Diving Board

diving board

2010-05-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

Join Us!

2010-05-11T10:51:00.001-07:00

Our second annual

Diving Board Festival
a festival of readings of new works by local writers
suggested donation $5

Friday, October 8th @ 7:30pm at the Old Parish House
Salvation Road
by D.W. Gregory

Two guys. One rusted out Honda. Twenty-four hours to separate a girl from her guru. The road to Hell was never more fun.

Saturday, October 9th @ 5pm at College Park City Hall

The Way Suzanna Speaks
by Madeline Muravchik

When Kara Azul receives a visa to live with her aunt in Maryland, her overprotective father and close knit family must find a way to move on and let go. A coming of age story set in the Philippines in 2004.

Saturday, October 9th @ 7:30pm at College Park City Hall
Chance and Necessity
by Jon Klein
Jacques Monod and Albert Camus test the relationship between science and coincidence while fighting for the French Resistance.

Friday performance at

At the Old Parish House College Park, Maryland

4711 Knox Road, College Park, Maryland

Saturday performances at
College Park City Hall
4500 Knox Road, College Park, Maryland

Diving Board is sponsored by the College Parks Arts Exchange and
The Prince George's Arts Council

Directions to College Park City Hall

2010-05-10T01:19:00.000-07:00

College Park City Hall
4500 Knox Road College Park, Maryland 20740

Directions from Rhode Island Avenue, DC
Take Rhode Island Ave NW towards Maryland. After you cross the district line (Eastern Avenue), go another three and half miles. In Maryland, Rhode Island Avenue will become Baltimore Ave/Rte. 1. Cross East/West highway and proceed into downtown College Park. Turn right at Knox Rd. City Hall will be the red brick building on your left. The performance is on the second floor (past the parking ticket windows on the first floor.)

Directions from Beltway
From Beltway, take exit 25 to merge onto US-1 S/Baltimore Ave toward College Park South. You will pass the main gate of the University of Maryland. Knox Road will be on your left in the heart of downtown College Park (if you reach East/West Highway you have gone too far. Turn left at Knox Rd. City Hall will be the red brick building on your left. The performance is on the second floor (past the parking ticket windows on the first floor.)

Directions from the College Park Metro Station
Exit the College Park Metro Station through the tunnel marked “West Kiss And Ride.” Proceed west on Calvert Road for two blocks then turn right on Dartmouth Avenue. Proceed one block, then turn left on Knox Road. Proceed five blocks to City Hall on the right side of the street, just before reaching US Route 1. The performance is on the second floor (past the parking ticket windows on the first floor.)

Directions to the Old Parish House

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The Old Parish House

4711 Knox Road College Park, Maryland 20740

The Old Parish House is located at 4711 Knox Road in College Park, at the corner of Knox Road and Dartmouth Avenue. It is a short walk from the College Park Metro -- just turn right off of Calvert Road onto Dartmouth.

The Old Parish House is compliant with ADA standards for accessibility.

The Old Parish House was originally a dairy barn built in the early 1700s as part of the Calvert estate. It was the first home of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. During much of the twentieth century, it was the meeting place for the College Park Women's Club, who donated the building to the City of College Park in the late nineties. Now, the City makes the building available to those who wish to reserve a large, comfortable meeting

Interview with Playwright Jon Klein

2010-05-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

Active Cultures Director of New Play Development Jacqueline E. Lawton interviews Jon Klein, author of Chance And Necessity.

Jacqueline Lawton: So, to start could you tell me a little bit about where you live (maybe where and what sort of neighborhood)--describe the street where you live--what can you hear if you open a window, what can you see if you look out that window.

Jon Klein: I live in a townhouse in Frederick, Maryland. It's a long commute to DC (where I teach at Catholic University), but my wife and I were charmed by that civil-war era town and the Catoctin Mountain area when we came out to see my play BETTY THE YETI at Maryland Ensemble Theatre.

JL: Then tell me a little bit about your favorite place to write. Do you write in the same place or in different places? Describe your favorite place.

JK: Frankly, I write wherever and whenever I get the chance. I've learned that a writer can't be too picky about time and place, especially when under a deadline. I write at home, hotel rooms, in the office, you name it. I try not to write on airplanes, though!

