Indo-American Arts Council, Inc.

Playwrights Festival, September 22 - 28, 2008


	middlemen by David Jenkins David Jenkins (middlemen) is a graduate of New York University's Graduate Acting Program. His first full-length play, middlemen, was short-listed for last year's O'Neill Theater Conference, and has subsequently been requested on blind submission by Steppenwolf, LAByrinth, and Ars Nova among many others. As an actor, he has worked on stages across the country and in New York City, and has made numerous television appearances. He is a founding member of CO-OP, a New York based collective focusing on actor-generated content. He is currently at work on his next play, THE AGE OF MIRACLES.

	BENEDICTUS by Motti Lerner Motti Lerner (BENEDICTUS) Playwright and screenwriter, born in Israel in 1949. Teaches playwriting at Tel Aviv University. Has been active in the peace movement in Israel since 1973. He frequently lectures at European and American Universities on playwriting, on the Israeli theatre, and especially on the Israeli theatre and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most of his plays and films deal with political issues. Among his plays are: KASTNER, PANGS OF THE MESSIAH, PAULA, and POLLARD, all produced by the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv; EXILE IN JERUSALEM and PASSING THE LOVE OF WOMEN at Habima National Theatre, AUTUMN at the Beit Lessin Theatre, Tel Aviv, and HARD LOVE at the Municipal Theatre in Haifa. His play THE MURDER OF ISAAC about the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was produced at the Heilbron Theatre in Germany (1999) and had its American premier in Centerstage Theatre in Baltimore (2006). He has written screenplays for the films: LOVES IN BETANIA, THE KASTNER TRIAL, BUS NUMBER 300, EGOZ, the 12 episodes of the TV drama series "The Institute", "A Battle in Jerusalem", and "The Silence of the Sirens". His feature film SPRING 1941 with Joseph Fiennes and Claire Higgins in the title roles will be released in summer 2008. His TV feature film ALTALENA will open on July 2008. He is a recipient of the Meskin Award for the best play (1985), and the Israeli Motion Picture Academy award for the best TV drama in 1995 and in 2004. In 1994 he won the Prime Minister’s of Israel Award for his creative work. Besides Israel, his plays have been produced in the US, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Australia. is American productions include: THE MURDER OF ISAAC at Centerstage Theatre, Baltimore, and also as part of the New York Now festival at the Public Theatre in NY), EXILE IN JERUSALEM (Williamstown Festival – with Julie Harris in the title role, Jewish Ensemble Theatre, Detroit, La Mama Theatre, NY, Theatre J Washington DC) HARD LOVE – Theatre Or, Durham NC, Victory Gardens, Chicago, and JTS in Atlanta, PASSING THE LOVE OF WOMEN– Theatre J, Washington DC, Coming Home"– Golden Thread theatre, San Francisco, PANGS OF THE MESSIAH - Theatre J in Washington DC. BENEDICTUS in Golden Thread theatre in San Francisco and in LATC in Los Angeles. PANGS OF THE MESSIAH was nominated for the Helen Hayes award for the best play of 2008. It'll be produced in 2008-9 in Cleveland and Chicago.

	TRUTH SERUM BLUES by Ismail Khalidi Ismail Khalidi (TRUTH SERUM BLUES) was born in Beirut, Lebanon and raised in Chicago. Before coming to New York Khalidi spent two years as an actor and writer in-residence at Pangea World Theater in Minneapolis. His writing has appeared in the MIZNA journal, Electronic Intifada, and Nation Book's "Letters From Young Activists: Today's Rebels Speak Out." He is a past recent recipient of the Many Voices Award at the Playwrights Center and the SASE/Jerome Emerging Writers Grant. Khalidi is currently an MFA candidate in Dramatic Writing at New York University's Tisch School for the Arts.

