Theatre
Critics Association prizes). His plays have been produced on stages
large and small around the country, in New York and around the
world, as well as on TV and radio, featuring such actors as Helen
Hunt, Amy Morton, William Petersen, Nathan Lane, Jack Klugman,
Shelley Berman, Michele Pawk, Richard Kind, Reed Birney, Dan
Lauria, John Astin, Judy Kaye, Jill Eikenberry, Michael Tucker and Hector Elizondo.
Court-martial is scheduled to open in New York at the New Federal Theatre. He co-wrote
two musicals – What About Luv? (with Susan Birkenhead and Howard Marren) and I Sent
a Letter to My Love (with Melissa Manchester). His book on Second City, Something
Wonderful Right Away (a “classic” said the Chicago Tribune) is the starting point of
his solo show, You Only Shoot the Ones You Love (scheduled for the New York Fringe,
directed by Patricia Birch). His book on playwriting, The Dramatist’s Toolkit, is in wide
use as a text and he consults with writers privately and runs workshops for theatres and
colleges. He is on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, is a member of Ensemble Studio
Theatre, and is an alum of New Dramatists. He welcomes correspondence on Facebook.
Stephen Schwartz has contributed music and/or lyrics to Godspell,
Pippin, The Magic Show, The Baker’s Wife, Working (which he
also adapted and directed), Rags, Children of Eden and the current
Broadway hit, Wicked. He collaborated with Leonard Bernstein on
the English texts for Bernstein’s Mass and wrote the title song for
the play and movie Butterflies Are Free. For children, he has written
songs for two musicals, Captian Louie and My Son Pinocchio. For
films, he collaborated with Alan Menken on the songs for Disney’s
Special Guests
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Enchanted as well as the animated features Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre
Dame and wrote the songs for the DreamWorks animated feature The Prince of Egypt. He
has released two CDs of new songs entitled Reluctant Pilgrim and Unchartered Territory.
His first opera, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, premiered with Opera Santa Barbara in the
fall of 2009. A book about his career, Defying Gravity, has recently been released by
Applause Books. Under the auspices of the ASCAP Foundation, he runs musical theatre
workshops in New York and Los Angeles, and is currently the President of the Dramatists’
Guild. Mr. Schwartz has recently been given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and
inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Other awards
include three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, and a
tiny handful of tennis trophies. http://www.stephenschwartz.com.
Georgia Stitt is a composer and a lyricist. Her musicals include
Big Red Sun (NAMT Festival 2010, Harold Arlen Award in 2005
and written with playwright John Jiler); Hello! My Baby (a “newfashioned” musical written with Emmy Award winner Cheri
Steinkellner), The Water (winner of the 2008 ANMT Search for New
Voices in American Musical Theatre and written with collaborators
Jeff Hylton and Tim Werenko); Sing Me A Happy Song (a musical
revue); and Mosaic (commissioned for Off-Broadway in 2010 and
written with Cheri Steinkellner). In spring of 2007 she released her
first album, This Ordinary Thursday: The Songs Of Georgia Stitt, on
the PS Classics label. The recording features stellar performances by such contemporary
theater luminaries as Sara Ramirez, Kelli O’Hara, Faith Prince, Carolee Carmello, Susan
Egan, Tituss Burgess, Keith Byron Kirk, Andrea Burns, Matthew Morrison, Will Chase,
Jenn Colella, Lauren Kennedy and Cheyenne Jackson. With lyricist Marcy Heisler she
wrote and recorded Alphabet City Cycle (PS Classics), a song cycle for soprano and
violin featuring vocalist Kate Baldwin. Her next album is scheduled for release this
fall. Georgia’s non-theatrical compositions include several choral pieces, With Hope
And Virtue, featured on NPR and using text from President Obama’s 2009 inauguration
speech, De Profundis, premiered by the International Orange Chorale in San Francisco,
and Joyful Noise, a setting of Psalm 100 (all published by G. Schirmer), as well as A Better
Resurrection and The Promise of Light, published by Walton Music. Georgia lives in Los
Angeles (and sometimes New York) with her husband, composer/lyricist Jason Robert
Brown, and their two daughters.
Doug Wright
In 2004, Doug Wright was awarded the Pulitzer, the Tony, and the
Drama Desk for his play I Am My Own Wife. In 2006, he received
Tony and Drama Desk nominations for his book for the musical
Grey Gardens. He also authored the book for the stage incarnation of
Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
Special Guests
(continued)
Earlier in his career, Mr. Wright won an Obie Award for Quills, and subsequently adapted
it for the screen. The film was named Best Picture by the National Board of Review and
nominated for three Academy Awards. His screenplay was nominated for a Golden Globe
Award, and received the Paul Selvin Award from the Writer’s Guild of America. Other
film work includes rewrites on major releases at Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox
and The Weinstein Company.
For director Rob Marshall, Doug penned the television special Tony Bennett: An American
Classic, which received seven Emmy Awards.
Directing credits include his own play Unwrap Your Candy at the Vineyard Theater
in New York, Strindberg’s Creditors at the La Jolla Playhouse, voted Best Production
by the San Diego Critics Association, and Kiki and Herb: Pardon Our Appearance in
Washington DC, Philadelphia and London. Acting credits include Little Manhattan,
Two Lovers and Law and Order. Doug serves on the boards of the New York Theater
Workshop and the Dramatists Guild. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors
and Choreographers and the Writer’s Guild of America. He lives in New York with his
husband, singer/songwriter David Clement.
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Jane Beard is a former actor, who now uses a range of energy-based techniques to help people
break through barriers of thought, feeling, imagination, behavior and belief, so they can make
things happen in the world. She’s a regular guest on XM radio, and teaches around the country.
Website: www.InVisibleLight.com.
Michael J. Bobbitt, Producing Artistic Director - Adventure Theatre has directed,
choreographed and performed at many theatres in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area,
including Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre Society, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature
Theatre, Metro Stage, Rorshach Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre
Company, Center Stage, Roundhouse Theatre, The Music Center at Strathmore, The Kennedy
Center, The Helen Hayes Awards and the Washington National Opera. His National and
International credits include the NY Musical Theatre Festival, Mel Tillis 2001, and 1996
Olympics. He studied creative writing and music at Susquehanna University and theatre and
dance at The Washington Ballet, The Dance Theatre of Harlem, The American Musical and
Dramatic Academy and NY University’s Tisch School of the Arts (Cap 21). He is a member
of the Dramatist Guild of America and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. As
a writer, his work has been accepted in the 2006 NYC International Fringe Festival and has
received grants from the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Producer-Writer Initiative,
The Creative Projects Grant from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County,
Maryland State Arts Council and the Puffin Foundation. Michael has taught theatre and
dance at George Washington University, Catholic University, Montgomery College, Howard
University, and the Washington Ballet. Michael was co-chair of Young Non-Profit Network
DC- Executive Director Roundtable, NAACP chair for his son’s school in Montgomery
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County, a Commissioner for the Montgomery County Commission on Children and Youth
and Volunteers for the Bethesda - Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce (Strategic Planning
Task Force and Membership Committee). He is a graduate of Leadership Montgomery (2010).
