Resident Playwrights
The following playwrights are interested in becoming mentors to the young writers in your school. They are professionals all, and they have all had a great deal of teaching experience.
Kirsten Greenidge:
A native of Arlington, Massachusetts, Kirsten's most recent play, Sans-Culottes in the Promised Land, was produced at the 2004 Humana Festival of New Plays at the Actors' Theatre of Louisville, along with a commissioned piece entitled Fast and Loose: An Ethical Collaboration. During January and February, 2004, Kirsten served on the National Selection Team for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and more recently had the honor of serving as Featured Guest Playwright at the Vermont Young Playwrights Festival. She has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory (2002, and again in 2003), and her work has been presented at the Boston Theater Marathon, Madison Repertory Fall Festival of the Future, Cherry Lane Alternative, Playwrights' Horizons, Hourglass Theatre Group/Flirting with the Edge, New Georges Performathon, New Dramatists, Sundance Theatre Retreat at Ucross, The Mark Taper Forum, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, A.S.K. Theatre Projects, Boston's Women On Top, and the O'Neill Theatre Center. Kirsten is a former member of Playwrights' Platform and is currently Playwright-in-Residence with P. 73 Productions, where she is developing her play Yes, Please, and Thank You. Kirsten attended Wesleyan University and earned her MFA at the Playwrights' Workshop at the University of Iowa where she was a Barry Kemp Fellow.
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Dan Hunter:
Dan is an award-winning playwright, composer, and singer. He is the author of two books, Let’s Keep Des Moines a Private Joke and The Search for Iowa (& We Don’t Grow Potatoes). He has written several plays, including Un Tango en La Noche, winner of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival’s national short play award in 1999 (Samuel French, 2000), and La Mujer Sin Cara, a finalist in the same competition. He is the composer and librettist of Picture Postcard Musicale, a musical based on the texts of picture postcards from 1906-1910. His ten-minute play, The Monkey King, was a finalist for the 2004 Heideman Award from Actors' Theatre of Louisville. He is the former Director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs a former Managing Director of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. He is now the Director of the Massachusetts Arts Advocacy in Science and Humanities (MAASH).
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Janet Kenney:
Janet has just completed Globus Hystericus (or, It’s Funny ‘till Someone Loses an Eye), a commission from Theatre Emory (Atlanta, GA). Awards include: Tanne Foundation Residency, Perishable Theatre, Provincetown Theatre Company, Edward Albee Theatre Conference Panelist’s Choice and O’Neill Finalist. Several of her short plays have been performed nation-wide and published in various anthologies. Janet holds a M.A. in Playwriting from Boston University and a B.A. in Theatre Arts/Acting from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where she was Playwright-in-Residence last year.
John Kuntz:
John is the writer/performer of four solo shows: Freaks! (Elliot Norton Award-winning production), Party Poopers, Actorz…with a ZP, and Starf**rs and five produced plays: Sing Me to Sleep (Elliot Norton Award-winning production), After School Special, Emerald City, Miss Price, Jump Rope, My Life with the Kringle Kult; he co-authored the holiday comedy Spiked Eggnog. His newest play, Jasper Lake, was part of the Huntington Theatre Company’s Breaking Ground Play Festival this spring. John is the recipient of an Elliot Norton Award, an IRNE Award, and the New York International Fringe Festival Award for "Outstanding Solo Performance," and his short plays have appeared in the Boston Theater Marathon five years running. He is currently a commissioned Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company under the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays.
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Bill Lattanzi:
Bill is Head of Playwriting at Brandeis University. He is a past winner of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Artist Grant, NETC's John Gassner Playwriting Award, and is a co-founder of the Boston Theater Marathon. Bill's plays have been produced in Boston and around New England, and his short plays have appeared in five out of the six Boston Theater Marathons. His newest play, Pictures of Patty Hearst, was a regional finalist in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival last year, produced by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.
Ginger Lazarus:
Ginger was awarded the 1999 John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award for Mockba: A Play About Moscow, which was recently produced at Keene State College. Her short play Lemonade was featured in th 2003 Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Theater Festival. She has had plays produced in the Boston area by Playwrights' Platform, Hovey Players, Theatre Cooperative, Centastage, and the Boston Theater Marathon, along with staged readings in New York, New Hampshire, and New Jersey. She holds a Master's Degree in Playwriting from Boston University's Boston Playwrights' Theatre and teaches creative writing at Quincy College. Ginger is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Her new play, Matter Familias, will be performed at Boston Playwrights' Theatre in December of 2004.