	In The Sawtooths by Dano Madden Dano Madden (IN THE SAWTOOTHS) grew up in Boise, Idaho. His plays have been produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Source Festival, Mile Square Theatre, Northwest Playwrights Alliance, Idaho Theatre for Youth, Kitchen Theatre Company, Rutgers University, The University of Tulsa, and Sand and Glass Productions, among others. Dano’s plays have received readings and/or development at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Boise Contemporary Theater, Boston Theatre Works, the NNPN’s University Playwrights Workshop, and the Bonderman. He has received numerous Kennedy Center/ACTF awards including: the 2008 Quest for Peace Playwriting Award for BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN SOLDIER; the 2007 National Student Playwriting Award for IN THE SAWTOOTHS, and the 1997 National Short Play Award for DROP. Dano was a runner-up for Primary Stages’ 2005 Bug-N-Bub Playwriting Award and a finalist for the 2008 Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project. His work has been published by Samuel French, Inc., Applause Books (Best American Short Plays 2005-2006), Playscripts, Inc. and by the Northwest Playwrights Alliance. He was the recipient of the 2001 Idaho Commission on the Arts Fellowship in playwriting. Dano was recently named one of “50 Playwrights to Watch” by "The Dramatist" magazine. He received his B.A. from Boise State University and his MFA from Rutgers University. He currently lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

	SLASHER by Allison Moore Allison Moore (SLASHER) is a displaced Texan living in Minneapolis where she is a 2007 Bush Artist Fellow and 2008 Playwrights’ Center McKnight Advancement Grant recipient. Allison’s play, HAZARD COUNTY, was produced at the 2005 Humana Festival at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas and Actors Express in Atlanta in association with the National New Play Network. Other productions include Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Birmingham Festival Theatre and The Ark Theatre (Los Angeles). In 2006-07, Allison developed a new full-length play, END TIMES, with Kitchen Dog Theater, where she is an Associate Company Member. The 2007 premier received seven Dallas Critics Forum Awards, including Best New Play, and five Leon Rabin Awards, including Best New Play and Best Production. Other work includes: AMERICAN KLEPTO (TheatreWorks New Play Festival, Fresh Ink at Illusion Theater); SPLIT (Guthrie Theater commission), EIGHTEEN (2001 O’Neill Playwrights Conference, 2003 LA Weekly Theater Award nomination for Best New Play); URGENT FURY (2003 Cherry Lane Mentor Project, Mentor: Marsha Norman); and COWTOWN (Guthrie Theater Commission). Her work is published by PlayScripts, Inc., Smith & Kraus, Vintage Books and New York Theater Experience. Allison is currently working on a stage adaptation of Willa Cather’s novel, "My Antonia," for Illusion Theater.

	Faith by James McLindon James McLindon (FAITH) In the past year, James McLindon has had three full-length and six one-act plays produced in theaters across America, eight of them world premieres. DISTANT MUSIC, a finalist for the Kaufman and Hart Prize for New American Comedy, enjoyed four productions in 2007 (“Don't miss this intriguing new play,” Boston Globe). DUSK premiered in Los Angeles last June (“An issues play with a poetic soul … Recommended,” L. A. Times) and A BRIEF HISTORY OF PENGUINS AND PROMISCUITY premiered there this past January (“Intelligent … Plenty of laughter … Recommended” L.A. Times). This past summer, he workshopped FAITH at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference conducted by New York’s id Theatre Company in McCall, Idaho, as well as a second new full-length play, SAVING GRACE, at the PlayPenn Conference in Philadelphia. His other plays have been developed and/or produced by theaters across the country including the Abingdon Theatre, hotINK Festival, Irish Repertory, Penguin Repertory, and HRC Showcase Theatre in New York; Victory Gardens, Prop Thtr, and Stage Left in Chicago; Theatricum Botanicum, Grove Theatre Center, and Circus Theatricals in Los Angeles; the Arkansas Rep in Little Rock, and the Ashland New Plays Festival in Oregon.