JL: Give us a little background on where you're from originally, where you grew up, how you ended up where you are now...

JK: I'm from Louisville, Kentucky, where I apprenticed at Actors Theatre of Louisville and came into my first contact with the development and production of new plays. Later on, I had two full-length plays produced in their famous Humana Festival, so I felt that my biographical, geographical and professional worlds finally came together! I was an itinerant playwright for 25 years, moving to wherever I got regular productions - New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle and Los Angeles were all places I called home for long stretches of time. I've now been living in the DC area since six years ago, when I took over the MFA Playwriting Program at Catholic University.

JL: Were you always drawn to the theater?

JK: I knew almost nothing about theatre until I started to perform as an actor in plays in high school and college. And I knew nothing at all about new plays and playwrights until I apprenticed at Actors Theatre of Louisville. I wrote my first play at the age of 24 during that apprenticeship - a ten minute play which won a $100 prize and was produced as part of an evening of short plays at Actors Theatre. To this day, the most exciting event of my professional career!

JL: Describe for me all the sensations you had the first time you had one of your plays produced and you sat in the audience while it was performed...what was different about the characters you created? How much input did you have in the directing of that work?

JK: I learned immediately about the differences between the play you hear in your head and the play that is actually being performed. Occasionally those differences were a little frustrating, but they were mostly exciting and revelatory. I had open communication with the director, which is something I've continued to enjoy ever since. So yes, I was "hooked", and a playwright was born.

JL: Who or what inspires you to write? What do you hope to convey in the plays that you write--what are they about? What sort of people, situation, circumstances, do you like to write about?

JK: I write in a broad spectrum of styles and subjects - comedy, drama, docudrama, theatre for young people, musicals, adaptations, and historical epics (like CHANCE AND NECESSITY). I challenge myself not to write the same kind of play twice in a row. I usually begin with imagined characters in a specific situation - then ask myself why that interests me, and whether there's a potential play there.

JL: What compelled you to write CHANCE AND NECISSITY, which we are presenting at Diving Board?

JK: A friend of mine, who's a microbiologist at Duke University, introduced me to the world of Jacques Monod. Monod is famous in the scientific community, but not really with anyone else. I did some research and found there was a marvelous story there, especially when you include his relationships with Albert Camus and Jerzy Kozinski. I applied for and received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (an award which encourages theatre that promotes science and scientific stories), in conjunction with its development at Ensemble Studio Theatre in NYC. This draft represents the work that came out of the workshop and reading there.

JL: What’s next for you as a writer?

JK: In an extreme change of pace from this play, I want to invite people to see my adaptation of the famous children’s book BUNNICULA, now running at Imagination Stage in Bethesda. And in another change of pace, I'm writing a new musical called PRESTO CHANGE-O, for the Victory Theatre in Los Angeles. I also have plans for a few other plays - when I get the chance!

Interview with Playwright DW Gregory

2010-05-09T11:01:00.000-07:00

Active Cultures' Director of New Play Development Jacqueline E. Lawton interviews author D.W. Gregory about her play Salvation Road.

D.W. Gregory: I live in a street two blocks long, in an area called Glenmont Forest. The view from my window is my unweeded vegetable garden and my neighbor's yard, occasionally occupied by a big grey cat.

JL: Then tell me a little bit about your favorite place to write. Do you write in the same place or in different places? Describe your favorite place.

DWG: When we moved up here, I took first dibs on an upstairs bedroom overlooking the backyard. This has been my office for nearly 9 years, and I do most of my work at a small table in a dusty room. Sometimes, however, I work at the dining room table -- when I want to write long-hand, which is frequently; I sit here because there is a big bay window and the room is very sunny, bright, and fills me with a deluded sense of optimism that whatever I generate that day will be worth keeping.

JL: Give us a little background on where you're from originally, where you grew up, how you ended up where you are now...

DWG: Grew up in Pennsylvania, lived in the Midwest and West for several years before coming back East and eventually to Washington, D.C. I came here for work in journalism, and I ended up staying.

JL: Were you always drawn to the theater?

DWG: I've always been a ham actor; writing plays allows me to play all the parts in my head without having to audition for anything.

DWG: General sensation: Sheer terror. I still have panic attacks on opening night.