In 2010, Michael received the County Executive’s Excellence in the Arts and Humanities –
Emerging Leader Award. Michael serves on the Board of Directors for Theatre for Young
Audiences, The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, The DC Arts and
Humanities Education Collaborative, and The League of Washington Theatre, as President.
He lives in Glen Echo, Maryland with his partner and young son.
David Crespy is the Dramatist Guild Field Representative for St. Louis and Kansas City,
Missouri. He is associate professor and founder of the Writing for Performance program for
the University of Missouri Department of Theatre, and serves as the artistic director of its
Missouri Playwrights Workshop. David’s plays have been developed at theatres across the US
including River Union Stage, NJ Dramatists, Playwrights Theatre of NJ, Nebraska Repertory
Theatre, Primary Stages, The Cherry Lane Theatre, The Playwrights Center, HB Playwrights
Foundation, Austin Melodrama, Jewish Repertory Theatre, Stages St. Louis, First Run
Theatre (St. Louis), Creative Theatre Unlimited. David is the former Region V Playwriting
Chair through the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, and has served as
chair of the Playwriting Program for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and
the Playwrights Symposium of the Mid-America Theatre Conference. His book about New
York’s off-off Broadway in the 1960s, The Off-Off Broadway Explosion, was published in
September 2003 through Back Stage Books (Watson-Guptill Publications), with a foreword
by Edward Albee. His plays and essays may be found in Perfect Ten (Gary Garrison, ed.,
Heinemann), Playwriting Master Class (Michael Wright, ed., Heineman), Monologues for Men
by Men (Gary Garrison, Ed., Heinemann), Angels in American Theatre (Robert Schanke, ed.,
Southern Illinois University Press), and The Influence of Tennessee Williams (Philip Kolin,
Ed., McFarland). His new book is He Had to Hock His House: Richard Barr, The Playwrights’
Producer about Broadway producer, Richard Barr, (Robert Schanke, ed., Southern Illinois
University Press, Sept. 2012).
Rick Davis is Co-Artistic Director of Theater of the First Amendment (TFA) and Artistic
Adviser to the Center for the Arts at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, as well as
Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education. Under his leadership, TFA, Mason’s resident
Equity theater, has been nominated for more that thirty Helen Hayes Awards and has won the
award twelve times, including outstanding resident production and outstanding new play.
Prior to coming to Mason in 1991, Rick worked for six seasons at Baltimore’s Center Stage, as
Resident Dramaturg and Associate Artistic Director, and from 1983-85 as Associate Director
and co-founder of the American Ibsen Theater in Pittsburgh. His directing work includes new
plays, classics, and operas for TFA, Center Stage, SummerArts in Flagstaff, the Kennedy
Center, Delaware Theatre Company, Players Theatre Columbus, Lake George Opera, Opera
Idaho, Capital City Opera (at the Kennedy Center), the IN Series (D.C.), Carnegie Mellon’s
professional Showcase of New Plays, and other companies. He is a member of Stage Directors
and Choreographers.
Rick wrote the libretto for the opera Love’s Comedy, with composer Kim D. Sherman. He
and Ms. Sherman also created The Songbird and the Eagle, on commission from the San
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Jose Chamber Orchestra, premiered to critical acclaim in 2006. His co-translations of Ibsen
with Brian Johnston (A Doll House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, John Gabriel Borkman)
have been seen at leading regional theaters such as The Shakespeare Theatre (Washington,
DC), Berkeley Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Center Stage, Alliance Theatre, San Diego
Stage, and at many colleges and universities. He has also translated several plays by Calderón
de la Barca, including The Phantom Lady, The Constant Prince, Life is a Dream, and The
Great Theatre of the World, which have been produced in professional and academic venues
and were recently published by Smith and Kraus as Calderón de la Barca: Four Great Plays
of the Golden Age. He is the co-author of three books, Ibsen: Four Major Plays and Ibsen
in an Hour with Brian Johnston, and Writing About Theatre with Christopher Thaiss. He
has contributed a number of articles and reviews to publications such as American Theatre,
Theater, The Journal of Social History, and Theater Three, and is the author of three entries
in the new Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama and a major article in the Oxford
Encyclopedia of the Modern World.
He has served on multiple occasions as a National Endowment for the Arts panelist for
playwright fellowships and professional theater companies, and was a site visitor for the
Endowment for more than fifteen years, making over fifty visits. He has also done panel
service for the Maryland State Arts Council, the Virginia Commission on the Arts, the MidAtlantic Arts Foundation, PennPAT, and other agencies.
At Mason he teaches directing, dramatic literature, and theater history, as well as courses in
the Master of Arts Management program, and directs both theater and opera. In 1997 he was
honored with Mason’s Teaching Excellence Award and was named the Alumni Association
“Distinguished Faculty Member of the Year” in 2006. He was educated at Lawrence University
(BA) and the Yale School of Drama (MFA, DFA).
David H. Faux is licensed to practice law in New York and New Jersey and focuses on
Intellectual Property, Entertainment, Art, and Business/Commercial Law. He has served as
Director of Business Affairs for the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. since 2007. Prior to
becoming an attorney, Dave spent several years as a music journalist and, later, a publicist in
the Northwest. He also worked as Marketing Director for a 3-D computer animation company,
heading sales and representing graphic artists to potential clients. While living in Oregon, he
was on the Board of Directors for the Community Center for the Performing Arts (a.k.a., the
Woodsmen of the World—or “W.O.W.” Hall) and as an officer of the Lane County Literary
Guild.
In addition to his Juris Doctorate from Brooklyn Law School, he holds a Master of Science
in social sciences from the University of Oregon and a Master of Arts from the University of
California-Santa Barbara. As a Fulbright Scholar, he studied local, creative expressions of
Buddhism in South Korea. His years in the music and fine arts industries as an entrepreneur,
scholar, and international traveler inform his approach to the law, giving him an insight not
achieved by most other lawyers.
Dave has served on a wide range of panels involving subjects from theater financing and
theater contracts to stage-to-screen adaptations and obtaining underlying rights. He has
lectured across the nation on the topic “Author as a CEO.” He has also chaired programs in
boxing law and basics in fine arts and the law.
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While Dave is a member of the Copyright Society of the United States of America, the New
York City Bar Association, the Brooklyn Bar Association, and the New Jersey State Bar
Association, he has been particularly active in the New York State Bar Association (“NYSBA”)
in its Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Section (“EASL”). For EASL, he is the Eleventh
District Representative, representing Queens. He also serves as EASL’s Alternate to House
of Delegates in Albany, NY and is the co-chair for EASL’s Fashion Law Committee. Dave
is a member of the Copyright and Trademark Committee, IP Law Committee, and the Phil
Cowan/BMI Memorial Scholarship Committee. He also sits on the Executive Committee that
represents the business of Entertainment and Arts lawyers for NYSBA.
