|
 Jill
André
is a producer, director and an
actress. She was co-founder of
the Pleiades Theatre Group and
also co-founder of the American
Renaissance Theatre where she
produced numerous new works. In
Los Angeles, she directed
BODIES UNBOUND, which also
played at the Edinburgh
Festival, TRUST, COMINGS AND
GOINGS, LAST SUMMER AT BLUEFISH
COVE co-directed with
Dorothy Lyman and many more. In
New York she directed THE
LAST SORTIE (at TSS),
NAVAJO MEMOIRS, EASTER WEEKEND,
NIGHTGAMES, CHICAGO IMPULSE,
and BABY GRAND. As an
actress, she appeared on
Broadway in such plays as
CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD, THE
TRIP BACK DOWN, and THE
GREAT WHITE HOPE, as well as
many Off-Broadway and regional
productions. Some of her many TV
and film credits include TWIN
FALLS, IDAHO, GHOSTS OF
MISSISSIPPI, LOST IN AMERICA,
THE PRACTICE, NYPD BLUE, PICKET
FENCES, and more.
 Paul
Baker’s
(Festival Musical Director)
music on Celtic harp, concert
harp, piano, organ and
harpsichord can be heard in
concert and on recordings and
movie soundtracks. Voted “Best
Musical Director of the Year”
for his work with Stephen
Sondheim’s musical ASSASSINS,
Mr. Baker continues to play for
many national tours and concerts
in the Los Angeles area. The
group “Pastiche” premiered his
GERSHWIN SAMPLER at Carnegie
Hall and two of his compositions
for harp (and his hands) were
featured in the movie, BARK. He
has recorded two Celtic harp
albums, “The Tranquil Harp” and
“The Ladder of the Soul.” Mr.
Baker returns to the Festival
for his second year having
served as musical and vocal
director of the 2002 production
of ALL THAT JAZZ, a concert of
songs by John Kander and Fred
Ebb.
 Katherine
Billings
(Special Guest Presenter) is
an award-winning director,
actor, writer, producer, an
Adjunct Professor at Seattle
Pacific University, Artist in
Residence at the Victoria Motion
Picture School, as well as owner
of Billings Productions. She
trained at Northwestern
University, U.C.L.A., London
Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts
(LAMDA) and with Robert Lewis,
Stella Adler and David Craig.
Katherine’s
awards include the American Film
Festival, the U.S. Film
Festival, the International
C.I.N.E., regional Stage
Directing and Acting honors.
She has produced and edited for
the Women's Directing Project at
the American Film Institute.
As a professional coach,
she has prepared actors for
auditions and appearances on
Wonder Years, Bull Durham,
X-Files, Millenium,
Stargate, DaVinci’s
Inquest, Deadman’s Gun,
Disturbing Behavior,
Nothing Too Good For A Cowboy,
and Harsh Realm.
 Mickey
Birnbaum’s
play Big Death & Little Death
inaugurated Woolly
Mammoth's new Washington D.C.
theatre in May, 2005. It was
also featured in A.S.K. Theater
Projects' New Works Festival
2001, the Bay Area Playwrights'
Festival 2003, and the 2005
National New Plays Network
Conference at Stanford
University. As a screenwriter,
Birnbaum has written scripts for
such studios as Universal,
Paramount, Columbia/Sony, and
Dreamworks. He adapted
Christopher Moore's novel
Simon Silber for Leonardo di
Caprio's Appian Way
Productions. He mentors writing
students under the auspices of
the UCLA Alumni Association.
 Lee
Blessing
has written over twenty-five
plays, including A Walk in
the Woods, Eleemosynary, A Body
of Water, Going to St. Ives,
Cobb, Two Rooms, Down the Road
and Thief River. His
plays, which have been performed
worldwide, have been nominated
for the Pulitzer Prize and Tony
and Olivier Awards, and they
have earned Obie, Outer Critics
Circle, Drama Desk, American
Theater Critics Association,
L.A. Theater Critics Association
and Drama-Logue Awards among
others. He has also written for
film and television, including
the TNT movie Cooperstown,
winner of a Humanitas Award. A
New York resident, Blessing has
for the last five years headed
the Graduate Playwriting Program
at Mason Gross School of the
Arts, Rutgers University.
 Wayne
Bryan
(Special
Guest Performer) has
performed extensively on
Broadway (Good News!, Rodgers
and Hart, Tintypes) and on
television (M*A*S*H,
Keystone, American
History), and has directed
productions all across the
country. Wayne began his
professional career as both
actor and director with San
Diego's Old Globe Theatre.
In 1988 Wayne become the
Producing Director for Music
Theatre of Wichita, where he has
now produced 90 Broadway-scale
musical productions, acclaimed
internationally for their high
quality. Numerous awards include
the Kansas Governor’s Arts Award
and the NCCJ Brotherhood /
Sisterhood Award, recognizing
those who fight discrimination
and encourage diversity. He is
co-author of the rewritten
collegiate musical Good
News!, which has received
more than 250 productions in the
U.S., Canada, and Great Britain,
plus a well-received cast album.
He also produced the American
cast album for the Olivier
Award-winning musical Honk!
Wayne has been an
enthusiastic Inge Festival
participant since 1990,
especially grateful for his
involvement the memorable
tributes to musical theatre
greats Stephen Sondheim, Kander
and Ebb, Arthur Laurents, and
Comden and Green.
 Jackson
R. Bryer
(Conference Chair) is a
Professor Emeritus of English at
the University of Maryland,
College Park. In 1981, he served
as a consultant to the National
Endowment for the Humanities and
for the William Inge Archives at
Independence Community College.
He is the editor of The Theatre
We Worked For: The Letters of
Eugene O’Neill to Kenneth
MacGowan (1982) and many other
publications. In 1988, he
published “An Interview with
Robert Anderson in Studies in
American Drama” and co-edited
The Playwright’s Art:
Conversations with Contemporary
American Dramatists, New Essays
on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
Neglected Stories and The
Actor’s Art: Conversations with
Contemporary American Stage
Performers. Recent publications
include The Art of the American
Musical: Conversations with the
Creators and Conversations with
August Wilson.