JL: Who or what inspires you to write? What do you hope to convey in the plays that you write--what are they about? What sort of people, situation, circumstances, do you like to write about?

DWG: I have some kind of genetic disorder that compels me to spend hours by myself in a fantasyland of my own creation. The chief compulsion is to entertain myself; occasionally I produce something that is also entertaining to other people.

JL: What compelled you to write Salvation Road, which we are presenting at Diving Board?

DWG: A friend of mine wanted a play about cults. So I wrote a play 10 years ago that was utterly unremarkable and I threw it in a drawer. About two years ago, he told me he had lined up a production (actually a reading) and I went into a panic realizing people were actually going to see it. So I pulled it out of the drawer and revised it radically. It only took me this long to figure out what story I wanted to tell. The original version was a bore because it was basically a 45 minute infomercial about how to avoid being recruited by a cult. I was much more interested in the mystery of it ... and in the impact of one person's decision on the lives of the people who are left behind, unable to understand what has drawn her in. To me, the compelling question is where you draw the line between faith and fanaticism. Where on this continuum does a church that makes a lot of demands of its followers slip into such dangerous territory that it qualifis as a cult? Where does it become abusive? Or is it that the organization is not the cult--it only becomes a cult in the minds of the susceptible, who allow themselves to be manipulated. Is it possible that in some of these organizations, individuals can stay on, of their own choosing, and derive something beneficial from it?

JL: What's next for you as a writer?

DWG: My comedy, Molumby's Million, opens Nov. 5 at Iron Age Theatre Co. in suburban Philadelphia. And I've got a commission for a new play from New Jersey Repertory Co.

Interview with Playwright Madeline Muravchik

2010-05-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

Active Cultures' Director of New Play Development Jacqueline E. Lawton interviews Madeline Muravchik, author of The Way Suzanna Speaks.

Jacqueline Lawton: So, to start could you tell me a little bit about where you live (maybe where and what sort of neighborhood)--describe the street where you live--what can you hear if you open a window, what can you see if you look out that window.

Madeline Muravchik: I live in an apartment in Old Town, Alexandria. It’s a fabulous neighborhood. It’s full of galleries, shops, restaurants, activity… I can walk everywhere. There is only one window in the main living space of my apartment. The view isn’t fabulous, just other low-rise apartments and offices accompanied by the sight and sound of cars whizzing by and a fair amount of construction. But there is nothing like having only one window to make you appreciate it.

JL: Then tell me a little bit about your favorite place to write. Do you write in the same place or in different places? Describe your favorite place.

MM: I usually write at my dining room table facing the aforementioned window. My husband and I had the table made as a sort of wedding gift to ourselves. The center of the table is a map of the world and around the circumference are scenes from the some of the places we’ve traveled to together: New York, Hawaii, France, Israel, Japan, and the Philippines. I start there but when I get stuck, I can’t stay in my chair and just think my way out. I have to move. So I often end up migrating, from the table to the couch, from the couch to the kitchen to get a snack or to do some inane task that I suddenly decide has to be done right now, back to the couch and then to the bedroom, and the bedroom back to a different chair at the dining room table. It’s a good thing I have a laptop.

JL: Give us a little background on where you're from originally, where you grew up, how you ended up where you are now...

MM: I was born in D.C. and grew up in Silver Spring. I went to NYU and got my BFA in acting from Tisch School of the Arts. After I graduated, I went to study in Paris for a semester. When I got home, I was prepared to move back to NY to pursue my career. About a week before I was supposed to leave town, I got offered a job as a member of Round House Theatre’s touring company. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to go to NY, but all of my friends in NY were unemployed or doing jobs they didn’t like and hoping to get a job like I was being offered here. So I took it. And I was very lucky to work pretty steadily for a number of years with various theaters around town. Then a couple of years ago, I stopped getting much work. To keep myself busy I started taking graduate French classes at George Mason. I learned that the playwright Heather McDonald was on the faculty. To me, she was a famous playwright whose work I had seen growing up. I was amazed that she was teaching at Mason. I signed up for her playwriting class for the first time in the fall of 2007 during which I wrote my first play, a ten-minute piece called The Measure of a Man. It was a fantastic experience. So great, in fact, that I’ve taken Heather’s class again many times since then and continue to write plays. Now instead of simply being an underemployed actor with a really time consuming hobby of French graduate studies, I am an aspiring playwright as well.