Gary Garrison is the Executive Director of Creative Affairs for the Dramatist Guild of
America. Prior to his work at the Guild, Garrison filled the posts of Artistic Director, Producer
and full time faculty member in the Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School
of the Arts, where he produced over forty-five festivals of new work, collaborating with
hundreds of playwrights, directors and actors. Garrison’s plays include Game On, The Rubber
Room, The Sweep, Verticals and Horizontals, Storm on Storm, Crater, Old Soles, Cherry Reds,
Gawk, Oh Messiah Me, We Make A Wall, The Big Fat Naked Truth, Scream With Laughter,
Smoothness With Cool, Empty Rooms, Does Anybody Want A Miss Cow Bayou? and When
A Diva Dreams. This work has been featured at the City Theatre of Miami, Boston Theatre
Marathon, Primary Stages, The Directors Company, Manhattan Theatre Source, StageWorks,
Expanded Arts and New York Rep. His recent work as guest artist or master teacher of
playwriting involve such institutions as Sewanee Writer’s Conference, The Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts, The Inkwell and Source Theatre in D.C., Goddard College, The
University of Texas at Austin, Southeast Theatre Conference, Mississippi Theatre Association,
Northwest Theatre Conference, Boston Playwrights and Baltimore Playwrights Festival. He is
the author of the critically acclaimed, The Playwright’s Survival Guide: Keeping the Drama
in Your Work and Out of Your Life, Perfect Ten: Writing and Producing the Ten Minute Play,
A More Perfect Ten. He is the program director for the Summer Playwriting Intensive for the
Kennedy Center, the former National Chair of Playwriting for the Kennedy Center’s American
College Theater Festival and the Founder of The Loop, an on-line community of playwrights.
www.garygarrison.com
Larry Dean Harris is the Guild’s Los Angeles rep and the creator of the off-Broadway
musical Play it Cool set to open this fall. He has co-produced 8 successful group shows and
self-produced 3 award-nominated plays of his own as well as one big smelly flop. He is a cofounder of the LA playwright-managed theatre company Playwrights 6 and a longstanding
board member of Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles.
Gregg Henry produces the annual MFA Playwrights’ Workshop at the Kennedy Center in
association with NNPN. He is artistic director of the Kennedy Center American College
Theater Festival, overseeing all of the organization’s playwriting, performance, directing,
design and dramatic criticism programs, and works with professional theatres to develop
educational partnerships for student participants. Each summer, he produces the Kennedy
Center Playwriting Intensive [led by Gary Garrison.] In addition to his KCACTF responsibilities
he is artistic associate for New Works and Commissions for Kennedy Center Theatre for
Young Audiences. He is the Curator of the annual Page-to-Stage New Play Festival, now in
its tenth year at the Kennedy Center, featuring readings of new work by the theatres in the
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DC and Baltimore Metropolitan Area. He received his MFA in Acting from the University
of Michigan and is formerly the director of theatre and an associate professor at Iowa State
University. He is proud to serve of the Board of Taffety Punk Theatre Company and on the
National Advisory Board of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. He has
directed six commissioned premieres at the Kennedy Center, and has directed for Round
House Theatre, Washington Shakespeare Company, Metro Stage, Theatre Alliance, Catholic
University and Journeymen Theater, and new play workshops for Arena Stage, Centerstage
and Ford’s Theatre.
Kaitlin Hopkins is current Head of the Musical Theatre program at Texas State University;
most recently directing the acclaimed production of Lippa’s The Wild Party, All Shook Up
named #2 in the top 10 Austin Chronicle’s list of Best Theatrical Wonders of 2010. Last year
her production of Bat Boy-The Musical earned three nominations from the Austin Critic Circle
Awards including Best Production for 2009. As an actress, Kaitlin has performed in theatre,
film, television and radio for 25 years. Favorite credits include: Broadway: Noises Off, Anything
Goes, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original cast). Off Broadway: (original cast): Bare: a
pop opera (cast album), The Great American Trailer Park Musical (cast album), Nicky Silver’s
Beautiful Child and Bat Boy-The Musical (cast album) for which she received a Drama Desk
and an Ovation award nomination for her performance as Meredith. Other notable credits: She
Loves Me (The Reprise Series/Ovation nomination), Disney’s On The Record (National Tour/
Ovation nomination/cast album), Dirty Dancing (American Premiere, National Tour), The
Importance of Being Ernest (Robby Award / best actress in a comedy/ with Patrick Demsey),
John Adams’ opera I Was Looking At The Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky directed by Peter
Sellars (International Tour). Kaitlin has recorded numerous award-winning radio plays for LA
Theatre Works, including The Heidi Chronicles, Working (cast album) and Proof with Anne
Heche. She has made over 50 film and television appearances including: Confessions of a
Shopaholic, The Nanny Diaries and three years as Dr Kelsey Harrison on Another World. She
is a member of the Playwright and Directors Workshop at The Actors’ Studio in New York,
currently serves on the board for the William Inge Foundation, and was a co-founder of the
Pasadena Playhouse Outreach Program.
Mame Hunt has been a Dramaturg/Associate Artist with the Sundance Theatre Lab for eleven
years, and she currently teaches at Georgetown University. Broadway: Stew’s Passing Strange
(Tony Award, Best Book of a Musical. Artistic Director, Magic Theatre: Produced world
premieres by Nilo Cruz, (Pulitzer Prize), Marlane Meyer (Peabody Award), Roger Guenveur
Smith (Peabody Award), Jose Rivera, Claire Chafee; regional premieres by Jon Robin Baitz,
Octavio Solis, and Joseph Chaikin; created Young California Writers Project (professional
playwrights in inner-city high schools performed and directed by professional actors and
directors). Dramaturg/Producer/New Play Development: She has worked as a dramaturg and/
or producer with the most remarkable artists in the American theatre, including David Adjmi,
Thomas Babe, Tanya Barfield, Neal Bell, Anne Bogart, Darrah Cloud, Migdalia Cruz, Pamela
Gien (Obie), Philip Kan Gotanda, Julie Hebert, Danny Hoch, Joan Holden, Naomi Iizuka,
Josh Kornbluth, Lisa Kron, Tony Kushner, Quincy Long, Craig Lucas, Donald Margulies,
Heather McDonald, Ellen McLaughlin, Brighde Mullins, Keith Reddin, Jose Rivera, Saïd
Sayrafiezadeh, Sam Shepard, Bartlett Sher, Anna Deavere Smith, Octavio Solis, Erin Cressida
Wilson, Lanford Wilson, Laurence Yep, Shay Youngblood and many others.
Teaching: Colorado College, Cornish College of the Arts, San Francisco State University,
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University of California, Davis, UCLA, University of Washington. Consultant: National
Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, the California Arts Council, National
Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theatre Center, North Carolina Arts Council, Nordic
Theatre Committee. Author: Unquestioned Integrity: The Hill/Thomas Hearings.
