EM Lewis
Biography
EM Lewis work has been produced around the country. She is the winner of the 2009 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for her play SONG OF EXTINCTION and of the 2008 Primus Prize for an emerging female theater artist for her play HEADS -- both awarded by the American Theater Critics Association.
SONG OF EXTINCTION premiered in fall 2008, produced by Moving Arts through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission's Winter Partnership Program at [Inside] the Ford. The play -- which explores a biology teacher's struggle to help a troubled student and deal with his own history as a survivor of the Cambodian genocide -- won the $25,000 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award from the American Theater Critics Association, the EcoDrama Playwrights Festival, the Ashland New Plays Festival and the 2008 Ted Schmitt Award for the world premiere of an outstanding new play from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. It was named Production of the Year at the LA Weekly Awards, and actor Darrell Kunitomi won best lead actor for his portrayal of the main character. Before its Los Angeles production, the play was a finalist for the 2008 Sundance Theater Lab and HotCity Theater's Greenhouse Festival. It was also featured in Atlantic Theater's 2008 Next Page reading series, NYU's hotINK International Festival of New Plays and the Blank Theater's Living Room Series.
In 2007, Lewis was selected as one of twelve Los Angeles theater artists to watch by LA Stage Magazine as two of her full-length plays received their world premieres. HEADS - a hostage drama set against the war in Iraq - played at the Blank Theater in Los Angeles in August/September 2007. It was Critics' Pick in the LA Times, and they named it one of the top ten productions of 2007 at the end of the year. Deborah Klugman, in LA Weekly, said about the play that "...the question of who we are beneath our posturing lands with such force, it jangles the nerves long after the play has ended." Edward Albee called the play "provocative and wonderfully threatening" when it was read at the Great Plains Theater Conference.
INFINITE BLACK SUITCASE a large ensemble piece about grief and survival, set in rural Oregon premiered at the Lillian Theater, put up by TheSpyAnts, in April/May 2007. After seeing that production, Variety's Julio Martinez said that "Lewis gives evidence of being a significant talent to watch." Also in 2007, Lewis won Coe College's New Works for the Stage Competition for HEADS, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's IN10 Competition (honoring short plays that create strong roles for young women) for THE EDGE OF ROSS ISLAND.
Lewis is a writer-in-residence at Moving Arts Theatre Company, and a member of the Dramatists Guild, the International Centre for Women Playwrights and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights. She lives in Santa Monica, California now but she is originally from Oregon.
SONG OF EXTINCTION premiered in fall 2008, produced by Moving Arts through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission's Winter Partnership Program at [Inside] the Ford. The play -- which explores a biology teacher's struggle to help a troubled student and deal with his own history as a survivor of the Cambodian genocide -- won the $25,000 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award from the American Theater Critics Association, the EcoDrama Playwrights Festival, the Ashland New Plays Festival and the 2008 Ted Schmitt Award for the world premiere of an outstanding new play from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. It was named Production of the Year at the LA Weekly Awards, and actor Darrell Kunitomi won best lead actor for his portrayal of the main character. Before its Los Angeles production, the play was a finalist for the 2008 Sundance Theater Lab and HotCity Theater's Greenhouse Festival. It was also featured in Atlantic Theater's 2008 Next Page reading series, NYU's hotINK International Festival of New Plays and the Blank Theater's Living Room Series.
In 2007, Lewis was selected as one of twelve Los Angeles theater artists to watch by LA Stage Magazine as two of her full-length plays received their world premieres. HEADS - a hostage drama set against the war in Iraq - played at the Blank Theater in Los Angeles in August/September 2007. It was Critics' Pick in the LA Times, and they named it one of the top ten productions of 2007 at the end of the year. Deborah Klugman, in LA Weekly, said about the play that "...the question of who we are beneath our posturing lands with such force, it jangles the nerves long after the play has ended." Edward Albee called the play "provocative and wonderfully threatening" when it was read at the Great Plains Theater Conference.
INFINITE BLACK SUITCASE a large ensemble piece about grief and survival, set in rural Oregon premiered at the Lillian Theater, put up by TheSpyAnts, in April/May 2007. After seeing that production, Variety's Julio Martinez said that "Lewis gives evidence of being a significant talent to watch." Also in 2007, Lewis won Coe College's New Works for the Stage Competition for HEADS, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's IN10 Competition (honoring short plays that create strong roles for young women) for THE EDGE OF ROSS ISLAND.
Lewis is a writer-in-residence at Moving Arts Theatre Company, and a member of the Dramatists Guild, the International Centre for Women Playwrights and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights. She lives in Santa Monica, California now but she is originally from Oregon.
PLAYS
(see "Plays" for a full list of theater credits)
OTHER WRITING
Blood Memory (screenplay)
Quarterfinalist, 2004 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting Competition -- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Hollywood, CA
1st Place, ALAP Monologue Slam Dramapalooza 2004 West Hollywood, CA
Finalist, ALAP Monologue Slam - Dramapalooza 2006 - West Hollywood, CA
Sunspinner Literary Magazine Co-editor and co-founder www.sunspinner.org
Quarterfinalist, 2004 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting Competition -- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Hollywood, CA
1st Place, ALAP Monologue Slam Dramapalooza 2004 West Hollywood, CA
Finalist, ALAP Monologue Slam - Dramapalooza 2006 - West Hollywood, CA
Sunspinner Literary Magazine Co-editor and co-founder www.sunspinner.org
PRODUCING
Founder and Producer
The War Plays Project - March 2008 through March 2009, and ongoing
Los Angeles, CA
Associate Producer
USC Master of Professional Writing Program's 2007 and 2008 One-Act Play Festivals
Los Angeles, CA
Workshop Readings - 2005-2009
Lee Wochner's "Words That Speak" Playwriting Workshop
Moving Arts Theater Company
Los Angeles, CA
The War Plays Project - March 2008 through March 2009, and ongoing
Los Angeles, CA
Associate Producer
USC Master of Professional Writing Program's 2007 and 2008 One-Act Play Festivals
Los Angeles, CA
Workshop Readings - 2005-2009
Lee Wochner's "Words That Speak" Playwriting Workshop
Moving Arts Theater Company
Los Angeles, CA
MEMBERSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Moving Arts Theater Company
Dramatists Guild
International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP)
Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP)
Dramatists Guild
International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP)
Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP)
EDUCATION
Masters Degree in Professional Writing University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Willamette University, Salem, OR
Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Willamette University, Salem, OR
Some Things I'm Fond Of...
Short stories by Raymond Carver
Poems by Mary Oliver and TS Eliot
Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh
Plays by Edward Albee and Lanford Wilson
Gardening
Dirty gin martinis
My family
Pink Floyd - The Doors - Leonard Cohen
Gillian Welch - Rufus Wainwright - Bob Dylan
Oregon
Poems by Mary Oliver and TS Eliot
Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh
Plays by Edward Albee and Lanford Wilson
Gardening
Dirty gin martinis
My family
Pink Floyd - The Doors - Leonard Cohen
Gillian Welch - Rufus Wainwright - Bob Dylan
Oregon
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live,
I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.
~Isaac Asimov