Melinda Lopez, a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department, received a rave review in the April 6 edition of the Boston Globe for her play From Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story. In her article titled, “Art, evolution, and an extinct talking fish,” Louise Kennedy calls the play “funny, poignant, instructive, emotionally rich, and intellectually inspiring.
The play dramatizes Charles Darwin’s life and discoveries leading to his Theory of Evolution. The National Institutes of Health commissioned the play to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s magnum opus On the Origin of Species.
Lopez is a playwright and actress, and was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a “promising new voice in American Theatre.” Her play Sonia Flew, which was developed and premiered by the Huntington Theatre Company, won the Elliot Norton Award for Best New Play and two IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Awards for Best Play and Best Production.
Most recently, her play Gary was produced at Steppenwolf Theatre’s First Look Play Festival in Chicago and, in March 2008, at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, where it was nominated for an Elliot Norton Award by the Boston Theatre Critics Association.