EM Lewis - Playwright

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 selected by the American Theater Critics Association. Lewis has been awarded a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University for the 2010-2011 academic year, where she will be working on a new play.

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. SONG OF EXTINCTION was published by Dramatics Magazine in January 2010, and in an acting edition by Samuel French in March.

In 2007, Lewis was selected as one of twelve Los Angeles theater artists to watch by LA Stage Magazine as two of her other 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. HEADS went on to productions in Chicago (Halcyon Theater's Alcyone Festival) and Denver (And Toto Too Theater Company) in 2009. The Denver Post called the play "a gripping fictional drama that raises important questions about our times" and the North Denver Tribune praised the production for being "powerful, brutal and effective."

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 member of Moving Arts Theater Company, the Dramatists Guild, the International Centre for Women Playwrights and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights. She is originally from Oregon, lived in Los Angeles, California for quite a while, and is now headed for Princeton, New Jersey, where she has received a 2010-2011 Hodder Fellowship in playwriting.



	EM Lewis



	Home News Coming Soon! Biography Full-Length Plays Short Plays Works-In-Progress Cool Stuff Links Blog Contact		*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 selected by the American Theater Critics Association. Lewis has been awarded a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University for the 2010-2011 academic year, where she will be working on a new play. 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. SONG OF EXTINCTION was published by Dramatics Magazine in January 2010, and in an acting edition by Samuel French in March. In 2007, Lewis was selected as one of twelve Los Angeles theater artists to watch by LA Stage Magazine as two of her other 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. HEADS went on to productions in Chicago (Halcyon Theater's Alcyone Festival) and Denver (And Toto Too Theater Company) in 2009. The Denver Post called the play "a gripping fictional drama that raises important questions about our times" and the North Denver Tribune praised the production for being "powerful, brutal and effective." 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 member of Moving Arts Theater Company, the Dramatists Guild, the International Centre for Women Playwrights and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights. She is originally from Oregon, lived in Los Angeles, California for quite a while, and is now headed for Princeton, New Jersey, where she has received a 2010-2011 Hodder Fellowship in playwriting. *PLAYS* SONG OF EXTINCTION * HEADS * INFINITE BLACK SUITCASE * THE INCIDENT REPORT * THE EDGE OF ROSS ISLAND * SING ME THAT LEONARD COHEN SONG AGAIN (and many others -- see "Full-Length Plays" and "Short 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 *PRODUCING* Founder and Producer The War Plays Project - March 2008 through March 2009 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) *EDUCATION* Masters Degree in Professional Writing – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Bachelor of Arts Degree in English – Willamette University, Salem, OR If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. ~Isaac Asimov