Kim Peter Kovac has worked at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington , DC , since 1983 and is presently Producing Director of Kennedy Center Theater
for Young Audiences, which commissions, produces, tours, and presents performances for
young people and families. His work at the Center has included serving as producer of over
fifty new plays, operas and dances for young audiences produced by the Kennedy Center
as well as serving co-founding director of the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices,
which has assisted in the development of 73 new plays from 63 playwrights and 51 US theater
companies in 29 states, and with 5 international companies from 3 other countries. He has
worked as a producer, director, designer, and playwright for theater, opera, and dance, for
organizations including the Kennedy Center , the US State Department International touring
program, the National Archives, Signature Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater, Round House
Theater, and GALA Hispanic Theater. He is has served on the governing board since 2002
and is currently vice president of ASSITEJ, the international association of theaters for young
people and families. From 2004-2008 he was president of Theater for Young Audiences/USA,
the national association of professional theaters for young audiences and the US center of
ASSITEJ. He is also a member of the board of IPAY, International Performing Arts for Youth.
Jason Loewith is Executive Director of the National New Play Network, the country’s alliance
of theaters that champions the production, development and continued life of new plays.
He works closely with the organization’s 26 member theaters to strategize and implement
innovative collaborations in support of new plays, including the Continued Life of New Plays
Fund, which has supported 25 rolling world premieres in the past five years. As a writer
himself, Jason won Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Jeff and After Dark Awards for Best
New Musical for Adding Machine: A Musical, which he co-wrote with composer Joshua
Schmidt. He produced the world premiere at Chicago’s Next Theatre Company in 2007, where
he served as Artistic Director from 2002-2008. That production went on to a six-month run
Off-Broadway in 2008, winning four OBIE Awards for direction, design and performance.
Prior to his work at Next Theatre, Jason served for two years as Artistic Administrator at Court
Theatre, and five years as General Manager of Classic Stage Company Off-Broadway. Since
arriving in DC in 2009, he has directed at Studio Theatre and Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE,
and will be directing Janece Shaffer’s new play Broke at the Alliance this fall.
Heather McDonald - playwright, Director, Librettist, Teacher. Her plays include An Almost
Holy Picture, When Grace Comes In, Dream of a Common Language, Available Light, The
Rivers and Ravines, Faulkner’s Bicycle and Rain and Darkness and have been produced
on Broadway and Off and at such regional theatres as Arena Stage, The McCarter Theatre,
Center Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Signature Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre,
The Actors Theatre of Louisville – Humana Festival of New Plays, The La Jolla Playhouse
and internationally in Italy, Spain, Portugal, England and Mexico. She has also written the
libretto for an opera The End of the Affair, adapted from the novel by Graham Greene and
commissioned and premiered at Houston Grand Opera and sold two screenplays Rocket 88
and Walking After Midnight. She has also directed many productions, most recently Stephen
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Adly Guirgis’ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and the premiere of Two-Bit Taj Mahal by
Paul D’Andrea. Her work has been honored with a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize, three
NEA Playwriting Fellowships, The First Prize Kesselring Award and was a finalist for the
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is Professor of Theater at George Mason University and
Co-Artistic Director of Theater of the First Amendment.
Cathy Norgren is a member of United Scenic Artists 829. Her work as a costume designer on
new plays has been seen at the Kennedy Center (Theatre for Young Audiences), the Cleveland
Playhouse, and Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival (Hazard County by Allison
Moore and The Shaker Chair by Adam Bock 2005; & The Scene by Theresa Rebek and Six
Years by Sharr White 2006). Cathy has also designed costumes for a few dead playwrights at the former Studio Arena Theatre, Buffalo; Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Virginia Stage;
Indiana Repertory Theatre; and North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. She has worked with the
Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) for many years, and in many
different capacities. In one such capacity she instituted, with Gary Garrison, the KCACTF
National Ten-Minute Play Festival. For the past seven years she has been a co-producer, with
Gregg Henry and Gary Garrison, of the Kennedy Center Summer Intensives in Playwriting.
Cathy lives in Buffalo where she teaches in the department of Theatre & Dance at the
University at Buffalo (State University of New York). She was recently appointed Associate
Dean for Faculty Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Juanita Rockwell is a writer and director specializing in the development of new work at such
venues as The Ontological, Mabou Mines/Suite, Culture Project, Blue Heron, Bushwick Starr
(NYC); Theatre of the First Amendment, Source, DCAC, Everyman, Theatre Project, Iron
Crow, Single Carrot (DC/Balto); Wadsworth Atheneum (Hartford); City Theatre (P’burgh);
Gas & Electric Arts (Phila); Teatro Municipal (São Paolo, BR); Teatro Abya Yala (San José,
CR); RS9 (Budapest); and on NPR.
Produced writing includes Between Trains, What’s a Little Death (plays w/songs); The World
is Round, Waterwalk (operas); Cave in the Sky (puppets/multimedia); Lunar Pantoum (dancetheatre); Across the Void, Packing/Pecking (short plays); Immortal: The Gilgamesh Variations
(multi-playwright adaptation) and Playing Dead (co-translation w/Yury Urnov from Bros.
Presnyakov). Upcoming productions of her writing include Language Monkey (Source Festival
2011, DC) and an opera with composer Douglas Knehans (2013).
As Artistic Director of Hartford’s Company One Theater for six years, Juanita directed early
premieres by Paula Vogel, Suzan-Lori Parks, Rachel Sheinkin, Erik Ehn and Donna diNovelli,
as well as her own work.
Juanita was Founding Director of Towson University’s experimental Theatre MFA and
directed the program for over a dozen years. She continues to teach at Towson as well as in
Wilkes University’s Creative Writing MA/MFA. She is a Fulbright Scholar, currently serves
as Fulbright Ambassador, and has had artist residencies at Ko Festival of Performance, O’Neill
National Theatre Institute, and the Visual Playwriting Conference (Gallaudet University).
Juanita is a proud member of both the Society of Directors and Choreographers and the
Dramatists Guild.
National Conference Program Bios
Ralph Sevush, Esq., has been an attorney with The Dramatists Guild of America since 1997,
and Executive Director (now, Executive Director/Business Affairs) since June 2005. Earlier, he
was with Cinema 5 films and New Line Cinema in motion picture marketing, distribution, and
script development. After admission to the NY State Bar (Cardozo Law, 1991), he worked with
Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Reiss Media Entertainment, International Media Investors
and Sony Pictures. Then, as Director of Business Affairs for Pachyderm Entertainment, he
worked on the Broadway productions of BIG-the Musical, Fool Moon, God Said, “HA!” and
the off-Broadway & L.A. productions of Blown Sideways Through Life. He also produced his
own Off-Off-Broadway revival of the Jones/Schmidt musical, Philemon.
