Neal Bell
Lee Blessing
Kia Corthron
Horton Foote
Charles (OyamO) Gordon
Susan Kim
Laurence Klavan
William Leavengood
Warren Leight
Romulus Linney
Craig Lucas
Heather MacDonald
Ruth Margraff
Chiori Miyagawa
Kira Obelensky
J Dakota Powell
Adam Rapp
Theresa Rebeck
Keith Reddin
John Henry Redwood
Betty Shamieh
John Patrick Shanley
Jonathan Marc Sherman
David Simpatico
Lillian Ann Slugocki
Jeff Stafford
Erin Cressida Wilson
Lanford Wilson

Note: US Contributing Playwrights represents only a PARTIAL list. The Venture is beginning to take shape and is expanding rapidly.

US PLAYWRIGHT BIOGRAPHIES

NEAL BELL
Neal Bell has been the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (1996/1997), Amblin/Playwrights Horizons Playwriting Grant (1994), the 1992 Obie Award (sustained excellence in playwrighting), Rockefeller Playwrighting Grant (1986-1987), and the National Endowment for the Arts Playwrighting Grant (1985-1986). His numerous plays include: TWO SMALL BODIES, BREAKING AND ENTERING, CHILD OF THE NIGHT, OPERATION MIDNIGHT CLIMAX, GRADUAL CLEARING, RAW YOUTH, SLEEPING DOGS, VOICES IN THE HEAD, COLD SWEAT, THE OPEN BOAT, READY FOR THE RIVER, RAGGED DICK, MCTEAGUE (adaptation of a Frank Norris novel), ON THE BUM, THERESE RAQUIN (adaptation of the Zola novel), SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC. His plays have been produced by such venues as: Man Bites Dog Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Second Stage, Immediate Theatre Company, Denver Theatre Center, the Cricket Theatre, New Arts Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Mark Taper Forum, Production Company, Off-Center Theatre, to name a few. Bell has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Trinity University, and Phoenix Theatre. And, several times selected for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Bell’s major film and television work includes: screenwriter of two episodes of "Patriots" for HBO Films, staff writer for Port Charles (ABC/Capitol Cities), co-writer with Beth B of the festure film "Two Small Bodies" (based on Bell’s play), screenwriter of the feature film "Terminal Choice" (Madger Productions, available on cassette). Bell received a B.A. in English at Yale College (magna cum laude) and his M.F.A. in Playwrighting at the University of Iowa.

KIA CORTHRON
Kia Corthron’s Breath, Boom, originally commissioned and produced by London’s Royal Court Theatre in February 2000, had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons in May 2001. Force Continuum was commissioned and produced by NYC’s Atlantic Theater Company in January 2001. Splash Hatch on the E Going Down has been produced by New York Stage and Film, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, and London’s Donmar Warehouse Theatre. Seeking the Genesis was commissioned and produced by the Goodman Theatre and subsequently produced by Manhattan Theatre Club. Other plays include Digging Eleven (Hartford Stage Company), Life by Asphyxiation (Playwrights Horizons), Wake Up Lou Riser (Delaware Theatre Company), Suckling Chimera (radio play, NPR national syndication) and Come Down Burning (American Place Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre). Awards include the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, the Mark Taper Forum’s Fadiman Award, National Endowment for the Arts/TCG, Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, the New Professional Theatre Playwriting Award, and the Callaway Award. Kia has developed work through the National Playwrights Conference, the Sundance retreat at Ucross, Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre Projects, Hedgebrook, the Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat, and elsewhere. Most recently she has written Snapshot Silhouette for the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis and Slide Glide the Slippery Slope for the Mark Taper Forum and is currently commissioned to write a play for the Royal Court Theatre. Next season The Venus de Milo Is Armed will be produced by Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Kia is a member of New Dramatists.

HORTON FOOTE
Horton Foote is the author of over sixty plays and screenplays including: THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, THE YOUNG MAN FROM ATLANTA, TENDER MERCIES, and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. He is a member of the Theater hall of fame and the American Academy of Arts & Letters and has received from the Academy the Gold Medal for Drama. Foote has won two Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Writers Guild Awards, the Penn/Laurel Foundation Award for Drama, the New York State Governor’s Arts Award and from President Clinton the National Medal of Arts. His memoir, “Farewell”, was published by Scribners and his continuing memoir, “Beginnings”, was published in November 2001.