JL: Were you always drawn to the theater?

MM: In a word, yes. Actually, it’s embarrassing to admit this, but I first started taking acting classes as a kid because I was obsessed with soap operas and wanted to be on one. Fortunately, the obsession for daytime drama dissipated, but once I took my first acting class (at the Round House) I was hooked. For years I participated in a class they offered called “Youth OnStage” (which I eventually taught). We made our own shows and performed them at Montgomery County Libraries. It’s interesting to realize that my very first acting training also included seeds of playwriting training as well since the students have a hand in creating the show. Much of my training during college was like that, too. I never wrote a play per se, but I studied at the Experimental Theatre Wing. It strongly encourages students to create their own work. For me, the medium of theater has all the best stuff in it: it’s storytelling and I love stories; It’s live and something you get to physically do, whether you’re on the stage or in the audience; and it’s endeavoring to reveal truth in an innovative way. There’s just nothing more exciting.

MM: It was exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. Sort of like the first part of a roller coaster when you’re approaching the top of the first big drop. I don’t remember too many specifics because I hardly breathed the whole time. I just so wanted the play to work and the audience to enjoy it. The most interesting thing I learned during the pre-show process was that there really are two plays: the play one writes and the production that results. I had a great young director who welcomed my input and with whom I saw eye to eye on many things. I was very pleased with that production.

JL: Who or what inspires you to write? What do you hope to convey in the plays that you write--what are they about? What sort of people, situation, circumstances, do you like to write about?

MM: Often, it’s moments of wonder or discovery–big or miniscule – and the questions that immediately ensue that spark my interest. Sometimes I hear a story about someone, usually a stranger, and it captures my imagination. Sometimes there is a situation that I’m struggling with in my own life and it finds its way onto the page. My biggest goal as a writer is to create clear, compelling stories that have a satisfying journey. My aesthetic is not opaque in any way. I like to write about real people in real situations, albeit situations dramatic enough to hold my interest. I tend to write about families. Most of my plays have large casts.. I guess I’m kind of fascinated with the ripple affect of our actions. Each of us is going through our own drama simultaneously. Often I try to capture that multiplicity of action.

JL: What compelled you to write the play that we’re presenting at Diving Board?

MM: The inspiration for the story came after a trip to the Philippines in 2006, personal experiences of family members, and from a story on NPR. The NPR story made me realize that many American and Filipino families have been affected by the divisive nature of policies regarding Filipino immigration to the U.S. – not just my own.

JL: What’s next for you as a writer?

MM: I have a new idea for a play that is so convoluted that it nearly defies my own imagination! It involves a ten year old girl being raised by her grandfather while her mother pursues a circus career in Paris AND the story of at least one member of the first integrated junior high school class in New York (of which my father was a part) pre-Brown vs. the Board of Ed. There may also be a Japanese widower involved. It’s in the earliest stages of conception.

Salvation Road Director Danielle Drakes

2010-05-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

Producing Artistic Director of Round House Theatre, Blake Robison, describes Danielle as, "one of the DC theatre community's most exciting up and coming hyphenates. She is a producer-director-actor of great ambition and promise". As an actor, Ms. Drakes has worked with The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Center Stage, The Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and Imagination Stage. She most recently played Madame CJ Walker in Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention at The Smithsonian's Discovery Theatre and was featured in Referendum: A Political Arts Collective's The Trojan Women for the 2007 Capital Fringe Festival. As a teacher, she has worked with The Baltimore Shakespeare Partnership, The Theatre Lab, Round House TheatreÕs Education & Outreach, The Drama Learning Center and Montgomery College. Ms. Drakes directed a reading of The Devil's Sweet Water for the Shakespeare Theatre's education department at The Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage Festival 2007, assistant directed A Lesson Before Dying at Round House Theatre, and Intimate Apparel at African Continuum Theatre. Other directing credits include Stop Kiss, Southern Girls, Dutchman and Chain and Late Bus to Mecca as part of her undergraduate thesis, theHegira: A Sociological and Theatrical Exploration of the African American Woman in the 21st Century- two plays by Pearl Cleage. Danielle is a 2008 TCG Nathan Cummings Young Leaders of Color grant award recipient. She is on the Artist Council of Round House Theatre and a member of the Cultural Development Corporation artist network, the Red Circle. Danielle received her BA from Goucher College and MFA from The Catholic University of America and is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Chance and Necessity Playwright Jon Klein

