Professional
Affiliations:
Artistic Director/Founder Emeritus, Stockyards Theatre Project (1999-2003;
remain friend of organization)
Member, National Writers’ Union (AFL-CIO union for freelance writers, since 2004)
Member, The Playwrights Center (Minneapolis, MN; 2007-)
Artistic Director and Founder, The Stockyards Theatre Project (1999-2003)
Network
Playwright, Chicago Dramatists’ Workshop
(2000-2007)
Member, Chicago Women’s Theatre Alliance (since 2000)
Member, International Centre for Women Playwrights (since 2001)
Associate
Member, Dramatists Guild of America (since
2001)
PUBLISHED:
2 Monologues
from DAMN THE TORPEDOES!. BEST WOMEN’S STAGE MONOLOGUES 2001. Smith & Kraus, 2003.
Monologue from THE FAINTING COUCH. Included in AUDITION ARSENAL: 101 MONOLOGUES BY TYPE, 2 MINUTES & UNDER
FOR WOMEN IN THEIR 20s.
Smith & Kraus, 2005.
“Communications Management” (a monologue sketch).
YOUNG WOMEN'S MONOLOGS FROM CONTEMPORARY PLAYS: PROFESSIONAL AUDITIONS
FOR ASPIRING ACTRESSES (Gerald Lee Ratliff, editor). Meriwether Press, Ltd, 2004. (Release date: September 2004.
RAINCHECKS AND RHAPSODIES, anthology of three one-act plays ("The Garage Sale," "The
Battle for Mad Mondo Man," and "Team Radio Shack") for the high school drama/forensics market. Brooklyn Play Publishers, 2005. This anthology is now available. Order your copies now at www.brookpub.com!
PRODUCTIONS/READINGS:
"Does
Anybody Know What's Around the Coyote WinterFest (Chicago, IL)
Going On Upstairs?" Feb
8-11, 2007
"Have
Mercy" (reading) Chicago Dramatists 10-Minute Workshop
Nov. 4, 2006
"The
Devil Is In The Details" Rockland Productions (Hollywood, CA) Aug 17-
27, 2006 @ The Elephant Theater.
“The
Friendly Skies” Gone In 60 Seconds Festival 2006, Harrogate
Theatre, Harrogate, Yorkshire, UNITED KINGDOM,
May 6, 2006
Intelligent Design (reading) Chicago Writers Bloc
2006 New Plays Festival,
May 9, 2006
“The Devil Is In The Details” A Working Theatre Co (Portsmouth,
OH)
March 8-11, 2006, part of their Plays For A New
Millennium festival
“The Perfect Relationship” Mae West Fest IX (Seattle, WA) May 18-2, 2006
“Third Trimester, Second Thoughts” Insurrection Theatre’s Girls Night Out!
- A Festival of SapphisticatedTheater
(Scottsdale, AZ) April 28-30, 2006
“You
Bet Your Lucky Stars” (reading) Chicago Dramatists Saturday Series
(Chicago, IL) 10-Minute Workshop For
Young Audiences, Nov. 12, 2005
Market Up, Mark It Down! (reading) Chicago Dramatists
First Draft Series,
Oct. 24, 2005
“Sliding Scale” Theatre
Entropy (Chicago, IL) Summer
2005 Benefit, August 20, 2005
“All Things Considered”
Brooklyn College’s Gone In 60 Seconds
Festival, Brooklyn, NY, June-July 2005
"The
Devil Is In the Details" Whole World Theatre
(Atlanta, GA)
Summer Play Festival, July 2005
"Circle
Line"
Speaking Ring Theatre Company (Chicago, IL)
Third
Annual "Vitality" One-Act Play Festival, June 2005
"Circle
Line" NewGate
Theatre (Providence, RI) Summer One
-Act
Play Festival, June-July 2005
"He-Man Get Your Gun" 13th Street Repertory (New York, NY)
One-Act Play
Fest, June-July 2005
"Circle
Line" Wood
Street Theatre (Palatine, IL) April 2005
“This Is Your Lifetime” Women’s
Funny Shorts Festival (Dartmouth,
MA) University
of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Women’s
Resource Center, February 2005
“Common Intellect” Around
the Coyote Winter Fest (Chicago IL)
February 2005
“This
Is Your Lifetime”
18th Annnual Bailiwick Director’s Festival,
Bailiwick Repertory,
(Chicago, IL), in
the “Chicago Writes” segment, Feburary 2005
"The Devil is in the Details"