 Marcia
Cebulska
is thrilled to have her newest
play, TOUCHED produced at
the Inge Festival this year. has
written 19 plays which have been
produced at theatres across the
country including The Georgia
Repertory Theatre, HERE
(New York City), the Phoenix
Theatre (Indianapolis), Frontera
at Hyde Park (Austin), Fremont
Centre Theatre (Pasadena) and
The Theatre Building (Chicago).
Most recently, Ms. Cebulska’s
play, NOW LET ME FLY,
commissioned for the 50th
anniversary of the Supreme Court
decision, Brown v. Board of
Education, and written while she
was playwright-in-residence at
the William Inge Theatre
Festival, was performed at 48
venues across the country (2004)
including the National
Constitution Center, the
National Center for the Study of
Civil Rights and Dobama Theatre.
Her play, VISIONS OF RIGHT,
won her the Dorothy Silver Award
(2001), was developed at Chicago
Dramatists, and was presented at
the Stage 3 Festival of New
Plays. Her play, FLORIDA,
was chosen for development by
the prestigious Eugene O’Neill
National Playwrights Conference
(1995) and later produced at the
Festival of Emerging American
Theatre (1997) and elsewhere.
AND WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS,
winner of the Jane Chambers
International Award, was
developed at Shenandoah
Playwrights Retreat (1989) and
was named “Best of ‘97“by
CITY MAGAZINE in
Indianapolis. Marcia has
received three Master Artist
Fellowships from the Indiana
Arts Commission, a Kentucky
Foundation for Women grant and
the 2001 Kansas Arts Commission
Fellowship in Playwriting. Ms.
Cebulska has been
artist-in-residence at The
University of Georgia, Marion
College, the Mary Anderson
Center for the Arts and the
William Inge Center for the
Arts. She is a member of The
Dramatists Guild and Chicago
Dramatists. Having lived in
Chicago, New York, Miami,
Berkeley, Seattle, Santa Cruz,
Pasadena, Copenhagen, Mexico
City, Lima, Bloomington,
Indiana, Athens and a Greek
island, Marcia Cebulska now
resides in Topeka, Kansas with
her husband, historian Thomas
Prasch.
 Philip
Clarkson
was literary executor to
playwright William Inge from
1968 to 1973. A current
instructor in theater arts and
related technologies with
California community colleges,
Mr. Clarkson has extensive
experience as a director and
producer as well as a professor
of theater. In pursuing his
doctoral dissertation on Inge’s
plays and how they evolved from
conception to production, Mr.
Clarkson interviewed and
observed Mr. Inge at work over a
considerable period of time. He
holds a Ph.D. in Speech and
Drama from Stanford University,
a Masters in English from
Columbia University, and also
studied at the University of
Paris and the Central School of
Speech and Drama in London.
 Robyn
Cohen
recently appeared opposite Bill
Murray in Wes Anderson's new
film THE LIFE AQUATIC. Recent
theater credits include
performing in the west coast
premiere of Neil Labute's play
THE SHAPE OF THINGS at the
Laguna Playhouse, and playing
opposite Jeff Goldblum in THE
EXONERATED at Playhouse West.
Other favorites are SEX, SEX,
SEX AND MORE SEX, by George
Furth, DEATH OF A SALESMAN,
FOOL'S GOLD (opposite James
Franco) ROCKET TO THE MOON
(directed by Peter Ellenstein)
and Chekhov's THREE SISTERS (for
which she was nominated for Best
Actress by the L.A. Weekly
Theater Awards.) National tour:
CABARET. Opera: RIGOLETTO at the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
(directed by Bruce Beresford).
T.V: ANGEL, COMMON GROUND, LAX.
Regional credits: CAROUSEL-The
Paper Mill Playhouse,
BRIGADOON-The Goodspeed Opera
House, The Ford's Theater
(D.C.), Pennsylvania State
Theater, North Shore Music
Theater, Sacramento Light Opera,
and more. Training: The
Juilliard School.
 Deena
Conley
received her B.F.A. degree in
Acting and Directing from
Marshall University in 1993. She
obtained an M.A. in Theatre
History with an emphasis in
Directing from the University of
Oklahoma in 1997. Currently
Professor Conley is completing
her dissertation from Wayne
State University in Directing
and Theatre History. She has
lived and worked all over
country, including NY,
Washington, D.C., and Detroit.
She has been on faculty at Drake
University since 2001. Professor
Conley recently directed
PICNIC at Drake University;
from that production, the
Rosemary/Howard scene was
selected for presentation at
ACTF.
 Christopher
Curry
is
from Los Angeles where he has
guest-starred in dozens of
television shows (most recently:
Alias, The Lyon’s Den, and a
spec pilot, Patients/ce, in
which he appeared with his wife
Mary Portser) and a number of
films ( i.e. Red Dragon, City of
Ghosts, Starship Troopers). He
has performed in over a score of
original Off- Broadway plays,
from When You Comin' Back,
Red Ryder to The
Foreigner, and on Broadway
in Arvin Brown’s production of
All My Sons and Paul
Giovanni’s Crucifer of Blood.
He has worked in regional
theatres all over, including the
Pittsburgh Public Playhouse, in
Dan Sullivan’s Inspecting
Carol under the brilliant
direction of. David Saint. He
spent nine seasons acting at the
National Playwrights’ Conference
under Lloyd Richards and was a
co-founder of the Joint theater
co.( in L.A.), and just last
summer enjoyed his first stint
with the Seven Devils
Playwrights Conference in
McCall, Idaho. Christopher was a
guest artist durning the 2004
Inge Festival for Arthur
Laurents. He is delighted to be
here with his wife Mary.
 Barbara
Dana
made her New York stage debut at
the age of 17 in the
off-Broadway production of
Arthur Laurents’ A Clearing
in the Woods. She appeared
on Broadway in Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?, Enter
Laughing, Room Service and
William Inge’s Where's Daddy?
She was also a member of the
improvisational group, Second
City, appearing in Chicago
and New York. Off-Broadway
Barbara played Joan of Arc in
Maxwell Anderson’s Joan of
Lorraine and appeared in
Eh?, Ghosts and Break A Leg.
Her films include The
In-Laws, Popi, Chu-Chu and the
Philly Flash, Samuel Beckett is
Coming Soon (short), and the
upcoming, Raising Flagg.