2010-05-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

Jon Klein is the author of over twenty plays, presented Off-Broadway and at over a hundred American regional theatres, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, South Coast Repertory, the Arden Theatre, the Alley Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, and the Alliance Theatre. D.C. area productions include plays at Arena Stage, Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth, Roundhouse Theatre, Theatre of the First Amendment, and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival (where he has also directed). He has won three NEA Playwriting Fellowships for his work, as well as the Dramatists Guild/CBS New Play Award, the HBO Playwrights USA Award, and playwriting fellowships from the Bush, McKnight and Jerome Foundations. He was a TCG/NEA Playwright-in-Residence at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA, and a Playwright-in-Residence at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. He has taught playwriting and screenwriting at Ohio University, Harvard University, the University of
Texas, the University of Washington, and Hollins University.

Chance and Necessity Director Tom Prewitt

2010-05-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

Tom Prewitt and Mary Resing, photo by Ian Armstrong

Tom Prewitt is a professional director, educator and administrator with over twenty-five years in the field. He has directed widely in the Washington, DC region, staging many productions for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Round House Theater, Theatre of the
First Amendment and Signature Theatre, among others. He has also directed numerous New York and regional productions, from Portland, Maine to Carmel, California. He served as Associate Artistic Director at Woolly Mammoth for nearly ten seasons, during which time he not only directed for the mainstage but helped create and produce a new play reading series and many of the theatre’s acclaimed outreach programs, such as the Community Playbuilding project, which yielded fully-staged productions of Invisible City (2001) and The Other River (2006), about the 14th Street corridor and Southeast, DC, respectively. Mr. Prewitt also served as the first Executive Director of the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, and currently serves on the Board of Directors and as Managing Director for
City at Peace, a non-profit youth development and performing arts group in Washington.

The Way Suzanna Speaks Playwright Madeline Muravchik

2010-05-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

Madeline Muravchik is an actor, drama teacher and playwright. NY acting credits include shows with Théâtre Ouf!, Adhesive Theater, and Innocent Voices Productions. Locally, she was a member of Round House Theater’s Touring Company and of Le Neon Theatre, where she daylighted as Director of Development. She has also performed in DC with Ambassador Theater, Scena Theatre, Stanislavsky Theatre Studio, and Theatre du Jour among others. As a playwright, Madeline has had two plays produced as part of the George Mason University Ten Minute Play Festival: The Measure of a Man and Accidental Rendez-Vous. She was twice selected to participate in Theatre of the First Amendment’s First Light playwriting program. In addition to acting and playwriting, Madeline has taught acting at the Round House Theatre, the French International School, and Sligo Creek Elementary. She teaches French theater history for New York University’s Summer High School in Paris program. Madeline has a BFA in acting from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and is currently pursing a Masters degree in French at GMU.

The Way Suzanna Speaks Director Ali Miller

2010-05-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

Ali Miller has helmed devised theatre projects for Arena Stage’s Community Engagement programs, Imagination Stage’s Speak-Out on Stage Ensemble, and Firebelly Productions. She most recently produced and co-directed the yearlong project How to Be a Human, which culminated in a critically acclaimed run at the 2010 Capital Fringe Festival. Ali has worked with local theatres including Constellation Theatre Company, The Studio Theatre, The African Continuum Theatre Company, Classika-Synetic Theatre, and MetroStage. She studied devised theatre with Michael Rohd as part of the Sojourn Theater Summer Institute and acting with The Atlantic Theater Company in Manhattan. She holds a theatre degree from The College of William and Mary, is Director in Residence for the South Asian Performing Arts Network (www.sapanarts.org) where she is developing a devised theatre project for Spring 2011, and is the managing director of American Ensemble Theater (americanensemble.org). She thanks Mary and Madeline for giving her the opportunity to work on this lovely show.