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Melinda Lopez:
Melinda is the author of several short plays, including The Lesson, What the Market Will Bear and Alexandros. She is also the author of a number of full-length plays, including Scenes from a Bordello (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), God Smells Like a Roast Pig (Women on Top Festival, Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance), Midnight Sandwich/Medianoche (Coconut Grove Playhouse, Miami), The Order of Things (Centastage, Kennedy Center Fund for New Plays), and How Do You Spell Hope? (Underground Railway Theatre). Melinda was awarded the Charlotte Woolard Award for "Promising New Voice in American Theatre" in 2001. Melinda is currently a commissioned Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company under the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays, and her newest play Sonia Flew opened the new Theatre Pavilion’s Virginia Wimberly Theatre this Fall.
Ronan Noone:
Ronan is a native of Connemara, Ireland. He emigrated to the United States in 1994 where he became a proud citizen in 2000. He began writing plays in 1996 and holds an MA in Creative Writing (Playwriting) from Boston University. His play The Lepers of Baile Baiste won the National Student Playwriting award at the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival and was performed at the Kennedy Center in April, 2002. The play was produced professionally by the Sugan Theatre Company in November of that year, and the second in his Baile trilogy, The Blowin of Baile Gall, was produced by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (winner of Boston’s prestigious Elliot Norton Award for "Best New Play"). The Lepers… opened in Los Angeles 2003 and received the L.A. Times’ "Pick of the Month" recommendation. The play opened in New York to rave reviews in September 2004. The third play in the trilogy, The Gigolo Confessions of Baile Braeg, was produced by The Sugan Theatre Company in October, 2003. Ronan is currently a commissioned Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company under the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays.
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Aidan Parkinson:
Aidan has been acting and writing in Boston for twelve years, producing and performing in his own site-specific plays. In 1996, he toured with two of these through prisons, pubs, and theatre festivals in Dublin and Galway. He received acclaim (a "masterful performance" said the Boston Phoenix) for his role in Conor McPherson's This Lime Tree Bower, directed by Carmel O'Reilly for the Sugan Theatre Company, and most recently won blanket praise ("theatrical phenomenon...") for his performance of the lead role in Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, produced by the Poets' Theatre, of which is is also the Artistic Director. His play, Queen of Swords, inspired by the incident of the assassination of the journalist Veronica Guerin, was optioned by the Andrew's Lane Theatre in Dublin. Emerson College produced his play, A Vision of Lumen, which they commissioned for their Summer Stage in 2000. He has published with Baker's Plays, New England Review, Compost Magazine, and has written and published two extended dramaturgical essays for the Huntington Theatre. His work has been performed in the Boston Theater Marathon and has been produced in New Mexico, Los Angeles, England and Ireland; two of his Bar Plays will be produced for the Galway Arts Festival this year. He is soon to produce and perform hisi monologue entitled Parkinson's Disease, and is currently working on a piece for his daughter to perform, Rough Play.
Sinan Ünel:
Sinan’s full-length plays include Pera Palas,Tolstoy’s Den, Single Lives, Thalassa My Heart, The Lost Gospels of Blankenburg, Portals, A Mad Person’s Chronicle of a Miserable Marriage, The Vorse House, The Three of Cups, and Pathetique. His plays have been produced all over the world and regionally at: The Long Wharf Theater (New Haven), Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, The Lark Theatre Company (New York), The Gate Theatre (London), Provincetown Theatre Company, Provincetown Theatreworks, Landes-theater (Tübingen, Germany), Theater Kosmos (Bregenz, Austria). His screenplays include Race Point and The Prophet’s Wife. For Pera Palas, Sinan was awarded The John Gassner Memorial Award, The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, The Panowski New Play Contest (finalist), and a Massachusetts Cultural Council New Plays Grant (finalist). Mr. Ünel’s script Race Point is the winner of the 2001 New Century Writer Award for best screenplay. Sinan is currently a commissioned Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company under the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays
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