EM Lewis
Playwright
EM Lewis work has been read and produced around the country. She is the winner of the 2008 Primus Prize. Her newest play, SONG OF EXTINCTION, was a finalist for the 2008 Sundance Theater Lab and HotCity Theater's Greenhouse Festival. It was 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. It will receive its world premiere this fall, produced by Moving Arts through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission's Winter Partnership Program at [Inside] the Ford.
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 "...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.
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 "...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.
November 7 - December 14, 2008:
The WORLD PREMIERE of SONG OF EXTINCTION
Presented by Moving Arts and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission
As part of the [INSIDE] THE FORD 2008-2009 Season
SONG OF EXTINCTION was a finalist for the 2008 Sundance Theater Lab and the 2008 HotCity New Play Festival. It has been selected for inclusion in the 2008 Ashland New Plays Festival in Ashland, OR in October 2008. It had readings in Los Angeles at the Blank Theater and Moving Arts, and in New York at NYU's hotINK International Festival of New Plays and Atlantic Theater's Next Page Reading Series.
June 2008: EM Lewis Wins $10,000 Francesca Primus Prize for HEADS!
September 2008: LEND ME A MENTOR in Missed Opportunity Productions' One-Act Play Festival -- Shanghai, China
Ongoing: THE WAR PLAYS PROJECT -- www.warplaysproject.com
__________________________
The WORLD PREMIERE of SONG OF EXTINCTION
Presented by Moving Arts and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission
As part of the [INSIDE] THE FORD 2008-2009 Season
SONG OF EXTINCTION was a finalist for the 2008 Sundance Theater Lab and the 2008 HotCity New Play Festival. It has been selected for inclusion in the 2008 Ashland New Plays Festival in Ashland, OR in October 2008. It had readings in Los Angeles at the Blank Theater and Moving Arts, and in New York at NYU's hotINK International Festival of New Plays and Atlantic Theater's Next Page Reading Series.
June 2008: EM Lewis Wins $10,000 Francesca Primus Prize for HEADS!
September 2008: LEND ME A MENTOR in Missed Opportunity Productions' One-Act Play Festival -- Shanghai, China
Ongoing: THE WAR PLAYS PROJECT -- www.warplaysproject.com
__________________________
The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions
which have been hidden by the answers.
-James Baldwin
which have been hidden by the answers.
-James Baldwin