Television appearances include
Law&Order, Law&Order: SVU,
Necessary Parties, A Matter of
Principle, The Effect of Gamma
Rays on Man-in-the-Moon
Marigolds, June Moon and
As the World Turns. Ms. Dana
is an award-winning author of
books for children and young
adults. Her books include:
Young Joan, Crazy Eights,
Necessary Parties,
Zucchini, Zucchini
out West, and
Rutgers and the Water-Snouts.
Her first play, War in
Paramus, was staged at the
HB Playwrights Foundation and
premiered at Abingdon Theatre
Company in New York in the fall
of 2005, directed by Austin
Pendleton. Barbara is currently
writing a novel for
HarperCollins, based on the
young life of Emily Dickinson.
 Robert
Ellenstein
(Special Guest Presenter) began
working in professional theatre
almost 60 years ago. His work
has been seen at dozens of
professional theatres throughout
the country. He was artistic
director of The Company of
Angels and Los Angeles Repertory
Company, which he also
co-founded. His productions of
Shakespeare and Shaw have
garnered numerous awards. As an
actor, Mr. Ellenstein was last
seen as King Lear,
directed by his son, Peter
Ellenstein. Mr. Ellenstein also
appeared in hundreds of
professional stage productions,
more than 200 TV shows and 16
feature films. He has taught
professional acting and
directing at many universities
since 1948.
 Catherine
Filloux
Filloux’s plays have been
produced at numerous venues
worldwide. These include
Lemkin's House (Serbia,
Edinburgh, and the U.S.
Holocuast Memorial Museum);
Eyes of the Heart (National
Asian American Theatre Company);
and Photographs from S-21
(Singapore Arts Mart, Gate
Theatre London, and the French
Cultural Center of Phnom Phen,
Cambodia.) Her awards include
the Kennedy Center Fund for New
American Plays Roger L. Stevens
award; James Thurber
Playwright-in-Residence; and
four-time Heideman Award
finalist. She received her M.FA
in Dramatic Writing from Tisch
School of the Arts at NYU.
 Yvette
Freeman
(Special Guest Performer), the
1998 Obie Award-winner for
Dinah Was, is known to
millions for her acting in the
NBC acclaimed series ER
as the no-nonsense Nurse Haleh
Adams, and for two years on
Working with Fred Savage.
Freeman released her first CD “A
Tribute To Dinah Washington”
in 1999 and is working on an R&B
recording. She developed her
love of performing from her
father, jazz pianist Charles
Freeman. Her first major
performance was the Broadway
musical Ain't Misbehavin.
Freeman has been
guest-star in numerous shows
including Boston Public,
Judging Amy, NYPD, Blue, That's
Life and Sisters.
Her feature film credits
include roles in Switch, Dead
Again, Children of the Corn III,
and Angus Bethune. Freeman
is married to jazz pianist Lanny
Hartley.
 Dr.
Tony Giffone
is an associate professor in the
Department of English and
Humanities at Farmingdale State
University of New York, where he
is also Associate to the Chair
of the Liberal Arts Program. His
eclectic scholarly publications
include articles on Dickens and
other Nineteenth-Century British
novelists, detective fiction,
contemporary Chinese literature
and film, and houses and graves
of the U.S. presidents. His
lifelong goals include to see
200 live performances of
Shakespeare’s plays (he’s over
halfway there), and to visit all
fifty states and all seven
continents.
 A.R.
Gurney
is one of the most prolific and
produced playwrights in America
with works produced on
international theatre stages for
over 30 years. After receiving a
Bachelor of Arts degree from
Williams College in 1952, Gurney
joined the U.S. Navy during the
Korean War, writing shows to
entertain the military
personnel. He later received his
Master's degree in playwriting
at the Yale School of Drama.
Gurney served as a faculty
member at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in
Cambridge until 1987. In 1958,
Gurney wrote Love in Buffalo,
the first musical ever produced
at Yale. Other Gurney plays
include The David Show (1968),
Scenes from American Life
(1970), Children, which
premiered in London in 1974. His
breakthrough success came in
1982 with The Dining Room.
Other award-winning plays
include The Middle Ages,
Richard Cory, The Golden Age,
What I Did Last Summer, The
Wayside Motor Inn, Sweet Sue,
The Perfect Party. Another
Antigone, The Cocktail Hour,
Love Letters, The Old Boy, The
Fourth Wall, Later Life, A
Cheever Evening, Sylvia,
Overtime, Let's Do It (a
Cole Porter musical), Labor
Day, Far East, Darlene and The
Guest Lecturer, and
Ancestral Voices. In 1991 he
adapted his own novel, The
Snow Ball, for the stage.
His other novels include The
Gospel According to Joe and
Entertaining Strangers.
In the fall of 1999, Gurney
wrote the libretto for
"Strawberry Fields" with music
by Michael Torke, as part of the
Central Park Opera trilogy
presented by the New York City
Opera. Gurney is the recipient
of many awards, notably a Drama
Desk Award in 1971, a
Rockefeller Award in 1977 and
two Lucille Lortel Awards in
1989 and 1994. He has also
received awards from the
National Endowment for the Arts,
the Rockefeller Foundation, and
the New England Theatre
Conference. He and his wife,
Molly, have four children and
six grandchildren.
 Ken
Hanes
began his acting career at the
University of Washington where
he earned a B.A. in Drama before
attending the University’s
prestigious M.F.A. acting
program. He’s acted in many
television, film and theater
productions and is best known
for his six-year stint on the
CBS soap opera, The Bold and
The Beautiful. In the late
90’s Ken began his writing
career on the television series
Hope Island which was
created by his wife Mary Hanes
and friend Jason Milligan. Ken
went on to write, Executive
Produce and direct Doc
and Sue Thomas: F.B.I.
for PAX. His Doc script
“Family Matters” won a Prism
Award. Ken has written several
pilots including The Big
Picture for CBS and The
Smoking Gun with Mary Hanes
for PAX.