Boxer Rebellion Ensemble's 2nd Annual
and "The Perfect Relationship" Martin de Maat New Works Festival,
Sept. 9-18,
2004
The
Fainting Couch (reading) Chicago Writers' Bloc New Plays Festival,
October
2004. Theatre Building Chicago.
(exact
dates TBA)
The
Man Upstairs (reading) Chicago Dramatists Saturday Series, August
8, 2004
"Sour
Plums" (reading) Women's
Theatre Alliance Salon Series
Chicago
Illinois (Metropolis Coffee Co) May 2004
“Third Trimester, Second Thoughts” Around the
Coyote
WinterFest, (Chicago, Illinois)
February 2004
“The King Kwik of Heaven” Commissioned and produced by Boxer Rebellion
Theatre (Chicago, Illinois) for its Martin de Maat New Works Festival (September 2003)
"He-Man Get Your Gun” Commissioned and produced by Boxer Rebellion
Theatre (Chicago, Illinois) for its Martin de Maat New Works Festival (September 2003)
“CNN, Cheesecake, and the TSA”
Staged Reading, Stockyards Theatre Project’s Pro-Peace Reading Series
“Buying Buddhahood”
ONE-WOMAN SHOW, produced 11/02 at Stockyards Theatre Project’s 2002 Women’s Performance
Art Festival; Trapdoor Theatre’s 2003 Latenite Performance Series; Estrogen Fest 2003; ETC
III (Experimental Theatre Chicago) (all performed by playwright in Chicago IL)
“Buddha Jack, Backstage
Bailiwick Arts Centre (Chicago, IL), as part of the 2003 “Chicago Plays”
at the Goodman”
Directors’
Festival, Feb-March 2003.
“The Garage Sale”, “Buddha
WNEP
Theatre (Chicago, IL) as part of their Monday Reading
Jack, Backstage at the Goodman,”
Series, October 21, 2002
and “Om Meets Condor”
Market Up, Mark It Down!
Stage Left Theatre (Chicago, IL):
2 staged readings in Nov. 2002
as part of their Downstage Left program;
Women’s Theatre Alliance New Plays Development Workshop,
June 2002.
“Sour Plums”
Theatre of Western Springs (Western Springs, IL), as part of their ten-minute play festival, Shorts for a Summer’s Evening, June 2001
“Sliding Scale”
Belleville Theatre Guild, (Belleville, Ontario, CANADA) as part of their Annual Summer One Act Plays
Festival IV, August 9-18, 2001
DAMN THE TORPEDOES!!
East Village Experimental Theatre Co., (Philadelphia, PA) Staged Reading, July 29,2001.
DAMN THE TORPEDOES!! Stockyards Theatre
Project, (Chicago, IL) February-March 2001 (World premiere
production)
THE FAINTING COUCH
WTA New Plays Development Workshop (Chicago, IL) Staged Reading, June 5, 2001
“The Garage Sale”
Chicago Dramatists 10-Minute Workshop (Chicago, IL) Staged Reading, November 10, 2001
“The Perfect Package”
Stockyards Theatre Project, November 30, 2001, as part of the Second Annual Women’s Performance
Art Festival
“Fetal Dreams”
Stockyards Theatre Project, December 1, 2001, as part of the Second Annual Women’s Performance
Art Festival (performed by playwright)
A CHICCA LOOKS AT 25. . . Stockyards Theatre Project,
November-December 1999
WINDY BIG-HEADED CITY Stockyards Theatre Project, March-April 1999
GRANTS, AWARDS, and HONORS:
2002 Community Arts Assistance Grant, Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs (for the completion of the HIDING FROM ANTHRAX
manuscript). **Grant was returned due to processing delays.
DAMN THE TORPEDOES!!
Honorable Mention, Plays on Tape Auricle Award, 2001.
MIGHT COME A WINDSTORM, Runner-Up, Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship,
2001.
“Sliding Scale”, Producer’s “Favorite Moment” Award, Belleville
Theatre Guild, 2001.
‘The Perfect Package”, Quarter-Finalist, Collaboraction Sketchbook ONE, 2001.
Full-Length Plays:
The Man Upstairs
Synopsis: Cast: 4W, 2M, multicultural (3
Caucasians, 2 Asian-
Americans, 1 African-American) Janice Taylor-
Leung, a thirtysomething
Caucasian woman, and her husband Walter
Leung, a Cantonese immigrant from Hong Kong,
are
well-educated, politically liberal professionals
who recently bought a condo in a gentrifying
Chicago neighborhood. They find their worlds
turned upside down by the actions of their African-
American upstairs neighbor, and are unwittingly
pulled in a tug-of-war between liberal ideologies and
their
own deeply buried prejudices. This full-length
drama examines the dark side of contemporary
American race relations.