CHARLES (OYAMO) GORDON
OyamO (a.k.a.) is an associate professor of theatre and writer-in-residence at the Univ. of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His plays have been produced at Yale Repertory Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Working Theatre, N.Y. Shakespeare Festival's Public Theatre, Negro Ensemble Co., New Federal Theatre, BACA, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, Minn., Crossroads Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Arena Stage in Wash., D.C. (3 Helen Hayes Nominations), Kennedy Center, Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, Theatre of the First Amendment in Fairfax, VA, Lorraine Hansberry and Eureka Theatres in San Francisco, Goodman Theatre, O'Neill Playwrights Center ('72, '73, '74, and '98), National Theatre Institute in Montreal, Theatre du Horla in Avignon, France, Seattle Children's Theatre, GEVA Theatre, Minneapolis Children's Theatre Co., Plowshares Theatre in Detroit, Philadelphia Theatre Co. (where he was the TCG-PEW Playwright-in-residence), Mark Taper Forum's New Work Festival, the Fountain Theatre in L.A.. He has received fellowships from Berrilla Kerr, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and McKnight foundations and grants from the NEA as well as the Ohio Arts and New York State Art Councils. He is currently commissioned by the Cleveland Playhouse to write a play due in Sept., 2002. He is a site monitor for the NEA, Vice President of TCG's Board of Directors, a member of the Dramatists Guild, the New Dramatists (alumni), Writers Guild East and PEN. He holds an MFA in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. Yet a rebel.

SUSAN KIM
Susan Kim's adaptation of Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, premiered at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre in 1997 and has had subsequent productions in New York City, across the United States, and in the People's Republic of China. She is currently writing an original musical, ALLISON UNDER THE STARS, with songwriting team Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler. It was commissioned by New York’s Second Stage Theatre and will be workshopped there later this month. Other productions in New York and Los Angeles include: PANDORA, THE ARRANGEMENT, THE DOOR, DREAMTIME FOR ALICE, RAPID EYE MOVEMENT, and SEVENTH WORD FOUR SYLLABLES. Her one-act GUTS was produced as an independent film, which subsequently aired on PBS. She received a Drama League Award for Best New Play in 1989 for OPEN SPACES. Ms. Kim has also written extensively for children's and non-fiction television. She was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for best writing in the children’s category three times, and won a WGA Award in the Best Documentary category for "Paving the Way" (PBS) in 1997. She has also been nominated for an Emmy award in the children’s category several times.

LAURENCE KLAVAN
Laurence Klavan wrote the book and lyrics to 'Bed and Sofa,' the musical produced by the Vineyard Theatre (NY), which won two Obie awards, two Barrymore awards, seven Drama Desk nominations, and an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. Numerous plays include: THE MAGIC ACT, MIAMI STORIES: BELLOW, MALAMUD, AND KLAVAN, FREUD’S HOUSE, SLEEPING BEAUTY, SMOKE, IF WALLS COULD TALK, THE SHOW MUST GO ON, GORGO’S MOTHER, and THE SUMMER SUBLET. He has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and received commissions from the Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Vineyard Theatre, and the Wilma Theatre. Screenplays include: "One Bedroom" (Tri-Star Pictures), "The Un-usual Suspects" (Warner Brothers) and "Mr. Nice Guy" (Viacom). Children’s television includes "Coduroy" (USA Network), the syndicated "Adventures of Superboy". Klavan has recently wrote the cable film, "Me and Jezebel", for the American Movie Classics Network, and is developing the screenplay, "Disobedience", with director Tony Gerber for Killer Films.

