Playwright and Actress
Readings by Ellen McLaughlin
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.
McLaughlin will read excerpts from several of her plays, including Infinity’s House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, Helen, The Persians, Oedipus and Ajax in Iraq. She is most well known for having originated and developed the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, having appeared in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its Broadway run.
The event is co-sponsored by the Departments of Classics, Theatre & Dance and English.
Biography (provided by the speaker)
Ellen McLaughlin’s plays have received numerous national and international productions. They include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity’s House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians, Oedipus, Penelope, Kissing the Floor and Ajax in Iraq.
Producers include: Actors’ Theater of Louisville, The Actors’ Gang L.A., Classic Stage Co., N.Y., The Intiman Theater, Seattle, Almeida Theater, London, The Mark Taper Forum, L.A., the Public Theater in NYC, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The National Actors’ Theater, N.Y., A.R.T. in Cambridge, MA, and The Guthrie Theater, MN, among many other venues.
Grants and awards include: Great American Play Contest, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the NEA, the Writer’s Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, the Berilla Kerr Award for playwrighting, The NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Grant.
McLaughlin’s acting career has included work on and Off Broadway as well as extensively in regional theater. She is most well known for having originated the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, appearing in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its Broadway run. Other favorite roles include The Homebody in Homebody/Kabul, (Intiman Theater) Pirate Jenny in Threepenny Opera (Trinity Rep., Elliot Norton Award), Mrs. Alving in Ghosts (Bk Rep.), Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (McCarter and the Paper Mill Playhouse) and Claire in A Delicate Balance at Arena Stage and at Yale Rep. Television work has included roles on Law and Order.
She has taught playwrighting in numerous venues, from Yale School of Drama to Princeton University. She has been teaching at Barnard College since 1995.
She is a member of New Dramatists and served on the board of T.C.G.
Her most recent production: Ajax in Iraq at ART, MA.
Her most recent publication, by T.C.G., is The Greek Plays.
Video of the Program