Dramatic Women Who Play Wright

America Women Writers National Museum 
presents
The Dramatic Women Who Play Wright

Wednesday, June 5th 
McLendon Room of the National Press Club (529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor)

Event Details
Meet & Greet with Writers at 11:30am
Women Who Play Wright Discussion from 12:00pm 
Questions & Social at 1:00pm 
50-state Project honors Women Writers from 
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maine at 1:15pm 

Please join three extraordinary women playwrights for a in-depth and engaging conversation about writing for the stage. American Women Writers National Museum welcomes Renee Calarco (The Religion Thing and Short Order Stories), celebrated playwright and professor at George Washington University; Jennifer L. Nelson (Torn from the Headlines and 24, 7, 365) and critically acclaimed director and playwright, now Director of Special Programming at Ford's Theatre; and Mary Hall Surface (Lift: Icarus and Me and Perseus Bayou, ), an internationally recognized playwright and director, and Artistic Director of the INTERSECTIONS: A New American Arts Festival.

All AWWNM programs are free and open to the public. 
Click here for more information.

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RENEE CALARCO

Renee Calarco lives and works in Washington, DC. Her play SHORT ORDER STORIES received the 2007 Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. Other plays include THE RELIGION THING (2012 Helen Hayes Recommended), KEEPERS OF THE WESTERN DOOR, THE MATING OF ANGELA WEISS, BLEED, and IF YOU GIVE A CAT A CUPCAKE (commissioned by Adventure Theatre in 2011). Her 10-minute play WARRIORS was published by One Act Play Depot in 2010.  Other short plays include SEMPER FIDELIS,  POUNDS AWEIGH, and FIRST STOP: NIAGARA FALLS. Renee is an artistic associate with First Draft/Charter Theater, the program coordinator for Naked Ladies Lunch, and a proud member of both DC Area Playwrights and The Dramatists Guild of America. She teaches playwriting at George Washington University and improvisational comedy at The Theatre Lab, and is a licensed professional tour guide.  www.reneecalarco.com

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JENNIFER L. NELSON

Jennifer L Nelson is currently Director of Special Programming at Ford’s Theatre.  Prior to this appointment she was the founding Producing Artistic Director of the African Continuum Theatre Company, Washington D.C.’s only professional black theatre company. During that eleven year tenure, she produced twenty plays, multiple readings and other events. Ms. Nelson is a commended playwright and published poet.  Her musical play Torn from the Headlines was awarded the 1996 Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Most Outstanding New Play. Her three-minute telephone play Somebody Call 911 was commissioned by and featured at the 2001 Humana Festival at the Actors’ Theatre of Louisville. Her latest full-length play 24, 7, 365 was produced by Theatre of the First Amendment. Her full-length musical Hubert & Charlie was honored by the 2003 Larry Neal Writers’ Awards and was subsequently produced by the African Continuum Theatre. She has received several commissions to write issue-oriented plays for young audiences, most recently by Ford’s Theatre to bring to life historical character Elizabeth Keckly (2011 Washington Post Helen Hayes Theatre Award).  She has also been commissioned to write short plays for the Theatre Lab; Active Cultures/Sportaculture Festival; the Cultures-in-Motion Program of the National Portrait Gallery; the Education Department of the Corcoran Gallery; the Kennedy Center Program for Families; and Round House Theatre’s HeyDay Players. She is a three-time grantee of the DC Commission on the Arts Individual Artist program, and a recipient of the Mayor’s Arts Awards for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline. 

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MARY HALL SURFACE

Mary Hall Surface is a playwright and director specializing in theatre for families and multi-disciplinary collaborations.  A DC theatre community member since 1989, her producers include Round House Theatre, Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, the National Gallery of Art and over 15 productions at the Kennedy Center. Internationally her work has been featured in productions and festivals in Germany, Canada, Japan, Peru, France, Taiwan, Sweden and Ireland. Nominated for four Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play and five Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Direction, she received the 2002 award for her musical, Perseus Bayou. She is the artistic director of INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.  She received the Charlotte Chorpenning Award, presented by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education for an Outstanding Body of Work as a Playwright, May 2006. She was a finalist for the 2011 DC Mayor's Arts Award for Service to the Arts.

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