WARREN LEIGHT
Warren Leight won the 1999 Tony Award for his play, SIDE MAN. Mr. Leight is also the author of GLIMMER, GLIMMER AND SHINE, which was nominated for an American Theater Critics Association Award. NINE TEN was written overnight as part of a post 9/11 benefit produced by 24-Hour Plays and Planet Impact. Other theater includes: STRAY CATS, THE LOOP (aka FIVE BEDROOMS), THE FINAL INTERROGATION OF CEAUCESU'S DOG (New York’s EST Marathon, Chicago Humanities Festival, published in Bomb Magazine), MAYOR, THE MUSICAL (Drama Desk Nomination for book); and FAME TAKES A HOLIDAY, (co-written Cassandra Danz and Mary Fulham). His film credits include The Night We Never Met (starring Matthew Broderick and Annabella Sciorra), which he also directed. His work has been published in the International Herald Tribune, National Lampoon, Rolling Stone and in dozens of other periodicals. Mr. Leight is Vice-President of the Writers' Guild of America East Council, and is a member of the Dramatists' Guild Council.

ROMULUS LINNEY
Romulus Linney is the author of three novels and over thirty plays, produced throughout the United States and abroad. They include, THE SORROWS OF FREDERICK, HOLY GHOSTS, HEATHEN VALLEY, and CHILD BYRON. His GINT, an Appalachian adaptation of Ibsen’s PEER GYNT, was recently invited by the Norwegian State Theatre to its Ibsen Festival in Oslo. He has also directed his plays, most notably for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Alley Theatre, Signature Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Theater for the New City. He has received two Obie Awards, one for Sustained Excellence in Playwriting, three Drama-Logue Awards, and both the Award in Literature and Award of Merit Medal for Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

CRAIG LUCAS
Craig Lucas is author of MISSING PERSONS, RECKLESS, BLUE WINDOW, THREE POSTCARDS (with composer/lyricist Craig Carnelia), PRELUDE TO A KISS, GOD'S HEART, DYING GAUL, THIS THING OF DARKNESS (with David Schulner), STRANGER and THE SINGING FOREST. His screenplays include "LONGTIME COMPANION," "PRELUDE TO A KISS," and "RECKLESS." With his colleague of many years, Norman René, he created MARRY ME A LITTLE, Songs by Stephen Sondheim. Lucas received the Excellence in Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the first George and Elisabeth Marton Award and the L.A. Drama Critics (for BLUE WINDOW), Drama-Logue and Burns Mantle Best Musical awards (for Three Postcards) and two Obie Awards (one for playwrighting, Prelude to a Kiss, and another for his direction of Harry Kondoleon's Saved or Destroyed), the Outer Critic's Circle Award (for Prelude to a Kiss) and three drama desk nominations (for Reckless, Prelude to a Kiss and Missing Persons. He also has a Tony nomination (for Prelude to a Kiss), has been a Pulitzer finalist, and received two Rockefeller Foundation grants as well as a Guggenheim fellowship and an NEA/TCG Fellowship. He is a contributing editor to Bomb magazine. A graduate of Boston University where he studied with poet Anne Sexton and historian Howard Zinn, he lives in upstate New York.

J DAKOTA POWELL
An American expat based in London, Powell’s most recent foray was Head of Entertainment for UK—a digital studio focused on developing innovative content for the Internet, wireless devices, and enhanced TV. Her plays include: BLISS MOON, THE IMPOSTOR, SAVAGE LIGHT, BLACKWATER, HARRY BLACK. HARRY BLACK was produced in the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s New Work Series. BLACKWATER was selected for the National Playwrights Conference, O’Neill Theatre Center and the Lincoln Center Reading Series. Produced by Alice’s 4th Floor at the Workhouse Theatre, THE IMPOSTOR was twice nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and a recipient of the Jane Chambers Playwrighting Award. Powell was then commissioned by Talking Wall Pictures to adapt THE IMPOSTOR into a screenplay. Powell has been produced by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Philadephia Theater Company's New Works Series, Circle Repertory Theatre, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Duke University’s New Works Series; in addition, she has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre, and PBS Great Performances. Her screenplay, "Triggers", is the winner of the Writer Guild of America screenwriting fellowship.