	Wildflower by Lila Rose Kaplan Lila Rose Kaplan (WILDFLOWER) recently received her MFA in playwriting at University of California at San Diego. Her plays have been seen at the La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mixed Blood, and PlayPenn, among others. Honors and awards include the I.J. Kapstein Award, Sloan Foundation Fellow, Princess Grace Finalist, O'Neill Finalist, and Wasserstein Award nominee. Lila belongs to the Dramatists Guild of America and is a founding member of Temporary Theatre Company in NYC. Lila Rose is a recipient of the inaugural Adele and Ted Shank Playwriting Fellowship. She will be in residence at Cornerstone Theatre Company in Los Angeles during the 2008-09 season. She teaches playwriting at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. To learn more visit www.lilarose.org.

	The Twelfth Labor by Steven Gridley Steven Gridley's (THE TWELFTH LABOR) plays have been seen in several downtown theatres such as HERE Arts Center, Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, Theatre for the New City, Altered Stages, CSV Cultural Center, and Spring Theatreworks’ DUMBO space. His plays and have been published by Playscripts, Brooklyn Publishers, Smith & Kraus, and by Martin Denton in his 2004 Plays and Playwrights Anthology. Steven was recently named as one of the “People of the Year 2005” by nytheatre.com saying "Indisputably one of the smartest and most innovative young playwright/directors working in New York's indie theatre scene.” Past productions of his plays include THEME & VARIATIONS (Ontological Hysteric Theatre), STILL-LIFE WITH RUNNER (HERE Arts Center), POST-OEDIPUS (One Arm Red, HERE Arts Center, and CSV Cultural Center), SUN, STAND THOU STILL (Altered Stages), ECHO'S LONGING (New Actors Workshop), ALBATROSS AT SEA (John Houseman Studio), T&V (Fringe Festival, Theatre for the New City), APPROACHING MIDNIGHT (Southern Methodist University), and LOVERS IN THE PARK (Gallery Players). Steven is currently studying playwriting at Columbia University. Steven is a huge admirer of the great Polish director Tadeusz Kantor.

	THE NOISEMAKERS by Mark Borkowski Mark Borkowski's (THE NOISEMAKERS) plays have won critical acclaim from coast to coast. Most recently, his two one-acts, A GRAVEDIGGER’S TALE and THE MUTILATION OF ST. BARBARA premiered at the American Theatre of Actors in New York City. Other NYC productions include: DON’T LISTEN TO WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE at the American Globe Theatre. THE HEAD HUNTER and WITHIN THE SKINS OF SAINTS at The Common Basis Theatre, THE RUDE MAN at The Kraine Theatre, THE GODLING, and THE SHADOW KEEPER at Tribeca Lab, as well as many others. Outside New York: SUICIDE, INC. at The Walnut St. Theatre. In Los Angeles, his LONELY VIGIL FOR A STRANGER ran indefinitely at The Burbage Theatre where LA Times heralded it, “Fireworks and Poetry”. He has worked extensively with Actors Studio Playwright/ Director’s Unit where he workshops his plays. Publications include: A GRAVEDIGGER’S TALE (Smith & Krauss) Best One Acts of 2007 and DON’T LISTEN TO WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE (Smith & Krauss) "Best One Acts of 2006." Mark was born in Philadelphia where, at 20, his first play, SATURDAY MOURN was produced upon winning The Philadelphia Theatre Company’s One Act Play competition. The next year, his adaptation of Kafka’s A HUNGER ARTIST was produced by the legendary Squat Theatre Company in New York. He is the winner of the Playwrights Fellowship Award from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts. Also a screenwriter, his award winning movie, THE PERFECT WITNESS (First Look Studios) was recently released on DVD worldwide.