As a sporadic writer of stuff, he made his first professional sale to Worlds of If magazine in
1983. Since then, in addition to his many articles on the theater industry published by The
Dramatist Magazine, he has authored an award-winning play, Little One, Goodbye, presented
by the Tada! Theater, the Enchanted Players of NJ, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and
the Innovative Stages Company. He was also a member of the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical
Theater Librettists’ Workshop from 1999 -2006. His short story, Emmett, Joey & the Beelz,
was published by Abyss & Apex webzine and named one of the best online fantasy stories of
2006; it was later re-published by Kaleidotrope SF Zine (Oct/2008) and recently licensed to
Audio Dunesteef for podcast presentation in June, 2011.
Laura Shamas, Ph.D., is a writer and mythologist who lives in Los Angeles. She has written
30 plays. In 2011, her play UP2D8 was produced in London in May (Thorablöt Productions)
and will be performed at the end of June/early July in a showcase in New York (Adam Roebuck
Productions). Her plays have been developed and performed at many venues, including The
Public Theater, Native Voices at the Autry, Native Earth Performing Arts (Toronto), Lark
Play Development Center, Williamstown Theater Festival, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Soho
Theater (London), Old Globe, and The Geva Theater. Her plays have been produced by Golden
Thread Productions (at The Magic Theater, San Francisco), Walnut Street Theater, The Glines,
Philadelphia Theater Center, Free Rein Theatre (Australia), and West Coast Ensemble, among
others. With playwright Jennie Webb, Laura co-founded the Los Angeles Female Playwrights
Initiative (lafpi.com). Laura collaborated with playwright Paula Cizmar to create Venus In
Orange, a modern collage performance piece about feminine beauty and love from the female
gaze, which was produced at the Victory Theatre, Los Angeles. She is currently collaborating
with Paula to write Staging Change, a book about activism and theater. Laura also works
as a mythologist, advising on archetypal elements in films and products. She’s taught myth
adaptation at universities (both undergraduate and graduate level) for 16 years. Her new book
Pop Mythology: Collected Essays will be released in Fall 2011. Laura is an enrolled member of
the Chickasaw Nation Website: laurashamas.com.
Roland Tec is a Director, Writer, and Producer of feature films and theatre. He trained as a
composer and has occasionally scored his own films. From 1988-1999, he served as Artistic
Director of Boston’s innovative New Opera Theatre Ensemble, which mounted opera in such
unlikely venues as the Boston Public Library, the Danco Furniture Showroom and the Hayden
Planetarium. Several of Tec’s plays have been produced in New York, including: Bodily
Function (2000 Yukon Gold Award for Excellence in Playwriting) Gratuitous Nudity (cowritten with John Yearley), The Rubber Room (co-written with Gary Garrison) and The Wreck
National Conference Program Bios
Behind Us. Films include: All the Rage, Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, Defiance, which he
co-produced for director Edward Zwick, and We Pedal Uphill. Tec’s latest play, Kennedy
V, exploring Ted Kennedy’s formative years as a Senator (1963-69), was commissioned by
Resonance Ensemble. He’s currently composing the score to Katherine Burger’s gothic musical,
Legends of Batvia. Roland’s work has been commissioned by: Harvard University, Concorde
Ensemble, The Renee B. Fischer Foundation, Performers of Connecticut, Bar Harbor Music
Festival, and the Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation. He has taught or lectured at numerous
institutions including: The United Nations, the 92nd Street Y, the Institute of Contemporary
Art, E.S.P.A., Brandeis University and Harvard. In addition to the Guild, where he serves as
Director of Membership, Roland is a member of SDC, the Producers Guild of America and
is a NYTW Usual Suspect. In 2008, he founded ExtraCriticum.com, an online forum where
performing arts professionals bitch, moan and occasionally dream.
Kathleen Warnock is a member of The Dramatists Guild. She has produced her own work in
the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, and the Turnip Festival (Audience Favorite).
With En Avant Playwrights, she has co-produced her work and others’ in three nights of original
one-acts, and her Grieving for Genevieve at the Midtown International Theatre Festival. She is
playwrights company manager for Emerging Artists Theatre (and co-produced EAT’s entries
in the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival), and curator of the Robert Chesley/Jane
Chambers Playwrights Project for TOSOS, and co-produced two plays for TOSOS in the New
York Fringe/Fringe Extensions. She curates the reading series Drunken! Careening! Writers!
at KGB Bar the third Thursday of every month (since 2004).
DG Officers
Stephen Schwartz
President
Peter Parnell
Vice President
Doug Wright
Secretary
Theresa Rebeck
Treasurer
DG Staff
Ralph Sevush
Advisor to Council,
Executive Director of
Business Affairs
David Faux
Director of Business Affairs
Robert Ross Parker
Director of Publications
Rebecca Stump
Membership Assistant
Gary Garrison
Executive Director of
Creative Affairs
Holly Kinney
Director of Finance
Roland Tec
Director of Membership
Tari Stratton
Director of E&O
Amy VonVett
Executive Assistant
Patrick Shearer
Receptionist/Office Manager
Andrea Lepcio
Fellows Program Director
DG Council
Lee Adams
Lynn Ahrens
Edward Albee
David Auburn
Tanya Barfield
Susan Birkenhead
Craig Carnelia
Kirsten Childs
Kia Corthron
Gretchen Cryer
Christopher Durang
Jules Feiffer
William Finn
Stephen Flaherty
Maria Irene Fornes
Marcus Gardley
Rebecca Gilman
Frank D. Gilroy
Micki Grant
John Guare
Carol Hall
Sheldon Harnick
Tina Howe
Quiara Alegria Hudes
David Henry Hwang
David Ives
Julia Jordan
John Kander
Arthur Kopit
Michael Korie
Lisa Kron
Tony Kushner
James Lapine
Warren Leight
David Lindsay-Abaire
Andrew Lippa
Emily Mann
Donald Margulies
Terrence McNally
Thomas Meehan
Alan Menken
Marsha Norman
Lynn Nottage
Peter Parnell
Austin Pendleton
Theresa Rebeck
Jonathan Reynolds
Mary Rodgers
Stephen Schwartz
John Patrick Shanley
David Shire
Stephen Sondheim
Jeffrey Sweet
Jeanine Tesori
Alfred Uhry
John Weidman
Michael Weller
George C. Wolfe
Charlayne Woodard
Doug Wright
Maury Yeston
DG Conference Staff
Andrew Altenburg
Seth Cotterman
Charlene Donaghy
Mark Krause
Joey Stocks
DG Fund
Gretchen Cryer
President
Carol Hall
Vice President
Tina Howe
Secretary
Susan Laubach
Treasurer
Fred Nelson
Executive Director
TFA Staff
Paul D’Andrea
Founding Director
Heather McDonald
Co-Artistic Director
Rick Davis
Co-Artistic Director
Kevin Murray
Managing Director
Kristin Johnsen-Neshati
Dramaturg
TFA Board
Charles Duggan, Chair
Daniel C. Beck
Joan W. Cross
Rick Davis
Marc Diaz
Linda S. Evans
Julie Anne Green
Michelle Haley
Susan C. Lavrakas
Mary Lechter
Eileen Mandell
Cherie Melat
Sally Merten
Diane Naughton
Joanna Ormesher
Marc Wishkoff
Ex officio
Eileen Duggan
Ken Elston
DG Regional Reps
Guillermo Reyes
Arizona
Diana M. Howie
Houston
Steve Patterson
Portland, OR
Pamela A. Turner
Atlanta-Metro
David A. Crespy
Kansas City/St. Louis
Andrea Stolowitz
Portland, OR
James Price
Austin/San Antonio
Herman D. Farrell
Kentucky
Tim Bauer
San Francisco Bay Area
Hortense F. Gerardo
Boston-Metro
Janet T. Pound
Michigan
Duane Kelly
Seattle
Douglas Post
Chicagoland
Richard P. Klein
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Larry D. Harris
Southern California
Rich Amada
D.C/Baltimore
Faye Sholiton
Ohio
Julie Jensen
Utah
Rich Espey
D.C/Baltimore
Thomas Tirney
Philadelphia
Andie Arthur
Florida
Tammy L. Ryan
Pittsburgh
Mason Inn Conference Center
Lobby
Prefunction Space
Meeting Room 1
Grand
Ballroom
Meeting Room 2
Meeting Room 3
Junior
Ballroom
Meeting Room 4
101
102
103
104
105
Meeting Room 5
Conference Rooms
Thursday
4PM – 5:45PM
[workshop] Improvising Your Play (Jeffrey Sweet)
Scripts don’t have to begin at a keyboard. Drawing on techniques that are the basis of such
improvisationally-based companies as Second City and The Groundlings, Jeffrey Sweet
introduces tools that can be used to generate new ideas or sharpen existing scenes. Attendees will
have the option of participating in exercises.