ADAM RAPP
Adam Rapp has been the recipient of the Herbert & Patricia Brodkin Scholarship, two Lincoln Center le Compte du Nouy Awards, a fellowship to the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, the 1999 Princess Grace Award for Playwrighting, a 2000 Suite Residency with Mabou Mines, a 2000 Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, and the 2001 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights. His plays include: NOCTURNE, ANIMALS AND PLANTS, BLACKBIRD, TRUEBLINKA, GHOSTS IN THE COTTONWOODS, NETHERBONES, STONE COLD DEAD SERIOUS, FASTER. The World Premiere of NOCTURNE was produced by the A.R.T.'s New Stages Program and received Boston's Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script as well as Best New Play by the Independent Reviewers of New England. NOCTURNE was co-produced Off-Broadway by New York Theatre Workshop and the A.R.T. in May of 2001, is slated for productions at Berkeley Repertory and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, and will be published by Faber & Faber. NOCTURNE was selected as one of the Burns Mantle Ten Best Plays of the 2000-2001 Season. His plays have been produced by A.R.T., Bush Theatre (London), New York Theatre Workshop, Steppenwolf, Pittsburgh’s City Theatre, to name a few. FASTER will receive its World Premiere in January 2002 at the Culture Project in New York City.

THERESA REBECK
Theresa Rebeck’s plays have been seen in London, Brazil, Finland and Scotland as well as Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, and many other American cities. Her newest play, DOLLHOUSE, a contemporary retelling of Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece, just finished a run at Hartford Stage. Recently, her play THE BUTTERFLY CONNECTION was produced by Playwrights Horizons. ABSTRACT EXPRESSION was produced in a world premiere at the Longwharf Theatre of New Haven (1998). In 1996, her political satire VIEW OF THE DOME opened the season at New York Theatre Workshop in New York, while her adaptation of Ionesco’s RHINOCEROS was playing across town at the Valient Theatre Company. Previous plays include THE FAMILY OF MANN, LOOSE KNIT, and SPIKE HEELS, all of which were produced by Second Stage Theatre in New York in 1992, 1993 and 1994. THE FAMILY OF MANN won the National Theatre Conference Award for playwriting. She received an N.E.A. grant for her continuing work on the musical adaptation of the Nineteenth Century melodrama THE TWO ORPHANS. She is currently working on commissions for South Coast Rep, the Intiman Theatre, and City Theatre in Pittsburgh. In television, Ms. Rebeck has written for the HBO series, “Dream On”, “Brooklyn Bridge,” “L.A. Law,” “Maximum Bob”, “First Wave”, “Third Watch”, and “NYPD Blue,” where she also worked as a producer. She is currently consulting producer on “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”, starring Vincent D’Onofrio. In film, she has written the screenplay for Kalamazoo, an independent short starring Wallace Shawn and Adrienne Shelley. She is currently writing Catwoman for di Novi Pictures/Warner Brothers, The Richest Girl in the World for 20th Century Fox/RKO Pictures, and War Crimes for Francis Ford Coppola. Awards include the Mystery Writer’s of America’s Edgar Award, the Writer’s Guild of America award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody, all for her work on NYPD Blue.

BETTY SHAMIEH
Betty Shamieh is a Palestinian-American playwright and actor. She is currently a Van Lier Fellow at New Dramatists. Her play TAMAN was presented at the Imagine: Iraq Project at Cooper Union (curated by Naomi Wallace). Her solo performance work CHOCOLATE IN HEAT premiered at the 2001 New York International Fringe Festival. Her plays have been produced at the Yale School of Drama, Exiles Theatre in Ireland, and Adams Pool Theatre. Her writing has been published in This Week ON STAGE, Mizna, and The 1993 Poetry for the People Anthology. She was awarded an Institute of Politics Artistic Grant and a Radcliffe Fellowship to Jerusalem. She holds a BA from Harvard College and recently received her MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. Betty is a professor of Screenwriting at Marymount Manhattan College.

JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY
John Patrick Shanley is from the Bronx. PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS was previously produced at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and his recent one-acts MISSING/KISSING were presented at Primary Stages in New York and in the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Mr. Shanley's comedy FOUR DOGS AND A BONE was produced by Manhattan Theatre Club, and subsequently enjoyed a commercial run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. It was also mounted in Los Angeles as the inaugural production of the Geffen Playhouse. Other full-length plays include THE BIG FUNK (New York Shakespeare Festival); BEGGARS IN THE HOUSE OF PLENTY, ITALIAN-AMERICAN RECONCILIATION and WOMEN OF MANHATTAN (Manhattan Theatre Club); Savage in Limbo and The Dreamer Examines His Pillow (Powerhouse Theater and Off-Broadway); DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA (Actors Theatre of Louisville and Circle in the Square Downtown); and a wide variety of one act plays, including WELCOME TO THE MOON (Ensemble Studio Theatre). He was selected for four consecutive seasons as a participant at the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Theatre Center. In the arena of film, Mr. Shanley wrote the screenplay for FIVE CORNERS, which won a Special Jury Prize (screenplay) at the Barcelona Film Festival. His script for MOONSTRUCK won both the Writers Guild Award and an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He made his debut as a feature film director with his script JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO. He also wrote the screen adaptations of both ALIVE and CONGO.

JONATHAN MARC SHERMAN
Jonathan Marc Sherman's playwriting career began at age 18 with his play, WOMEN AND WALLACE, which was produced as part of the 1988 Young Playwrights Festival at Playwrights Horizons, and adapted for public television's American Playhouse. Playwrights Horizons also produced his play SOPHISTRY in 1993, directed by Nicholas Martin with a cast that included Linda Atkinson, Nadia Dajani, Calista Flockhart, Ethan Hawke, the precocious Scarlett Johansson, Austin Pendleton, Anthony Rapp, Steve Zahn, and, somewhat awkwardly, Sherman himself. Sherman is currently adapting the play for James L. Brooks' Gracie Films. His other plays include EVOLUTION (Williamstown Theatre Festival), SONS AND FATHERS (Malaparte), WONDERFUL TIME (WPA), JESUS ON THE OIL TANK (winner of the 21st Century Playwrights Festival), SERENDIPITY AND SERENITY (1987 Young Playwrights Festival), and VEINS AND THUMBTACKS, which is the basis for Frank Whaley's movie THE JIMMY SHOW (Sundance Film Festival 2002). Sherman is a co-founder (with Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton and Frank Whaley) of Malaparte, a New York City theatre company. He is currently at work on far too many things at once, including musicals, screenplays, and a new play called THINGS WE WANT. His hobby is writing about himself in the third person.

DAVID SIMPATICO
David Simpatico, Playwright, has seen work presented at theatres internationally including: Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The NY Shakespeare Festival, ONeill Theatre Conference, The NY Theatre Workshop, Franklin Furnace, Opera Lab UK, English National Opera, The Lark Theatre, the Boston Conservatory of Music and the Tantaratana Theatre in Barcelona. His libretto for Aaron J. Kernis MILLENNIUM SYMPHONY received a world premiere with the NY Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. Selected works include: BAD BLOOD; THE SCREAMS OF KITTY GENOVESE a music-drama; MACS: A MACARONI REQUIEM; WISH FULFILLMENT (published Smith & Kraus); ,THOMAS THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS; and MARY. Television scripts include: "Blues Clues", "Horrible Histories" and "Tilt 22-1/2". In February 2000, David was honored as a librettist by the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation.

LILLIAN ANN SLUGOCKI
Lillian Ann Slugocki writes and produces award-winning work both nationally and internationally in theatre, radio, television. As a regular contributor to Salon.com, stories include; MARY MADGALENE, YOUTH MAGNET, BY THE BANKS OF LAKE MICHIGAN, LOVE IN THE TIME OF TERRORISM, ALMOST LIKE LOVE and also a commission by Salon for a serialized novella, DIARY OF A DIVORCE (which has expanded into a novel, LET ME TELL YOU ONE LAST STORY.) She created, co-authored and produced THE EROTICA PROJECT for WBAI Radio, with Erin Cressida Wilson, directed by John Gould Rubin, winning the 1999 NFCB Award in broadcasting. THE EROTICA PROJECT, published by CLEIS PRESS and produced theatrically at HERE, The New York Shakespeare Festival, The Northeast Actor's Studio in Seattle, with an upcoming production at CAFE in San Francisco. Other recent work: a commission from Broadway producer Susan Gallin for BEDTIME STORIES, the play THE WITCHES' TRIPTYCH winning a 2000 OOBR Award for over-all excellence, a six-part historical/dramatic commission from NPR called LOST VOICES which won the 1998 NFCB Silver Reel in broadcasting, and a four-part documentary series, "THE GREAT DAYS OF WITCHCRAFT", for Cinevision USA and Great North Productions (Canada). She produced, curated and co-authored an annual festival of women's voices - Mad Women for Modern Times - for WBAI Radio in association with Performance Space 122 and with a grant from the Puffin Foundation. Other plays include; GIRL TROUBLE, ROUGH HOUSE, EPIPHANIES, WOMAN UNDERWATER, MAKING MY BONES WITH THE ROAD, SWEET WILLY'S RED EYE BAR and GRILL seen at Labyrinth Theatre, New Georges Theatre, Playwright's Horizons, Circle in the Square, Soho Rep, Westbank, Westbeth, Naked Angels, Circle Rep and Dixon Place. Her short film, "TEN ONE NIGHT STANDS: EPISODE THREE", was shot this summer, directed by Emmy Award winner, Tony Gerber.

