Excerpts from The Gun Show in MN

On Monday, June 29th, excerpts from "The Gun Show" will be read as part of a benefit for Protect MN in Minneapolis.

For more information about the event, visit their website:  ProtectMN.org

Magellanica & the Kilroys!

"Magellanica" -- my recently completed Antarctic epic play -- is an honorable mention for this year's Kilroy List of great plays by women playwrights.  I'm so pleased!

View the 2015 Kilroy List of Honorable Mentions

If you'd like to read an excerpt from "Magellanica," or learn more about my work, please visit my page on the New Play Exchange by clicking here:

Visit The New Play Exchange

"THE LIST 2015 includes the results of the second annual industry survey of excellent new plays by female and trans playwrights.  It is a tool for producers committed to ending the systemic underrepresentation of female and trans playwrights in the American theater."

How The List Was Made 

• They surveyed 321 influential new play leaders — Artistic Directors, Literary Managers, Professors, Producers, Directors, and Dramaturgs — who had read or seen at least 40 new plays in the past year
• Each respondent recommended 3 to 5 plays each, identifying a total of 755 plays as among the best work they had encountered in the past year
• THE LIST comprises the top 7% of those plays — the 53 most recommended plays from this survey, which each received between 4 and 20 nominations
• The Honorable Mentions comprises the top 32% of nominated plays — these 186 plays each received 2 or 3 nominations
• To ensure unbiased results, responses were anonymous. All identifying information of recommenders was tracked separately from their recommendations in the survey software
• The members of The Kilroys did not nominate plays for The List

To be Eligible for The List, a Play Must be:

• unproduced or have had only a single professional production
• by an author who identifies as female or trans
• among the most excellent seen or read by the industry professional within the previous twelve months and
• not included on last year’s list of top 46 plays

Proud to be represented!

I'm pleased to announce that I am now represented by Samara Harris Anderson at the Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency.  I'm very glad to be working with her!

I have completed ten full-length plays, now -- including the award-winning "Song of Extinction," the intimate and topical "The Gun Show," and my hot off the press Antarctic epic, "Magellanica."  I have scads of short plays, which have been produced around the world.  And now I'm writing operas (with some fabulous composers).  It's great to have an ally as I work to find homes for all of them!

For more information about the Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency, click here.

A reading of Song of Extinction close to home!

Save the date, Oregon friends!  At 2pm on Sunday, June 14th, there will be a reading of my play "Song of Extinction," produced by Theater 33 at my old alma mater, Willamette University.  My theater professor, Christopher Harris, whose class I LOVED, is directing.  I'm so pleased that this is happening!  (And to be in the same reading series as my friends and colleagues Aleks Merilo and Andrea Stolowitz is a special bonus.)

"Song of Extinction" is a play about a musically gifted boy who is falling off the edge of the world, and his biology teacher, who reaches out to try to help him.

It won the ATCA/Steinberg Award from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmidt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, the EcoDrama Festival at University of Oregon, the Ashland New Plays Festival, and was production of the year at the LA Weekly Awards.  The play is published by Samuel French.

I'd love to see you there!  Join us!  More details on the Theater 33 website.

Librettist EM Lewis and Composer Clarice Assad are Arizona Bold!

I am pleased to announce that composer Clarice Assad and I are semi-finalists for Arizona Opera's exciting new "Arizona Bold!" program, which is inspiring new operas about the history of the state.

Our project is entitled "The Crossing," and it's about the creation of the Roosevelt Dam.  With a diverse cast of stubborn desert farmers, Apache builders, Italian stone masons, the research for this one is proving to be great fun.  President Theodore Roosevelt is a major character!  Just wait until you hear what Clarice and I come up with.  This is a story about nothing less than Building America.  As with any history story, it's as much about what's happening now as about what was happening then.  Stay tuned!  We're working on this through the summer, and hope that our project will move forward in August, but the competition is fierce.

More information on the Arizona Bold project and the semi-finalists for it can be found here.

Infinite Black Suitcase goes to GCC (and so do I!)

The cast and crew of Infinite Black Suitcase at Glendale College 2015.  Playwright E. M. Lewis and director Ed Douglas are in the middle.

I just returned from a lovely trip to Los Angeles, where I saw Glendale College's production of Infinite Black Suitcase.  What a delight!  I haven't seen this one in a while, though it's being produced more and more frequently since Samuel French featured it in their online magazine.  The actors did a beautiful job, under the astute direction of Ed Douglas.  (Look at the size of that cast!  Fifteen!!)  Producer Jeanette Farr-Harkins moderated the post-show discussion with audience and students.  Congratulations to the cast and crew!

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Playwright/librettist E. M. Lewis

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