Center for the Arts; TheaterSpace
4PM – 5:45PM
[workshop] National Songwriter/Bookwriter Exchange (Roland Tec)
At the Exchange, playwrights and composers who are interested in musical theatre collaboration
will have an opportunity to briefly introduce themselves to the room before an informal mingling
session. Over the years, these Exchanges have resulted in many fruitful collaborative teams of
writers creating new musicals of all shapes and sizes. *Note: This event is closed. Participants
were chosen and notified in May.
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
4PM – 4:45PM
[talk] The Artist as C.E.O. (David Faux)
Learn to maintain and protect your intellectual property portfolio through properly structured
licensing agreements.
Center for the Arts; de Laski Performing Arts Building, room 3009 3rd Floor
5PM – 5:45PM
[talk] Elsewhere: The Fulbright and Other Journeys (Juanita Rockwell)
Nothing puts the strange and familiar into keener conversation than traveling elsewhere. Pico Iyer
said, “It whirls you around, turns you upside down and stands everything you took for granted
on its head.” And what could be more useful for a theatre artist? Fulbright’s increasing support of
artists offers travel opportunities in a time of decreased funding, and this presentation will give
you insight into some of those opportunities with stories from the field.
Center for the Arts; de Laski Performing Arts Building, room 3009 3rd Floor
5PM – 5:45PM
[Q&A] Meet the Editor of the Dramatist (Robert Ross Parker & Tari Stratton)
Center for the Arts; de Laski Performing Arts Building, room 3011 3rd Floor
6PM – 7PM
A Conversation With: Christopher Durang (Hosted by: SW Texas Regional Rep, Jim Price)
Center for the Arts; Concert Hall
7:30PM – 8:15PM
Keynote Address: Molly Smith
Center for the Arts; Concert Hall
Friday
9AM – 10:45AM
[workshop] The Haiku Project (Heather McDonald & Cathy Norgren)
Explore metaphor and irony; discover visual paths that unblock your thinking; jumpstart a
“stuck” play or begin a new one; negotiate writing-difficulties with a scene or character; or simply
investigate a different way to approach your writing and expand your style. Playwright Heather
McDonald and costume designer Cathy Norgren investigate strategies that use conflicting images
to inspire cohesive stories. The Haiku Project has been presented at the Kennedy Center Summer
Intensives in Playwriting since 2004.
Center for the Arts; TheaterSpace
9AM – 9:45AM
[talk] Without an Agent (David Faux)
Most dramatists are on their own when it comes to negotiating with producers. Some of those
producers have all the leverage in the relationship; others have not the first clue what they are
doing. Before you get to the point of needing or attracting an agent, you must know how to
negotiate your own agreements, to build a history of good productions for your work.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
9AM – NOON
[workshop] Unblocking Creative Energy, Shifting Past Writer’s Block (Jane Beard)
The good stuff comes out of your imagination and your subconscious mind. (That’s where the
blocks originate, too.) This session will teach you a powerful, energy-based technique to clear
away the cobwebs and lower the hurdles most writers experience somewhere along the way. You
don’t have to feel blocked now to benefit, either. Come boost your freedom to create.
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
10AM – 10:45AM
[lecture/demonstration] The Guild Website (Roland Tec & Andrew Smith)
One of the most exciting features of the new Guild website will be the Member Profiles, available
only to those at the “Member” level. Watch a step-by-step guided tour of how to edit your
profile on screen in real time as Roland Tec, Guild Director of Membership, attempts to stump
technological wizard and co-creator of the site, Andrew Smith of Commercial Media.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
11AM – NOON
[talk] Demystifying the 10-Minute Play (Gary Garrison)
Writing the 10-minute play is no longer a flight of artistic fancy; it’s almost become a necessity
for any playwright in this country seeking production. Gary Garrison, Executive Director of
Creative Affairs, will lead this discussion on what makes a successful 10-minute play, and how
best to market those plays when you’ve finished the first draft.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 5
11AM – NOON
[panel discussion] Dramatists on the Web (Panelists: Andie Arthur, Tim Bauer, Roland Tec.
Moderator: Robert Ross Parker)
Blogging seems to have exploded over the past decade and playwrights are up front and center.
Hear from three dramatists with three very different takes on the uses and misuses of blogs.
Three dramatists will share their experiences with three distinct blogs: Andie Arthur on Towards
a Holy Theatre, Tim Bauer on Direct Address and Roland Tec on Extra Criticum.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
Friday
1PM – 1:45PM
Keynote Address: Todd London
Center for the Arts; Concert Hall
2PM – 3:45PM
[panel discussion] Collaborations in Musical Theatre (Panelists: Greg Kotis, Mark Hollmann,
Carol Hall, Kirsten Childs. Hosted by: Kaitlin Hopkins.)