ERIN CRESSIDA WILSON
Ms. Wilson is an internationally produced and award winning playwright, screenwriter, and professor at Duke University. Her feature length film, “Secretary,” (Double A Films) has been chosen for the dramatic competition at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. It is directed by Steven Shainberg and stars James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeremy Davies, and Leslie Ann Warren. In the last three years she has had three critically acclaimed Off Broadway productions: THE TRAIL OF HER INNER THIGH at Labyrinth Theatre, directed by John Gould Rubin who also directed THE EROTICA PROJECT, co-written with Lillian Ann Slugocki at Joe’s Pub (published by Cleis Press) - and HURRICANE, produced at Classic Stage Company, directed by Barry Edelstein. THE TRAIL OF HER INNER THIGH originally opened in San Francisco at Campo Santo and was named BEST NEW PLAY OF 1999 by the San Francisco critics. Among her other fifteen produced plays is CROSS-DRESSING IN THE DEPRESSION produced at Soho Rep, directed by Marcus Stern. She is adapting this play into a musical with Red Clay Ramblers Jack Herrick and Mike Craver, directed by Lisa Portes. It will receive a workshop at Playwrights Horizons in February of 2002. Her work has also been produced at The Mark Taper Forum, The New York Shakespeare Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Magic Theatre, The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, and the New Grove in London. She is currently writing new plays for Playwrights Horizons and South Coast Repertory and feature length films for New York City independent film companies Forensic Films and Girl From Queens. Ms. Wilson has won awards from The National Endwowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, The Drama League, the California and North Carolina Arts Councils, and the Dramalogue. She is published by Smith & Kraus (Best Plays of 93 and 98) and Cleis Press. She has spent five summers at The Sundance Institute developing her work.

LANFORD WILSON
Often compared to the likes of Tennessee Williams, William Inge, and Lillian Hellman, Wilson is one of the great American playwrights. His plays usually explore themes of alienation, loneliness, and crumbling illusions. In 1969, Wilson co-founded Circle Repertory Company with a group of friends that included Marshall Mason. The company's first major success was Wilson's HOT L BALTIMORE (1973), the story of a group of drifters, prostitutes, and aging residents in an old, run-down hotel. HOT L BALTIMORE, directed by Mason, ran for 1,100 performances at Circle in the Square downtown. Other Wilson/Mason collaborations include THE MOUND BUILDERS (1975) in which an archeological dig sets the stage for a fascinating meditation on a university scientist's past and present, SERENADING LOUIE (1970) which focuses on two young suburban couples facing the unhappiness at the heart of their marriages, ANGELS FALL (1982) in which a group of strangers come together in a small mission church in a remote part of New Mexico to face their own mortality in the wake of a possible nuclear accident, and TALLEY'S FOLLY (1979), for which Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. Wilson's awards include, among others, the Vernon Rice Award for RIMERS OF ELDRITCH (1965), the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Outer Circle Award, an Obie for HOT L BALTIMORE (1973), an Obie for THE MOUND BUILDERS (1975), and another Obie for SYMPATHETIC MAGIC (1997). BOOK OF DAYS received the Best Play of 1999 Award by the American Theater Critics Association. Recently, he learned Russian in order to be able to translate the works of one of his favorite authors, Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov.