Website
http://www.saltlakeactingcompany.org
Plays
SHE WAS MY BROTHER. (2m, 1w)
Synopsis:
A man and a woman, the first two anthropologists to study the Zuni people in western New Mexico, both fall in love with a Native shaman who is a biological male but functions in his culture as a woman. Based on historical events.
Grants and Awards:
• Commission, Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT.
• Workshop, Missoula Colony, Missoula, MT.
• Workshop, Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT.
• Workshop, Kennedy Center, Page-to-Stage Festival, Washington, DC.
• Workshop, Playwrights’ Center, Minneapolis, MN, Fall 2008.
Production History:
• Plan-B Theatre, Salt Lake City, UT, Fall, 2010.
• Borderlands Theatre, Tucson, AZ, Fall 2009.
THE HARVEY GIRLS. (8w, 7m)
Synopsis:
In a Harvey House, an upscale restaurant along the Santa Fe Railroad, a group of young women imported from the east, contend with hustling, conniving, pretentious patrons and obedient, defiant, fascist coworkers. Then an Armed Woman shows up, stranded in town after a botched train robbery, and joins their ranks.
Grants and Awards:
• Commission, Penn State University.
• Commission, Dramatic Publishing.
• Enhanced reading, Fearless Fringe Festival, Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT, Summer, 2010.
Publication:
• Dramatic Publishing
BILLION DOLLAR BABY. (1w)
Synopsis:
Polly, a middle-aged theatre reviewer, thinks she knows a little something about how the world works, then her son and daughter-in-law become hyper-parents. With an overly protected, overly praised, and overly-parented four-year-old she wonders how the human race can possbily survive the rigors of rearing their own children.
Grants and Awards:
•Grant, Edgerton Foundation for New American Plays.
•Workshop, Playwrights’ Center, Minneapolis, MN.
Production History:
•Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT, Winter 2007.
•Idaho Repertory Theatre and University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, Winter 2007. [with Patty Duke]
DUST EATERS. (2m, 3w)
Synopsis:
One hundred years of the history between white Mormons and Native Goshutes, leading up to the Goshutes’ decision to store nuclear waste on their reservation.
Grants and Awards:
•Major grant, Pew Charitable Trusts.
•Nomination, American Theatre Critics Association, Steinberg Award for the best new play produced outside New York.
•Finalist, PEN USA Award in Drama.
Production History:
•Lincoln Square Theatre, Chicago, IL, Fall 2008.
•Borderlands Theatre, Tucson, AZ, Fall 2007.
•Salt Lake Acting Company, Spring 2005.
Publication:
•Dramatic Publishing Company.
WAIT! (1m, 3w; may be expanded to 3m, 5w)
Synopsis:
It’s the summer that changes Wendy Burger’s life. She gets involved with a theatre company trying to revive an old opera house, moves out of the UPS truck she drives and into the house over top of the Greeks, falls in love with O Vixen My Vixen, and gets acting lessons from Floating Piñata Head. But the highlight of the summer is when she plays Lisa in Hamlet, a production where the title role is played by a flickering blue light.
Grants and Awards:
•Commission, Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT.
•NEA/TCG Residency Grant.
•McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship, Playwrights’ Center, Minneapolis, MN.
•Women’s Theatre Festival, Seattle, WA.
•Named one of the ten best plays of the year, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland Scene.
Production History:
•Perseverance Theatre, Juneau, AK, Spring 2004.
•Catalyst Theatre, Philadelphia, PA, Spring 2004.
•Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland, OH, Fall 2003.
•Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT, Spring 2003.
Publication:
•Dramatic Publishing Company.
ACROSS THE WIDE AND LONESOME PRAIRIE. (2w) [a play for young people]
Synopsis:
Two 13-year-old girls on the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon encounter things tragic and funny, reassuring and frightening.
Grants and Awards:
•Commission, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC.
Production History:
•Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Madison, NJ, Fall 2010.
•Kennedy Center, Public School Tour, Washington, DC, Spring 2003.
CHEAT. (1m, 3w)
Synopsis:
We’re in a munitions plant in Detroit during WW II. Reva’s son, also Roxy’s old boyfriend, is killed in the Battle of the Bulge.
The two women form a bond that becomes both life-changing and impossible.
Awards and Grants:
•Commission, Geva Theatre, Rochester, NY.
•Reading, Asylum Theatre, Las Vegas, NV.
•Reading, Working Theatre, New York, NY.
•Reading, Salt Lake Acting Compnay, Salt Lake City, UT.
•Reading, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Madison, NJ.
•Reading, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ.
Production History:
•Detroit Repertory Theatre, Detroit, MI, 2003.
•Women’s Project and Productions, New York City, NY, 2002.
•Key West Theatre Festival, Key West, FL, 2001.
TWO-HEADED. (2w)
Synopsis:
Two young girls move from age 10 to age 50 in l9th century Utah, both carrying the weight of their parents involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, an event unique in western history when a group of Mormons zealots killed 127 Arkansas and Missouri travelers, on their way to California. Based on historical events.
Grants and Awards:
•Commissioned by ASK Theatre Projects, Los Angeles, CA.
•One of the best productions of the year, Washington Post.
•Nomination, Ovation Award, Los Angeles, CA.
•Best New Play, LA Weekly Awards, Los Angeles, CA.
•New Play Award, Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA.
Production History:
•In preparation for an independent film.
•Black Cat Theatre, St. Louis, MO, 2008.
•Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, MA, 2007.
•TitleWAVE Theatre and Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland, OH, 2007.
•East Lynne Theatre, Cape May, NJ, 2006.
•Washington Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC, 2006.
•Anson Ford Theatre, Hot Properties Series, Los Angeles, CA, 200l.
•Women’s Project and Productions, New York, NY, 2000.
•Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA, 2000.
•Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT, 2000.
Publications:
•Dramatic Publishing Company.link to dramatic as they license it.
•THE BEST PLAYS BY WOMEN, 2000, Smith and Kraus.
LAST LISTS OF MY MAD MOTHER. (3w)
Synopsis:
Their mother was a teacher, now two sisters contend with her failing faculties and ravished memory in a funny, poignant, terminal journey.
Grants and Awards:
•Commission, by Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, CA.
•Nomination, American Theatre Critics Association, Steinberg Award for best new play produced outside New York.
•New Play Award, Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA.
Production History:
•Off the Fringe Festival, Fort Worth, TX, 2009.
•Studio Theatre, Phoenix, AZ, 2007.
•Luna Stage, Montclair, NJ, 200l, directed by Olympia Dukakis.
•ShenanArts, Staunton, VA, 2000.
•Hudson Guild Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 2000.
•Theatre Festival Fringe, Edinburgh, Scotland, l999.
•TheatreWorks, Hartford, CN, l998.
•Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT, l997.
•Key West Theatre Festival, Key West, FL, l997.
•Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA, l997.
Publication:
•Dramatic Publishing Company, also translated into Flemish.
THE LOST VEGAS SERIES.
Synopsis:
Our Girl navigates her complicated life in sin city. It’s a weird town and a strange journey that’s funny and poignant, strange and powerful, even as the settings themselves, everything from Wee Kirk o’ the Heather to the Liberace Museum.
AWARDS AND GRANTS:
•Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work, Chicago, IL.
•Workshop, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, CA.
•Reading, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
Production History:
•Minneapolis Fringe Festival, Minneapolis, MN, 2004.
•Nomad Theatre, London, England, l998.
•Asylum Theatre, Las Vegas, NV, l998.
•Zebra Crossing Theatre, Chicago, IL, l996.
WHITE MONEY. (1m, 3w)
Synopsis:
Ella, that’s Spanish for ‘her’, leaves Snakes, her husband, to discover an America that’s dominated by trailer parks and truck stops, atomic wastelands and cheap motels, where politics is run by a wrestler named Killer Bovine, and television will steal both your soul and your clothes.
Awards and Grants:
•Commission, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Philadelphia, PA
•Award, Fund for New American Plays, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC.
•Nomination, Best Play of the Year, LA Weekly, Los Angeles, CA.
•New Play Award, Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA.
•Workshop, Shenandoah Playwrights Retreat, Staunton, VA.
Production History:
•Splitting Image Theatre Company, Baltimore, MD, l994.
•Powerhouse Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, l993.
•Source Theatre, Washington, DC, l992.
•Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA, l992.
•Actors Theatre of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, l99l.
•Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT, l99l.
Publication:
•Theatre Communications Group, Plays in Process Series.
THURSDAY’S CHILD.
Synopsis:
George Ann is married with three kids and can barley see over the hedge of their adolescence when she finds she’s pregnant again.
Awards and Grants:
•Workshop, Shenandoah Playwrights Retreat, Staunton, VA.
•Reading, Playwrights Horizons, New York, NY. [with Kathy Bates]
•Reading, Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland, OH.
Production History:
•Capital Rep, Albany, NY, l988.
STRAY DOGS. (4m, 1w)
Synopsis:
Burdened by two sons, one a religious fanatic and the other with the mouth of a sailor and the energy of a bee, Nyda tries to keep the boat afloat even though she’s married to an alcoholic and lives in a town without pity. When she finds solace in her husband’s brother, all hell breaks loose.
Grants and Awards:
•Nomination, 5 Joseph Jefferson Awards, Chicago, IL.
•CBS/Dramatists Guild Playwriting Award.
•Nomination, Helen Hayes Award, Washington, DC.
•Workshop, Shenandoah Playwrights Retreat, Staunton, VA.
Production History:
•Independent film, 2001, available on video.
•Profiles Theatre, Chicago, IL, 2000.
•Arena Stage, Washington, DC, l986, directed by James Nicola.
Publication:
•Dramatists Play Service