 Mary
Hanes
has had many plays, one-acts and
comedy shows produced around the
country. Her full-length play,
The Crimson Thread, was
produced for NPR and has been
produced around the country and
published by Samuel French. Her
play, Doin' Time At The Alamo,
won two national playwriting
awards: the Otis Guernsey New
Voices in Playwriting Award from
the William Inge Festival in
1995 and the Mildred & Albert
Panowski Playwriting Award and
was published by Samuel French.
Mary co-developed and Executive
Produced the PAX series Hope
Island, was a writer/producer on
the WB series, Dead Last, and
wrote on the CBS show Hack. For
three seasons she wrote on PAX
TV’s series Doc and wrote
several pilots for the WB, CBS
and PAX.
 John
Herzog
has been a professional actor
for more than 35 years and has
worked on Broadway, in films,
television and in regional
theatres throughout the country.
He’s performed at The Biltmore
in NYC, Portland Stage Co.,
Delaware Theatre Co., Indiana
Repertory Co., Los Angeles
Theatre Center, Arizona Theatre
Co., Oregon Shakespeare
Festival, LaJolla Playhouse,
Mark Taper Forum – New Works
Festival, and his home theatre,
The Los Angeles Repertory Co.
where he is not only one of the
leading actors but also doubles
as the company’s Managing
Director. Most recently he
starred as Sam Blacker in the
independent feature Rogues
and was in the feature film
Human Highway directed by
rock star Neal Young and Dean
Stockwell along side Sally
Kirkland, Dennis Hopper and Russ
Tamblyn. He is the proud papa of
daughter, Molly.
 David
Hirson was
born in New York City and was
educated at Yale and Oxford. He
made his Broadway debut at the
age of 32 with his first play,
the famously controversial La
Béte (Eugene O'Neill
Theatre, 1991; produced by
Stuart Ostrow and Andrew Lloyd
Webber). He returned to
Broadway with his second (and
only other) play, the equally
controversial Wrong Mountain
(Eugene O'Neill Theatre, 2000;
produced by Dodger Theatricals,
American Conservatory Theatre,
and the John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing
Arts). David's work
has been produced throughout
America and around the world,
most recently in Paris where
La Bête was presented at
the Théâtre Du
Marais, translated into rhymed
alexandrine couplets by Mariem
Hamidat, and published in France
by Éditions Monelle Hayot
(2005). For his work, David has
received numerous honors
including London's 1992 Laurence
Olivier Award for Comedy of the
Year. His plays are published
separately in acting editions by
Dramatists Play Service and
Samuel French and together in a
single volume by Grove Press,
La Bête and Wrong Mountain: Two
Plays by David Hirson
(2001), which includes a 15,000
word preface by the author. He
recieved the Inge Festival's
Otis Guernsey New Voices
Playwriting Award in 1999.
 Kaitlin
Hopkins
Some Credits include: Broadway:
Noises Off and Anything
Goes (Lincoln Center); Off
Broadway: The Great American
Trailer Park Musical,
Bare, Nicky Silver’s
Beautiful Child, Bat-Boy
the Musical (Drama
Desk/Ovation nomination);
Regional:Disney’s On the
Record (Ovation nomination),
Shaw’s The Philanderer (South
Coast Rep/Ovation nomination),
She Loves Me (The Reprise
Series/Ovation nomination),
Present Laughter (The
Pasadena Playhouse), world tour
of John Adams opera I Was
Looking at the Ceiling…
directed by Peter Sellars.
Film/Television: How To Kill
Your Neighbor's Dog, Crocodile
Dundee in Los Angeles, “Law
and Order SVU”, ”Rescue Me”,
"Spin City", "Providence", "The
Practice", "Star Trek Voyager",
"JAG" and three years as Dr.
Kelsey Harrison on “Another
World”. Kaitlin has recorded
over twenty radio plays
including The Heidi
Chronicles, Working, and
Proof with Anne Heche.
Kaitlin trained at Carnegie
Mellon University and The Royal
Academy of The Arts in London.
 Tina
Howe's
plays have been characterized by
critics as “beautifully
abstract,” “giddily elegiac,”
“vibrant,” “poetic,” “antic” and
“enchanting.” For more than
three decades Ms. Howe has been
enthralling audiences in this
country and abroad with her
comedies, including THE NEST,
BIRTH AND AFTER BIRTH, MUSEUM,
THE ART OF DINING, PAINTING
CHURCHES, COASTAL DISTURBANCES,
APPROACHING ZANZIBAR, ONE SHOE
OFF, PRIDE’S CROSSING, SUCH
SMALL HANDS, and
REMBRANDT’S GIFT. Ms. Howe,
a graduate of Sarah Lawrence
College, lives in New York City,
where she was born and raised.
The daughter and granddaughter
of writers, she and husband
Norman Levy, a professor and
novelist, have two grown
children. She has been a
Visiting Professor at Hunter
College since 1990 and has
taught master classes at NYU,
UCLA, Columbia, and Carnegie
Mellon as well as countless
writers workshops. Her first
produced play, THE NEST,
appeared in 1969. BIRTH AND
AFTER BIRTH was published in
Honor Moore’s anthology The New
Women’s Theatre in 1977, but
this dark farce about motherhood
had to wait more than twenty
years for its professional
premiere. Ms. Howe’s ability to
blend social critique and
disturbing insights into human
nature with hilarious comedy is
also evident in MUSEUM,
first presented by the Los
Angeles Actors Theatre in 1976,
and THE ART OF DINING, co
produced by the New York
Shakespeare Festival and the
Kennedy Center in 1979. Both
illustrate Ms. Howe’s fondness
for setting plays in unexpected
locations: MUSEUM takes
place in a contemporary art
exhibit, THE ART OF DINING
in an exclusive restaurant’s
dining room and kitchen. Ms.
Howe’s most popular work to date
is PAINTING CHURCHES, a
family comedy that had a long
run in New York in 1983-4 and
was televised on American
Playhouse. PAINTING CHURCHES
won an Outer Critics Circle
Award, a John Gassner Award and
a Rosamond Gilder Award, and was
followed by COASTAL
DISTURBANCES, which was
honored with a Tony nomination.
Both COASTAL DISTURBANCES
and the exuberant APPROACHING
ZANZIBAR, a road play that
tracks a family on a
cross-country journey to visit a
dying relative, were produced by
New York’s Second Stage Theatre.
A finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer
Prize and recipient of the 1998
New York Drama Critics Circle
Award for Best Play, PRIDE’S
CROSSING spans eighty years
in the life of a female channel
swimmer. A single performer,
Cherry Jones in the original
production, plays the
protagonist at every stage from
young child to nonagenarian.
ONE SHOE OFF finds a
troubled couple fending off
marital and physical collapse as
trees sprout inside their rural
home, while REMBRANDT’S GIFT,
featured at the 2002 Humana
Festival of New American Plays,
includes a visit from the Old
Master himself. Ms. Howe has
frequently acknowledged her debt
to European Absurdist writers,
and last fall her translations
of Eugene Ionesco’s THE BALD
SOPRANO and THE LESSON
were presented by the Atlantic
Theater Company. Throughout her
career Tina Howe has won
numerous accolades, most notably
an Obie for Distinguished
Playwriting, an American Academy
of Arts and Letters Award in
Literature, an American Theatre
Wing Award, and grants from the
National Endowment for the Arts,
the Rockefeller Foundation and
the Guggenheim Foundation. Since
1990 she has served on the
Council of the Dramatists Guild.
Her work appears in Coastal
Disturbances: Four Plays by Tina
Howe, Approaching Zanzibar and
Other Plays, and many drama
anthologies. – Judith Barlow
|
 |
 Jeff
Johnson
is the author of William Inge
and the Subversion of Gender:
Rewriting Stereotypes in the
Plays, Novels and Screenplays,
Pervert in the Pulpit: Morality
in the Works of David Lynch, and
The Main Squeeze. Jeff has
received numerous awards
including the Florida Governor's
Screenwriting Award, a grant
from the National Endowment for
the Humanities, and a Summer
Stipend for research from the
northeast chapter of the Modern
Language Association. Recipient
of two Fulbright teaching
assignments, Mr. Johnson has
taught in England, Denmark,
Lithuania and Hungary, and is a
guest director and featured
American playwright at Arden
School of Theatre in Manchester,
England. He is currently
finishing a new book on
post-Soviet theatre in the
Baltic States.
 Gary
Konas
is Associate Professor of
English at the University of
Wisconsin–La Crosse. He is
editor of Neil Simon: A
Casebook (1997) and has
published a number of essays on
musical theatre. At past Inge
Festivals he has presented
papers on honorees Neil Simon,
Stephen Sondheim, and John
Kander and Fred Ebb. He is also
a theatre organist who plays
solo pipe organ concerts. He has
recorded an album of show tunes
on the Mighty Wurlitzer.
 Colby
H. Kullman
is a professor of English at the
University of Mississippi where
he has taught since 1984. He is
the editor of the two-volume
reference work Theatre
Companies of the World
(1986), is the co-founder and
co-editor (with Philip C. Kolin)
of the journal Studies in
American Drama, 1945 –
Present (1986-1994), and
co-editor of Speaking on
Stage (1996, with Philip C.
Kolin). His interview with
Arthur Miller appeared in the
Fall 1998 Michigan Quarterly
Review, a special edition of
the journal celebrating Miller’s
DEATH OF A SALESMAN at
fifty. For the past twelve
years, he has given tours of
Tennessee William’s Mississippi
Delta. In 1995, he was awarded
the University of Mississippi’s
Liberal Arts Teacher of the Year
award; in 1997, he was elected
as Ole Miss’s Elsie M. Hood
Outstanding Teacher; and in
2001, he was celebrated with a
Phi Kappa Phi Award for
Contributions to Excellence in
Higher Education.
 Jeffrey
Loomis
is
Professor of English at
Northwest Missouri State
University, where he teaches
Literary Criticism and several
Dramatic Literature courses.
While he also studies the genre
of poetry, being well-known as a
scholar of G. M. Hopkins, he
also has published articles on
dramatists ranging from
Shakespeare to Goethe to
Strindberg and on to modern
playwrights as diverse as Garson
Kanin, William Gibson, Tennessee
Williams, Edward Albee, Paul
Zindel, Stephen Sondheim and
James Lapine. He regularly
teaches, and has frequently
written about, the plays of Tina
Howe.
 Melanie
Marnich
is this year's recipient of the
Otis Guernsey New Voices
Playwriting Award. Her plays
include Quake, Blur,
Tallgrass Gothic, Calling All,
Cradle of Man, Beautiful Again,
The Sparrow Project and
These Shining Lives. Her
newest play, Calling All,
will be produced by the Guthrie
Theater in April 2006. Cradle
of Man, was developed at the
2005 O'Neill Theatre Conference,
Hartford Stage's Brand: NEW
Festival, the Women's Project's
Women's Work Festival, Atlantic
Theatre, Dallas Theater Center
and Florida Stage. It will be
produced at Florida Stage,
Victory Gardens Theatre and The
Women's Project in 2006. It was
also a finalist for the 2005
Susan Smith Blackburn Award and
a L. Arnold Weissberger Award
nominee. The Sparrow Project
was produced as part of
Steppenwolf Theatre's First Look
Festival in August 2005. BLUR
received its world premiere Off
Broadway at Manhattan Theatre
Club and also won the Francesca
Primus Prize from Denver Center
Theatre. Two of her plays,
Quake and Tallgrass
Gothic, have premiered at
the Actors Theatre of
Louisville's Humana Festival of
New American Plays. Her awards
include two McKnight Advancement
Grants and two Jerome
Fellowships from The
Playwrights' Center, the Samuel
Goldwyn Award, an Ohio Arts
Council Grant, the Otis Guernsey
New Voices Playwriting Award and
the Melvoin Award from
Northlight Theatre (Chicago).
Her plays have also been
produced or developed at New
York's Public Theater, London's
Royal Court Theatre, the Guthrie
Theater, Arena Stage, Portland
Center Stage, Geva Theatre, Hyde
Park Theatre, American Theatre
Company, HERE and Denver Center
for the Arts. She has received
commissions from the Kennedy
Center, Guthrie Theater, La
Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage and
the Children's Theatre of
Cincinnati. She is a Core Member
of The Playwrights' Center and a
member of New Dramatists. She
was an Inge Center
Playwright-in-Residence in
2003.