Some of the country’s most groundbreaking theatre artists will engage in an open discussion of
the complex, challenging and wildly rewarding experience of making new musical theatre, with
an emphasis on the delicate nature of collaboration among bookwriter, lyricist and composer.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 2
2PM – 2:45PM
[duologue] Theatre for Young Audiences (Panelists: Michael Bobbitt, Kim Peter Kovac)
Ever thought about writing a children’s play or musical? Do you have kids? Do you like
working with kids? Join us for a discussion on trends that are affecting this vast, ever-growing
and lucrative genre. Learn about numbers of productions, securing commissions, and adapting
popular books from Kim Peter Kovac, Producing Director (Kennedy Center Theater for Young
Audiences) and Michael J. Bobbitt, Producing Artistic Director (Adventure Theatre) and member
of The Dramatists Guild. Both are board members for Theatre for Young Audiences - USA.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
2PM – 2:45PM
Post-Talk Q&A with Todd London (Hosted by: Duane Kelly, Seattle Regional Rep)
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
3PM – 3:45PM
[workshop] How To Survive an Audience Talkback (And Even Find Ways To Make the Most of
It!) (Mame Hunt)
An audience talkback for your new play can be a harrowing experience, but it doesn’t have to be.
Here are some essential pointers about how to navigate the talkback so you not only survive them,
but thrive on them.
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
3PM – 3:45PM
[talk] Legal Aspects of Authorship in the Theatre (Ralph Sevush)
A discussion of the evolving role and definition of the “author” in theatrical production, where
dramaturgs and directors are claiming copyright ownership, producers are “conceivers” and
underlying rights owners are producers and co-authors. Is there a copyright in “direction”?
Has Hollywood adapted to Broadway, or have they brought Broadway to Hollywood? How do
authorial collaborators collaborate with each other and with their non-authorial colleagues?
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
Friday
4PM – 4:45PM
[lecture/demonstration] Final Draft Software for Dramatists (Joe Mefford of Final Draft)
Final Draft is the number-one selling application specifically designed for writing movie scripts,
television episodics, and stageplays. It combines powerful word processing with professional
script formatting in one self-contained, easy-to-use package. This step-by-step demonstration will
take dramatists through the fundamentals of using Final Draft to properly format both plays and
musicals.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
4PM – 4:45PM
[panel discussion] Publisher’s Forum (With representatives from: Samuel French, Music Theatre
International & Focus Publishing. Moderator: Tari Stratton)
A variety of publishers of both musical and dramatic works will meet to discuss current trends in
publishing, licensing issues and other aspects of the theatrical publishing landscape.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 2
4PM – 4:45PM
A Conversation With: Emily Mann (Hosted by: Andrea Stolowitz, Portland Regional Rep)
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
4PM – 4:45PM
[Q&A] Fundamentals of Copyright (Laura Lee Fisher)
Laura Lee Fisher, Assistant Chief, Performing Arts Dept. of the Dept. of Copyright, will
give a simple presentation on how to register plays, revisions to plays, and musicals. A short
demonstration of the online registration process (page-by-page) will be followed by an open Q&A
with questions from the audience.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 5
5PM – 5:45PM
[workshop] Synopsis Clinic (Roland Tec)
Inspired by the popular Art of the Synopsis panel, the clinic is a smaller and more interactive
exploration of the same question: How does one best describe one’s work? Bring your oneparagraph synopsis to the group and receive vital feedback from colleagues as to what captures
people’s attention and spurs the imagination. This hands-on workshop will encourage deeper
exploration of the difficult task of marketing one’s own scripts to the world. *Note: All are
welcome but only those synopses submitted prior to the conference will be discussed.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
5PM – 5:45PM
A Conversation With: Doug Wright (Hosted by: Faye Sholiton, Ohio Regional Rep)
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 2
5PM – 5:45PM
A Conversation With: Stephen Schwartz (Hosted by: Larry Dean Harris, Southern California
Regional Rep)
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
Friday
6PM – 7PM
A Conversation With: Emily Mann & Edward Albee (Hosted by: David Crespy, Missouri
Regional Rep)
Center for the Arts; Concert Hall
8PM-10PM
[reading] Can’t Scare Me, the story of Mother Jones, by Kaiulani Lee
Old in a world fixated on youth. Poor in a society that revered wealth. Known as the most
dangerous woman in America, her only ammunition her wit and her voice, Mother Jones spoke
to working people of their human rights and dignity. OBIE-Award winning actress Kaiulani Lee
brings Mother Jones to life in an evocation of a century ago time with strikingly contemporary
echoes.
Center for the Arts; TheaterSpace
Saturday
9AM – 9:45AM
[talk] Self-Production Primer: Brass Tacks (Roland Tec)
Does the word budget inspire the fear of God in you? Fear no more. Fundamentals of budgeting
and scheduling will be mapped out in simple easy-to-digest terms by Director of Membership
Roland Tec, drawing on his 20+ years of experience as a producer of independent theatre and
film.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 4
9AM – 9:45AM
[Q&A] The DG Fund (Fred Nelson & Tari Stratton)
In 2012, the Dramatists Guild Fund celebrates 50 years of assisting contemporary American
dramatists. Meet the Fund’s Executive Director, and learn how the Fund can help you.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 3
9AM – 9:45AM
[lecture/demonstration] Write Bros. Software for Dramatists (Chris Huntley)
Learn how to make writing software work best for you in this workshop specially designed for
Dramatists Guild members. The workshop focuses on how to use Movie Magic Screenwriter
for writing stage plays, musicals, and screenplays. Learn the basics of writing in script format,
changing format, adding notes and outlining. The workshop instructor is Chris Huntley, Vice
President of Write Brothers Inc. Participants are encouraged (though by no means required) to
bring a laptop to the workshop.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
10AM – 10:45AM
[panel discussion] Self-Production Panel: War Stories (Larry Dean Harris & Kathleen Warnock.
Moderator: Roland Tec)
Three writer-producers will share specific examples of mistakes they’ve made over the years
and how they learned from them, picked up the pieces and were able to move on to successful
productions. Save yourself a lot of agony. Learn from our mistakes instead of your own!
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 4
Saturday
10AM – 10:45AM
[talk] Contracts 101: Sub-Rights (Ralph Sevush & David Faux)
Ralph Sevush and David Faux will lead a discussion on the what, why, when, where and how
of subsidiary rights, including when it’s appropriate to say “NO”, plus an update on current
developments, including new models with festivals, LORT theaters, directors, and commercial
producers.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 3
10AM – 10:45AM
[workshop] Myth Adaptation for Playwrights: Archetypes and Inspiration (Laura Shamas)
In this two-hour introductory workshop, learn an approach to myth adaptation specifically
designed for playwrights.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
10AM-12PM
[reading] Ski Dubai by Laura Jacqmin
Rachel, a young Environmental Friendliness Consultant, moves from New York to steamy Dubai
to work on a man-made island teeming with skyscrapers and luxury hotels. Trying to uphold
her “green” principles in a hotbed of capitalism, she navigates a stream of quirky displaced
internationals battling loneliness and isolation in a flashy, modern pseudo-city.