	CHARM by Kathleen Cahill Kathleen Cahill (CHARM) holds an MFA in Musical Theatre and Opera Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her libretto for the opera, CLARA (Robert Convery, composer) premiered at the Maryland Center for the Arts. Her musical DAKOTA SKY (Deborah Wicks La Puma, composer) received a National Endowment for the Arts New Works Grant, and premiered at the Olney Theatre. It was a finalist in the Dramatists Guild Musical Theatre Project, staged in Kansas City at the Crossroads Musical Theatre Festival, and recently, in a concert version, performed in Los Angeles by the touring cast of Phantom of the Opera . Her musical about genius, love and time, THE NAVIGATOR (Michael Wartofsky, composer) was commissioned by North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT). Songs from THE NAVIGATOR were recently heard in New York City at the Miss New York Festival, at Dreamlight Theatre Company’s Bright Lights Showcase at the Triad, and on Youtube, sung by The Broadway Boys. For NSMT, she and Mr. Wartofsky also wrote FRIENDSHIP OF THE SEA, a touring show for young audiences. Inspired by current events and by Shakespeare’s romance, THE WINTER'S TALE , she wrote the musical PERDITA, with Mexican-American composer Deborah Wicks La Puma. PERDITA has received workshops at Theatreworks in Palo Alto, Signature Theatre in Virginia, and at the Kennedy Center’s New Works Festival, which also presented a workshop of her musical CAPTIVATED. (Her NYU Thesis musical.) Other work for the theatre includes a musical comedy about the opera heroines who die, FATAL SONG , produced most recently in cabaret at the Maryland Center for the Performing Arts. Another comedy, WOMEN WHO LOVE SCIENCE TOO MUCH , produced by Chicago’s Porchlight Theatre, and on radio for NPR (National Public Radio.) A play, THE STILL TIME was also produced by Porchlight Theatre, and by the Georgia Rep. Her one act, HENRY, LOUISE AND HENRI, was produced at the Cleveland Public. CHARM , a play about the woman who inspired Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, will be workshopped this summer by ACT and Icicle Creek Theatre Festival. Her most recent work in film is the screenplay, RUSSIAN BLUE , about the lives of musicians in New York City, commissioned by nationally known documentary filmmaker, David Grubin. She has published fiction and non-fiction in Cosmopolitan Magazine, the L.A. Weekly, the Hartford Courant, and Northeast Magazine. Her awards include include the Jane Chamber Playwrighting Award, a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Playwrighting Award, a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award, a Rockefeller Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts New American Works Grant, and a Drama League Award. In addition to writing for the theatre, Ms. Cahill is also writer and story editor for Masterpiece Theatre on Public Television. She is currently a Visiting Professor of Theatre at the University of Utah.

	SANKALPAN (DESIRE) by Lina Patel Lina Patel (SANKALPAN) is an actor/writer living in Los Angeles. Her play, SANKALPAN (Desire), was a semi-finalist for the Sundance Theatre Institute and received its first staged reading at Chicago’s Silk Road Theatre. In December the play had a workshop at the New Group in New York, directed by Ian Morgan. Her comedy, PERFECT FIT, about fashion, race and parenthood, received two staged readings at the Groundlings Theatre, directed by Shelley Butler. A Sherwood Award finalist, Lina was invited by Center Theatre Group to develop a new play in CTG’s Writer’s Retreat. THE RAGGED CLAWS received a reading at the Taper in June. She continues to develop her work in First Tuesdays, a writer’s group led by friend and mentor, Jose Rivera. Lina is actively involved in the Los Angeles arts community and served in various capacities for the ArtWallah Festival. Lina has worked with ArtWallah as literature and theatre curator and as co-artistic director. As an actor, Lina has performed at the Globe Theatres, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, East West Players, the Kirk Douglas, Taper, Too, MCC, The New Group, Theatreworks, L.A. Women’s Shakespeare Festival, and the Actor’s Gang. Her one-woman show, KRISHNA IN TEXAS has been performed in San Diego and Los Angeles. Television appearances include guest-spots on: “24”, “Num3ers”, “ CSI”. As a voice-over artist, Lina has voiced for animated series and narrated books, including William Faulkner’s, "As I Lay Dying," for Penguin.

Home About Us
Art Books Dance Fashion Film Music Theatre