 Jason
Milligan
was introduced to the Inge
Festival as the first New Voices
in American Theatre award winner
for his play Men In Suits,
which has gone on to be produced
nationally and internationally
and published as part of a
Mafia-themed trilogy. Jason has
30 plays and six books of
original audition monologues
published by Samuel French, with
a new anthology of one-acts due
in 2007. Film and television
work include serving as
co-creator, writer and producer
of the family drama series, Hope
Island (with fellow “New Voice”
Mary Hanes and writer-producer
Ken Hanes) and Museum of Love,
directed by Christian Slater for
Showtime. Jason currently works
as a writer for Disney
Entertainment Productions, where
he participates in the
development of shows,
attractions and events. He is
also busy writing the book for
an original contemporary
country-western musical,
Cowboy Up, with
collaborators Michael Barnard,
Carolyn Gardner & Bret Simmons.
 Jasson
Minadakis
is Artistic Director of Actor's
Express in Atlanta, GA. He came
to Atlanta from Cincinnati
Shakespeare Festival, which he
co-founded as Fahrenheit Theatre
Company in October 1993 and
where he was the Producing
Artistic Director for nine
years. There, he directed 37
plays, commissioned 6, and
produced 70. During his tenure
CSF, garnered consecutive awards
(1999 and 2000) for "Best Live
Theatre" from Cincinnati
CityBeat (Cincinnati's largest
free press paper). Jasson
studied at the Royal National
Theatre International Directors
Institute, and was profiled in
American Theatre (October 1999)
and Stage Directions Magazine
("Top Ten Young Theatre Makers
in the Country," January 2000).
He was also selected to
participate in the National Arts
Marketing Program in Spring of
2002. He received his BA in
Theatre and English Literature
from James Madison University in
1992. In 2003- 2004, Jasson was
named "Best Director" by the
Atlanta-Journal Constitution,
Creative Loafing, and Southern
Voice.
 Mary
Portser
(GRAINNE) play, MOIRA, was
produced by the Fishamble
Theatre Company in Dublin in
2003. In Los Angeles, THE TRAIN
IN MY HOTEL, NO TIME FOR WOMEN
and ANIMAL LIFE have been part
of EST West’s Winterfests 05, 03
and 01. Theatre West produced
STOPGAP and DISTRESS SIGNALS, a
series of comic monologues
performed by the author. SAVE
THE LOOPHOLES, was produced at
the Judith Anderson Theater on
Theater Row in New York. YOU
DON’T KNOW ME was workshopped at
the Seven Devils Playwrights
Conference in McCall, Idaho.
Several of her monologues are
included in the upcoming
AUDITION ARSENAL series,
published by Smith and Kraus.
Mary is also an actress,
appearing in such shows as A
GIRL’S GUIDE TO CHAOS at the
American Place Theater and the
National Tour of NOISES OFF. She
has acted in the movies: PASSION
FISH, TRUE LOVE, HUMAN NATURE,
THE ITALIAN JOB, DADDY DAY CARE
and DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA
NIGHTS. Mary grew up in New York
City and is a graduate of Vassar
College and the Neighborhood
Playhouse. She recieved the Inge
Center's Otis Guernsey New
Voices Playwriting Award in
2004.
 Patricia
Randell
(Special Guest Performer)
recently played the lead in
Pulitzer Prize nominee, Jon
Marans’ A Strange and
Separate People at Penguin
Rep (dir. Joe Brancato)
Durang Durang (dir. Walter
Bobbie) at MTC; Ladies of the
Corridor by Dorothy Parker
at Peccadillo; world premiere of
Noel Coward’s Long Island
Sound (w/Simon Jones & Julie
Halston); Greer Garson in
Richard Willett’s Random
Harvest; Broadway benefit
reading of M.Z. Ribalow’s
Nature of the Universe
(w/Blythe Danner & Brian Dennehy);
the 50th anniversary
“episode” of MacArthur grant
winner John Jesurun’s Change
in the Void Moon (w/Steve
Buscemi); Just Add Water
Festival at NYTW. Regional
theatre includes Studio Arena,
Arena Stage, GeVa, The John Drew
Theatre in East Hampton, Key
West Theatre Festival, Worcester
Foothills Theatre,
Provincetown’s American Stage
Co. and the 2005 Inge Theatre
Festival, honoring Tina Howe.
Member: Ensemble Studio
Theatre. Upcoming Films:
Sternman with Philip Baker
Hall and Larry Pine, Union
Square with Christine
Elise. TV: L&O/soaps. BFA:
Boston University (cum laude
graduate) MFA: Catholic
University. 7 years as Guest
Artist: New River Dramatists,
NC. Guest Teaching Artist:
Brooklyn College, Ensemble
Studio Theatre and The Inge
Center.
 Theresa
Rebeck
(The
Bells) plays include: Bad
Dates, Omnium Gaterum,
(co-written with Alexandra
Gersten-Vassilaros, and finalist
for the Pulitzer Prize) The
Bells, The Butterfly Collection,
Spike Heels, Loose Knit, The
Family of Mann, View Of The
Dome, Sunday On The Rocks,
and Abstract Expression.
Her collected plays have been
published by Smith and Kraus,
and individually by Samuel
French. In television, Ms.
Rebeck has written for "L.A.
Law," "First Wave", "Third
Watch", and "NYPD Blue," among
others where she also worked as
a producer. In 2004, she wrote
and executive produced a
television pilot for Warner
Bros/CBS, The Webster Report.,
directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and
starring Stanley Tucci. Awards
include the Mystery Writer's of
America's Edgar Award, the
Writer's Guild of America Award
for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic
Images Imagen Award, and the
Peabody, all for her work on
NYPD Blue. She won the National
Theatre Conference Award (for
The Family of Mann). Ms. Rebeck
is a member of Naked Angels, was
the Lark Writer-in-Residence
2002-2004, and was recently
elected to serve on the
Dramatists Guild Council. She
recieved the Inge Center's Otis
Guernsey New Voices Playwriting
Award in 2003. Ms. Rebeck holds
a Ph.D. from Brandeis University
in Victorian Melodrama.
 Blake
Robbins
is
best known for his three seasons
as David Brass on the critically
acclaimed HBO series Oz. Other
television credits include
recurring roles on The O.C. and
Firefly from creator Joss Whedon.