Center for the Arts; TheaterSpace
11AM – NOON
[talk] Self-Production Primer: Team Building (Roland Tec)
One of the most important keys to a successful production of your show is in the assembly of
cast and crew. Taking a measured and systematic approach to the important task of hiring (and
sometimes firing) will help inoculate your show against some of the most common pitfalls.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 4
11AM – NOON
[panel discussion] Adaptation/Translation Identification (Marsha Norman, Doug Wright, Carol
Hall. Moderator: Julie Jensen, Utah Regional Rep)
Working with adaptations, translations or stories based on biographic histories has its own maze
of dramaturgical problems to maneuver for any dramatist. Join Marsha Norman (The Color
Purple), Doug Wright (Grey Gardens) and Carol Hall (A Christmas Memory) as they share their
experiences with moderator, Julie Jensen.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Ballroom
11AM – NOON
[Q&A] Crafting Musical Theatre (Stephen Schwartz. Hosted by: Larry Dean Harris, Southern
California Regional Rep)
Stephen Schwartz fields audience questions on the craft and heart of theatrical songwriting with a
piano at his side.
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
1PM – 1:45PM
Keynote Address: Julia Jordan
Center for the Arts; Concert Hall
Saturday
2PM – 3:45PM
[talk] Crafting Comedy (David Ives. Hosted by: Jim Price, SW Texas Regional Rep)
David Ives, author of the comic masterpiece, All In The Timing, as well as many other important
plays (Is He Dead? New Jerusalem, Venus in Fur), a regular adapter in New York’s celebrated
“Encores!” series of classic American musicals in concert and a man named by New York
Magazine as one of the “100 Smartest New Yorkers” shares his views of comedy and comic
writing with SW Texas Regional Rep Jim Price.
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
2PM – 2:45PM
[talk] Other People’s Property in Your Play (Ralph Sevush & David Faux)
David Faux and Ralph Sevush will provide an overview of the issues involving depictions of
real people, and/or inclusion of their copyrighted expression, in an original play or musical. The
discussion will include fair use, rights of privacy and publicity, libel and grand rights in music.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
2PM – 2:45PM
Post-talk Q&A with Julia Jordan, Sheri Wilner, and Laura Shamas. Hosted by: Rebecca
Stump)
Center for the Arts; Concert Hall
3PM – 3:45PM
[Q&A] Creating a Web Drama Series (Susan Miller & Julie Jensen, Utah Regional Rep)
From the Executive Producer/Writer team of Susan Miller (L Word and Thirtysomething) and
Tina Cesa Ward (In Their Absence), Ms. Miller discusses the creation of her award-winning web
series, Anyone But Me. For all writers looking for another avenue of dramatic expression.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
3PM – 3:45PM
[panel discussion] Writers Who Teach/Teachers Who Write (Gino DiIorio , Jeanette Farr, Jon
Klein, Char Nelson, Pamela Turner. Moderator: Robin Goldfin)
As both teachers and writers, we feel the pull of two impulses: the desire to help others and the
urgency to write ourselves. Some of our concerns and questions are: How to find a balance
between teaching and writing? How to begin to teach playwriting--can we agree on the ‘basics’?
How to best facilitate student work? What is our role in helping to develop other writers? These
are broad questions we can’t hope to answer in an hour, but we do look forward to meeting other
writers and teachers to begin the conversation.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 3
3AM-5PM
[reading] different words for the same thing by Kimber Lee
Summertime in small town Idaho. Present and past reside uneasily in a complicated web of
relationships among people living in the town, and the return of a prodigal child may or may not
provide the release they are all seeking.
Center for the Arts; TheaterSpace
4PM – 4:45PM
[Q&A] The National New Play Network (Jason Loewith, Gregg Henry)
The National New Play Network is an alliance of nonprofit theaters that champion the
development, production and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has
Saturday
commissioned over a dozen playwrights, provided thirteen MFA graduates with paid residencies,
and supported 100 productions nationwide through its Continued Life of New Plays Fund. NNPN
Executive Director, Jason Loewith, will discuss some of the exciting work being done for writers
all across the country with Gregg Henry, Artistic Director of the Kennedy Center American
College Theater Festival.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 3
4PM – 5:45PM
[talk] Internet Piracy and Issues for the Musical Theatre Writer (Craig Carnelia, Georgia Stitt)
Craig Carnelia and Georgia Stitt discuss the piracy of sheet music on the internet and the Guild’s
efforts to meet this challenge and beat the pirates.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 1
4PM – 5:45PM
A Conversation With: Marsha Norman (Hosted by: Kirsten Childs)
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
5PM – 5:45PM
[workshop] The Oneiric Playwright: Dreamwork for Playwriting (David Crespy, Missouri
Regional Rep)
Dreamwork provides an organic approach to non-traditional technique--particularly for
playwrights who write traditional plays. Explore your characters, plots, play ideas, and structural
technique through the use of dreams. Based upon the theories of Bert O. States, dreamwork for
playwriting will help you break through writing blocks, expand your technique, and refresh your
writing style in ways that will surprise you.
Mason Inn Conference Center; Room 3
6PM – 7PM
Roundtable with D.C. Artistic Directors
A panel discussion with David Dower (Arena Stage), Howard Shalwitz (Woolly Mammoth
Theatre Company), Adrien-Alice Hansel (Studio Theatre), Ari Roth (Theatre J), Jessi Burgess
(for Round House and Inkwell) Randy Baker (Rorschach), moderated by Gregg Henry (The
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts).
Center for the Arts; Grand Tier 3rd Floor
7:30PM – 9PM
A National Conversation with Featured Guests
Center for the Arts; Concert Hall
THE INTERNATIONAL CENTRE
FOR WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS
congratulates the Dramatists Guild on its
FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE
For ICWP membership, or to join our international on-line conversation, visit www.
womenplaywrights.org. Look for members Faye Sholiton and Andrea Stolowitz , ICWP’s
official representatives at the conference.
3 Full-Length Plays • 18 10-Minute Plays • 4 Artistic Blind Dates
WASHINGToN’S SouRCE FoR NEW WoRk
JuNE 10 - JuLy 3, 2011
1835 14TH STREET NW, WASHINGToN, DC
$15 TickeTs available for DramaTisT GuilD members wiTh The coDe “GlD”
The 2011 Source Festival includes work by:
Eric Appleton, Debbi Arseneaux, Matthew Ivan Bennett, Dave Bobb, Cecilia Cackley,
William Cameron, David Carlson, Hal Corley, Gabriel Jason Dean, Alex Dreamann,
Lee Gainer, Martín Gendelman, Nicholas Gray, Gregory Hischak, Christine Hodak,
Margaret Hoffman, Matthew Mann, Lucy Bowen McCauley, Tewodross Melchishua,
Michael Mitnick, John Moletress, Jeffrey Mosser, Steve Moulds, Eric Pfeffinger,
Lee August Praley, Juanita Rockwell, Greg Romero, Michael Salomon, B. Walker
Sampson, Ilana Faye Silverstein, Haskell Small, Chris Van Strander, Martín Zimmerman
(Photographs clockwise) Source Festival’s: 10-Minute Play J.A.P. by Lauren Yee; Artistic Blind Date Bunny, Bunny; 10-Minute Play In the
River by Ken Robins; Full-Length Play This is Not a Time Bomb by Aaron Wigdor Levy; Photographs by C. Stanley Photography.