Damn the Torpedoes!!
Synopsis: Absurdist play in which 6 people are detained
as political prisoners in an independent mass media state very similar to Walt Disney World.
8
characters: 3W, 4M, 1 unisex; minimal set.
The Fainting Couch
Synopsis: A poor young woman suffering from depression seeks free psychotherapy
with a psychiatric resident, only to find that her therapist and the psychotherapy establishment will abuse and abandon her.
2M, 1 W, minimal set.
Market Up, Mark It Down!
Full-length satire of late 1990s capitalism and its corruptions at a Chicago old-guard investment bank, from the perspective
of a young woman hired to edit the bank’s stock reports. Comedy.
Cast: 4M, 4W, plus 3-4 nonspeaking male roles, unit set
Plays for Solo Performance:
Buying Buddhahood Synopsis: One-woman
show (comedy) on how the author/performer sought help for emotional anxiety by purchasing loads of New Age merchandise.
A Chicca Looks at 25: Synopsis: Autobiographical one-woman show that examines
A Memoir for the Stage how playwright’s tragic and often bizarre childhood
affects her life as an adult and as an artist.
Production History: Produced Nov-Dec. 1999 by the Stockyards Theatre Project, at the Breadline Theatre, Chicago; performed by playwright.
Fetal Dreams
Synopsis: The playwright/performer’s story of her frustration of not yet having children and
the dreams she has at night growing from that frustration.
Short Plays and Sketches:
"This Is Your Lifetime" Synopsis:
A single thirtysomething woman falls asleep while watching a Lifetime Network movie, and the women of the network's
feminine hygiene products visit her in her dreams. Comedy.
4W, minimal set.
“CNN, Cheesecake &
Synopsis: Six people stranded at an airport during a terrorist threat
The TSA”
behave selfishly. Comedy-satire.
Cast: 5W, 1M. Minimal set and props.
“Communications
Synopsis: A middle-aged secretary concocts ever more outrageous lies to
Management”
keep her boss’ extramarital affair from his wife when she calls the office
demanding her husband’s whereabouts. A monologue sketch.
Cast: 1W, minimal set.
“The King Kwik of Heaven” Synopsis: A
former grunge/biker chick converts two drug-addicted Goth party animals to Christianity.
Absurdist comedy.
Cast: 2W, 1 M , minimal set and props.
“He-Man Get Your Gun”
Synopsis: Children’s playground antics nearly become deadly, but are averted with comic
results. Absurdist comedy.
Cast: 3M, minimal set and props.
“The Garage Sale”
Synopsis: A woman finds she is not able to part with the souvenirs of her marriage after her
husband’s death. Comedy.
Cast: 3W, 1M, 1 child. Unit set.
“Buddha Jack, Backstage
at the Goodman”
Synopsis: Short comedy. Two macho union stagehands at the Goodman Theatre
in Chicago talk Buddhist philosophy and explore their relationship following a load-in of an August Wilson play.
Cast: 2M, minimal set.
“Third Trimester,
Synopsis:
A
pregnant bisexual woman has an
Second Thoughts” argument
with a nurse practitioner,
who
happens to also be her lover and prenatal
care provider.
2W, minimal set.
“Om Meets Condor”
Synopsis: Absurdist short. A neurotic California couple’s sexual repression
is explored via their pet Chihuahua’s death at the talons of an endangered giant California condor.
1M, 1W, no set required.
“Common Intellect”
Synopsis: A proper London banker seeks advice from a Tube-dwelling bag lady, with bizarre results.
1M, 1W, no set required.
“Sliding Scale”
Synopsis: Short comedy. Lovers Dana and Tom discover how much is wrong with their relationship at a
Chicago all-night diner.
3 characters: 2W, 1 M, minimal set.
“Mass Transit”
Synopsis: A young woman has a frightening yet absurd experience on board a Chicago Transit Authority train.
1W, 1M, minimal set.
“Sour Plums”
Synopsis: Elderly sisters Daisy and Pearl confront old demons via an incident in which Daisy steals a can of plums from
her sister.
2 W; unit set, 1 character in wheelchair.
“The Perfect Package”
Synopsis: Two female friends hanging out together in a nightclub explore a new aspect of their 8-year friendship when
one reveals she is a lesbian.
2W; no set required.
Screenplays:
“No Shame in a Job Well Done.” Comedy short.
Wild Bill and Lulee, historical romantic feature.
Might Come a Windstorm, contemporary drama