Blake made his Broadway debut in
the Arthur Miller’s play The
Man Who Had All The Luck
opposite Chris O’Donnell. Among
his over sixty theatrical
productions are Tape With The
Naked Angels, Joe
Fearless at the Atlantic
Theater Company, Hard Times
At The Evidence Room and
most recently Placement
at the award winning Black
Dahlia Theater.Blake co-wrote
Acting Qs: Conversations with
Working Actors with casting
director and author Bonnie
Gillespie. He is a graduate of
Independence Community College,
Wichita State University, and
the American Academy of Dramatic
Arts in New York City. Blake was
previously an Inge Center guest
artists for a developmental
workshop of Alice Tuan's "P.O.
Box". Blake currently resides in
the Los Angeles area with his
beautiful wife and daughters
Karen, Molly and Emma.
 Carol
Rosen
is Professor of English at Stony
Brook University, where she was
previously Director of the
Graduate Programs in Theater
Arts and Dramaturgy. She is the
author of Plays of Impasse
(Princeton University Press)
and Sam Shepard: A ‘Poetic
Rodeo’ (Palgrave/
Macmillan). She has also written
for a variety of periodicals
including The Village Voice,
Theatreweek, Modern Drama, Salma
Gundi, The Dramatists Guild
Quarterly, Performing Arts
Journal, The Drama Review and
Applause. Her interview with
August Wilson, "Bard of the
Blues" is included in
Conversations with August
Wilson, ed. Jackson R. Bryer and
Mary C. Hartig (University Press
of Mississippi). She is now
working on a study of
contemporary responses to
tragedy.
 Alan
Safier
recently starred in CITY OF
ANGELS in Los Angeles and in
Steve Martin’s THE UNDERPANTS
at the Laguna Playhouse. This
fall, he will be producing and
appearing in Steve Tesich’s
SPEED OF DARKNESS in
Hollywood. Alan has played Jess
Sr. in Inge’s “lost play” THE
DISPOSAL, and in the L.A.
premiere of THE MEN FROM THE
BOYS. After earning an MFA
degree in Acting from Ohio
University, he debuted
Off-Broadway in SAY
GOODNIGHT, GRACIE, followed
by SCRAMBLED FEET, VERY
NORMAL PEOPLE and the hit
revival of NEW FACES OF 1952.
He may be familiar to Festival
attendees from past years’
tributes to Adolph Green,
Romulus Linney and Arthur
Laurents, as well as from
hundreds of TV voiceovers (he’s
the Kibbles ‘n Bits dog!) and
guest appearances on dozens of
primetime series. Safier is also
the author of several published
short stories and the play MY
FATHER’S VOICE.
 James
Still's
award-winning plays have been
produced throughout the United
States, Canada, Europe, and
Australia. He is the playwright
in residence at the Indiana
Repertory Theatre. Still's
recent plays include A Long
Bridge Over Deep Waters for
Cornerstone's Faith-Based
Theatre Cycle in Los Angeles;
Searching For Eden most
recently at Stages Repertory in
Houston; and Looking Over The
President's Shoulder at many
theaters including Ford's
Theatre in Washington, D.C. and
Pasadena Playhouse. World
premieres this season include
Iron Kisses at Geva in
Rochester; and The Gentleman
From Indiana (from Booth
Tarkington's novel) at the
Indiana Repertory Theatre. Other
plays include Amber Waves
at the Kennedy Center; He
Held Me Grand at People's
Light &Theatre Company; And
Then They Came For Me has
been translated into several
languages and produced around
the world including a recent
command performance at the House
of Commons in London. Mr. Still
also works in television and
film and has been nominated for
four Emmys, a Television Critics
Association Award, and twice a
finalist for the Humanitas
Prize. He recieved the Inge
Center's Otis Guernsey New
Voices Playwriting Award in
2000. He grew up in a tiny town
in Kansas, and makes his home in
Venice, California.
 Daniel
Sullivan
directs the Eugene O’Neill
Theater Center’s National
Critics Institute and teaches
journalism at the University of
Minnesota. He was chief theater
critic for the Los Angeles Times
for twenty years, and has also
reviewed for the New York Times
and the Minneapolis Tribune. He
was a writer-in-residence at
Independence Community College
in 1989 while researching the
life of William Inge. He is
married to Faith Sullivan,
author of Gardenias, The Cape
Ann and other fine novels.
 C.
Denby Swanson
is a graduate of Smith College,
the National Theater Institute,
and the Michener Center for
Writers at the University of
Texas, where she was a fellow in
playwriting and screenwriting.
She was a 2001 Jerome Fellow, a
2002 McKnight Advancement Grant
recipient, and one of the first
pair of William Inge Playwrights
in Residence. Her work has been
premiered at Salvage Vanguard
Theater, 15 Head a Theater Lab,
and The Drilling Company, among
others. She has been
commissioned twice by the
Guthrie Theater to write short
plays for young actors and as a
result has become a popular
guest artist and teacher on the
thespian festival circuit. In
2003, she collaborated with Doug
Rand and a student ensemble at
St. Stephen's High School in
Austin, Texas, to adapt the 9th
grade biology textbook into a
play, which eventually toured
Central Texas and is now being
produced nationally. Her work is
published by Playscripts, Inc.,
Smith & Kraus, Heineman, and
Accompany Publishing. She is a
Core Member of The Playwrights
Center and on the faculty of
Southwestern University.
 Carmen
Thomas
Following five years as Hillary
on ABC’s All my Children,
Carmen has had a diverse career
as a theatre and film actress
appearing at many regional
theatres including the Geffen
Theatre, Laguna Playhouse,
Cleveland Playhouse and Syracuse
Stage. Her first acting job in
L.A. was in the play LOOK
HOMEWARD ANGEL, directed by
Peter Ellenstein. She has
received Drama-Logue and LA
Weekly awards for her
performances on stage and been
featured on many leading
television shows. She currently
lives in California working not
only as an actor but as a
Certified Massage Therapist and
Kundilini Yoga Teacher and is
the proud mother of two dazzling
children.