Salvation Road Playwright: DW Gregory

2010-05-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

D.W. Gregory is a Pennsylvania native whose work frequently explores the disconnect between the dream and reality of American working class experience. The New York Times has called her "a playwright with a talent to enlighten and provoke" for RADIUM GIRLS, when it premiered at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey. Her drama THE GOOD DAUGHTER, about a Missouri farm family struggling with rapid social change after World War I, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize when it premiered at New Jersey Repertory Co., where Gregory is a resident playwright. Other plays include OCTOBER 1962, THE GOOD GIRL IS GONE, SALVATION ROAD, and SO TELL ME ABOUT THIS GUY, a short comedy that was included in MATCH GAMES, on the mainstage at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2009. Gregory is currently at work on a new comedy, DIRTY PICTURES, set during the depths of the nation's last economic crisis in 1982. In addition to writing plays, Gregory has worked as a theater critic--most recently for The Washington Post--and as a teaching artist. She is a founding member of the Playwrights' Gymnasium, a process-oriented playwrights' workshop in Washington, D.C. Look for her new comedy, MOLUMBY'S MILLION, at Iron Age Theatre Co. in Philadelphia, coming up in November 2010. For more information, access her Website: www.dwgregory.com.

Readings at The Old Parish House in College Park

2009-12-15T07:03:00.000-08:00

Rehearsing in Riverdale

2009-12-15T06:53:00.000-08:00

Directors

2009-09-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

Angelisa Gillyard is an emerging director and choreographer in Washington, DC. Directing credits include Cardiff East (Studio Theatre), Cabaret Carousel (In Series/Capital Fringe Festival), and the 20th Annual Anniversary Celebration Reading (Black Women Playwrights’ Group). Choreography credits include From U St. to the Cotton Club (In Series), The Wiz, Purlie and Dreamgirls (upcoming with The Jaguar Players). Assistant director credits include [Title of Show] (upcoming at Signature Theatre), Fucking A (Studio Theatre), The Colored Museum (University of Maryland) and A Dream Play (Constellation Theatre Company). In addition, Angelisa currently serves as a dramaturgy volunteer at Arena Stage. She holds a BS from Spelman College, MBA from GA Tech and PhD from The Ohio State University.

Colin Grube has been a theatrical nomad and Jack-of-Trades, playing in all areas of theatre: Actor, Designer, Director, Stage Manager, Carpenter, Electrician, Run Crew and Production Manager. He has worked and trained all over the country, from Boston to Berkeley and most recently trained at Round House Theatre. He is now the Production Manager at Adventure Theatre

Dramaturgs

2009-09-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Sabrina Dixon has worked as an Information Professional, for both the public and federal sectors, since 2002 and is an expert in the area of research. A graduate of Pratt Institute with an M.S. in Information and Library Science and a Penn State alumnus with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, her experience in the management and application of client-valued information services is diverse. In 2003, her technical expertise was lent in the publication of the fictional novel Release, as editor. In her spare time, she volunteers with Arena Stage writing script summaries and providing research for the subtexts of upcoming plays.

Jacqueline E. Lawton completed her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin in May of 2003. Since then, she has worked diligently to remain actively involved in theatre as an actress, dramaturg, playwright and teaching artist. Currently, she resides in Washington DC, where she has worked with Active Cultures, Arena Stage, African Continuum Theatre Company, Folger Shakespeare Library, Ford’s Theater, Rorschach Theatre Company, Round House Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Theater Alliance, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Young Playwrights’ Theater.

Amrita Ramanan Mangus is thrilled to be working with Active Cultures for the first time! She recently completed a dramaturgy fellowship with Arena Stage, where she served as the dramaturg for the mainstage production of Crowns and Harlan at the Rockpile and Journey to the Door of No Return: A Hip Hop Odsessey for the Downstairs New Play Reading Series. Other dramaturgy credits include Skywriter (2009 Cap Fringe Festival), Cymbeline (The Great River Shakespeare Festival), and The Who's Tommy (Arizona Repertory Theater). Amrita will continue working with Arena Stage as their new works senior producing fellow. She holds a BFA in Dramaturgy/Theatre History from the University of Arizona.

2009-08-01T12:15:00.000-07:00