Steppenwolf Announces D’Amour & Saracho as Its Mellon Grant Recipients

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is pleased to announce it has commissioned playwrights Lisa D'Amour and Tanya Saracho to create two new plays each for the Steppenwolf ensemble over the next two years. These commissions are funded by a three-year grant presented to Steppenwolf in 2008 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Over the next three years, Steppenwolf will commission two additional playwrights, who along with D'Amour and Saracho, will write a total of eight new plays for the theatre's ensemble through Steppenwolf's New Plays Initiative. The commissions are part of a new initiative to expand the creation and development of new plays for the American stage-while providing audiences greater transparency into the artistic process.

"What most excites us most about this grant is the idea of committing to commissioning two plays," comments Director of Artistic Development Polly Carl. "What we're saying is that we want to build a relationship with these playwrights over the long-term and that we're serious about our efforts to produce what we commission. Steppenwolf consistently seeks ways to create an artistic home for artists and we're so excited to invite both Lisa and Tanya into the Steppenwolf family as we develop two new plays by each," adds Carl.

ABOUT THE RECIPIENTS

Lisa D'Amour writes plays for theaters and creates interdisciplinary performance. She recently directed Terrible Things, a dance-theater piece she created with Katie Pearl and choreographer Emily Johnson, at PS122 in New York. Other recent projects include Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea (a performance for a fleet of seven handmade boats on the Hudson River designed by SWOON) and Stanley (2006 - a solo she wrote for her brother Todd to perform, produced by HERE Arts Center in New York). Lisa's work has been presented by theaters such as Salvage Vanguard, Infernal Bridegroom Productions, the Walker Arts Center, Crowded Fire Theater, Children's' Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, HERE Arts Center, New Georges, Theater of a Two-Headed Calf and the Women's Project, and has been supported by the Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, NYSCA, the MAP Fund and the NEA/TCG Residency for Playwrights. She received an OBIE Award along with Katie Pearl and Kathy Randels for Nita & Zita, and received the Alpert Award in the Arts for theater in 2008. Lisa often collaborates with ArtSpot Productions in her hometown of New Orleans. She is core alum of the Playwrights' Center, a recent alumna of New Dramatists and is currently a Visiting Lecturer at Brown University in the Playwriting MFA program. For additional information, please visit www.lisadamour.com and www.pearldamour.com.

Tanya Saracho was born in Sinaloa, México and moved to Texas in the late 1980's. She is Co-Founder and former Artistic Director of Teatro Luna, and a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and Teatro Vista. Tanya's writing has been featured in most of Teatro Luna's ensemble-built works including Generic Latina, Dejame Contarte, The Maria Chronicles, SOLO Latinas, SOLO Tú, S-E-X-Oh! and Lunatic(a)s. Her plays include: The House on Mango Street adapted from the novel by Sandra Cisneros for Steppenwolf for Young Adults (2009), Our Lady of The Underpass with Teatro Vista (2009), Surface Day with Chicago Children's Humanity Festival (2008), and Jarred (A Hoodoo Comedy) (2008) and Quita Mitos (2006) with Teatro Luna. Tanya's play Kita y Fernanda, a finalist for the 2003 Nuestras Voces Playwrighting Competition, received productions at Teatro Luna (2003) and 16th Street Theatre (2008). Other awards include: The 3Arts Artists Award, The Ofner Prize given by the Goodman Theatre, finalist for the Christopher B. Wolk Award at Abingdon Theatre in NYC, nominee for the Wasserstein Prize and winner of the Khan Award. Saracho's solo play Quita Mitos received a world premiere with Teatro Luna in November of 2006 and has toured colleges and festivals, including the International Hispanic Theatre Festival and the Goodman's Latino Theatre Festival. Tanya received a fellowship with The Goodman Theatre and the Institute for Women and Gender Studies at Columbia College and is under commission from Teatro Vista for El Nogalar, a play inspired by Chekov's The Cherry Orchard. She is also working with Bonnie Metzgar and About Face Theatre on a historical project titled The Good Private about a transgendered civil war soldier. Directing/co-directing credits include: Jarred (A Hoodoo Comedy), SOLO Tú, S-E-X-Oh!, both productions of Lunatic(a)s, the remount of Generic Latina, The Maria Chronicles and SÓLO Latinas.

Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and contributing new works to the national canon. The company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through on-going group work. Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of 42 artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting and textual adaptation. For additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org, www.facebook.com/SteppenwolfTheatre and www.twitter.com/SteppenwolfThtr.

 

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