 Ralph
Voss
(Special Guest Presenter) a
professor of English at the
University of Alabama, is the
author of the William Inge
biography, A Life of William
Inge: The Strains of Triumph.
A native of Lyons, Kansas, Voss
holds Bachelor of Arts and
Master of Arts degrees from Fort
Hays State University and a
Ph.D. from the University of
Texas at Austin. He has
published biographical and
critical articles about Inge and
his works in The Dictionary
of Literary Biography, The
Dictionary of American
Biography, Kansas Quarterly and
The Library Chronicle. He
also teaches and publishes in
the field of rhetoric and
composition.
 Amanda
White
currently lives in New York City
where she has performed with the
Six Figures and Milk Can Theatre
Companies. Prior to that Amanda
lived in Chicago where she
served on the artistic board of
Stage Two Theatre and is still a
board member of Bohemian Theatre
Ensemble. Some of her favorite
roles have been in THE HEIDI
CHRONICLES, CAROUSEL, GREASE,
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, MEDEA,
and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
with Chicago’s Great Beast
Theatre and the Chicago premiere
of Robert Simonson’s CAFÉ
SOCIETY with Reasonable
Facsimile Theatre Company, she
has performed several leading
roles at Iowa’s Old Creamery
Theatre.. Amanda received a BA
in Theatre Arts from Truman
State University and an MFA in
Acting from Minnesota State
University, Mankato, where she
was awarded an Artistic
Fellowship to further pursue
professional performance. She
currently studies at HB Studios
with Austin Pendleton.
 Kevin
Willmott
(Special Guest Performer)
attended graduate studies at New
York University, Tisch School of
the Arts, receiving several
writing awards and his M.F.A. in
Dramatic Writing. He is a
screenwriter, filmmaker,
playwright and actor. Producer
and Director, Oliver Stone hired
him to co-write, Little Brown
Brothers, about the
Philippine Insurrection.
Ninth Street, an independent
feature film, starring Martin
Sheen and Isaac Hayes, is
written, produced and
co-directed by Willmott. He also
adapted The Watsons Go To
Birmingham for CBS, Columbia
Tri-Star and Executive Producer,
Whoopi Goldberg. His current
film, C.S.A - The Confederate
States of America was
selected for the 2004 Sundance
Film Festival and was sold to
IFC Films. The film will also be
a Spike Lee presentation.
 Will
Willoughby
(Special Guest Director) is a
graduate of USC's prestigious
Cinema-Television Production
program and holds an Associates
Degree from The American Academy
of Dramatics Arts. He worked as
a Production Associate with
world-renown playwrights Jerome
Lawrence and Robert E. Lee on
such projects as 1999 Showtime
remake of Inherit the Wind
starring Jack Lemmon and
George C. Scott. He performed
script revisions on the Lawrence
& Lee screenplay, The Night
Thoreau Spent in Jail. Over
the past two and a half years he
served as Co-Artistic Director
of the Rose Alley Theater in
Venice, CA. where he worked with
Producer/Writer Ron Cowen on his
1970's classic anti-war drama
Summertree and developed
plays with emerging playwrights.
Most recently he directed a
staged reading of The Gang's
All Here.
 Elizabeth
Wilson
(Special Guest Performer)
studied with Sanford
Meisner at the Neighborhood
Playhouse. Her Broadway debut
was in Picnic in 1952.
Since then she has appeared on
Broadway in Waiting in the
Wings, A Delicate Balance,
and Ah, Wilderness among
others. She won a Joseph
Jefferson Award for Best Actress
in Mornings At Seven, and
a Tony Award for her performance
in the New York Shakespeare
Festival’s production of
Sticks and Bones. She won
Obie Awards for Taken in
Marriage and Antiroom
and was given the Drama Desk
Award for Solonika. She
has various film and television
credits as well including:
The Graduate; The Adams Family;
Grace Quigley with Katherine
Hepburn; and Child is Waiting
with Judy Garland.
 Walter
Willison
starred on Broadway in Two By
Two [Tony Award nomination,
Theatre World Award], Grand
Hotel. A Christmas Carol,
Pippin, Norman, Is That You?,
Wild and Wonderful, in
Bernstein's Mass at The Kennedy
Center, and as Kean
Off-Broadway; TV includes NBC's
McDuff, The Talking Dog
[star of series], Days of Our
Lives, PBS' An American
Tragedy; Films include:
Ziegfeld: The Man & His Women,
Harry & Walter Go To New York;
Plays produced include
Minnie's Boys: In Concert
Off-Broadway
[adaptation/director], Frank
Loesser's Greenwillow
[revisal book w/Douglas
Holmes/director], Wonderful
Life!: The Musical [lyrics
w/music John Kroner/book,
Douglas Holmes], and with music
by Jeffrey Silverman he wrote
Broadway Scandals of 1928:
the new speakeasy musical,
Front Street Gaieties: Dodge
City's Hottest Revue [book,
lyrics, director], and the cult
film Fantasies starring
Bo Derek [lyrics/vocals]; 29
CDs [producer, performer or
both]; Books: Associate Editor,
Screen World Vols.38-40;
Theatre World Vols. 42-45.
Mr. Willison helped inaugurate
IngeFest from 1983 to '87,
writing and directing and/or
performing in tributes to Jerome
Lawrence, Robert Anderson,
William Gibson and Garson Kanin,
and was himself presented with A
Special William Inge Award in
1987. He is currently
Vice-President of the Board of
Directors of The Theatre World
Awards.
 Luke
Yankee
(Special Guest Presenter) has
directed, acted, produced and
taught in theaters throughout
the world. Directing highlights
include: The Cherry Orchard;
Love Letters; Night Club
Confidential; Man of LaMancha;
The King and I; Driving Miss
Daisy with Eileen Heckart
and Private Lives. He has
served as Artistic Director of
Long Beach Civic Light Opera and
Struthers Library Theatre. He is
a teacher/director at the
American Academy of Dramatic
Arts, AMDA and Columbia College.
His first play, A Place
at Forest Lawn won the
2003 New Noises Award for
playwriting and is currently a
finalist for the Palm Springs
International Playwrights
Festival. Last year at the Inge
Festival, he premiered his
one-man show, Diva Dish,
based on his
experiences growing up as the
son of Eileen Heckart. |
