Mark Bly Awarded G. E. Lessing Career Achievement Award
By: Gabrielle Sierra Jul. 01, 2010
Yesterday, June 30, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) honored Alley Theatre Senior Dramaturg and Director of New Play Development Mark Bly with the G. E. Lessing Career Achievement Award. The award was presented during LMDA's celebration of its 25th anniversary, which includes a landmark conference held at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. Mark Bly is the fourth artist in LMDA's history to receive its most prestigious honor.
Mark Bly was the Chair of the Board of Directors for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas from 2001-2005 and has played a seminal role in its growth and success. According to Cynthia M. SoRelle, Chair of the Board of Directors, and Shelley Orr, President, the award celebrates his "distinguished career as a dramaturg, scholar, teacher, mentor, and driving force in the sustenance and growth of LMDA." ABOUT Mark BlyMark Bly joined the Alley Theatre in 2008 as Senior Dramaturg and Director of New Play Development. He serves also as Distinguished Professor of Theater at the University of Houston where he teaches Playwriting and Dramaturgy. This season, he dramaturged the world premieres of Intelligence-Slave and Gruesome Playground Injuries as well as Our Town and Harvey. Last season he dramaturged Cyrano de Bergerac, Secret Order, Rock ‘n' Roll, Eurydice and The Farnsworth Invention. Prior to this he was the Senior Dramaturg at the Arena Stage and Director of Arena's New Play Development Series. Before joining Arena Stage, Bly served for 12 years as Chair of the Playwriting Program at the Yale School of Drama and as Associate Artistic Director for the Yale Repertory Theatre. Bly has dramaturged over 90 productions at major resident theaters and on Broadway. Highlights of his career include dramaturging the premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks' The America Play at Yale Rep and The Public Theater, and dramaturging the premiere of Moises Kaufman's 33 Variations at the Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, and on Broadway last spring. He became the first Production Dramaturg to be credited on a Broadway production when he worked on Execution of Justice, written and directed by Emily Mann in 1985. He has written for Dramaturgy in American Theater, Theater Forum, American Theatre, The LMDA Review, and also Yale's Theater as Contributing and Advisory Editor. He wrote introductions for and edited Volumes I and II of The Production Notebooks: Theatre in Process. He most recently gave a keynote address at the 20/20 Playwright Conference at the University of Birmingham, England. Bly is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
ABOUT THE Alley Theatre
The Alley Theatre is a professional resident theatre company under the direction of Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and Managing Director Dean Gladden. It is one of the few American Theatre companies that support a company of actors, designers, artisans and craftspeople throughout the year. Productions are built and rehearsed in a 75,000 square foot state-of-the art facility, one of the largest of its kind, adjacent to its two-theatre complex in downtown Houston.
ABOUT LITERARY MANAGERS AND DRAMATURGS OF THE AMERICASWhen LMDA was established in 1985, its mission was to create a North American network to affirm the role of dramaturg, to expand the possibilities of the field to other media and institutions, and to cultivate, develop and promote the function of dramaturgy and literary management. As an organization comprised of dramaturgs, literary managers and other like-minded artists numbering over 500, the LMDA remains true to that initial mission. For more information visit www.lmda.org.
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