UNM’s Department of Theatre and Dance celebrates the appointment of award-winning playwright Elaine Avila as the Robert Hartung Endowed Chair of Dramatic Writing with a reading of selections from her recent plays on Sunday, Oct. 21, noon to 1 p.m. in Rodey Theatre, Center for the Arts. The reading features UNM’s resident company, the Tricklock Theatre Company directed by Joe Perrachio, and is free of charge.
Photo: Elaine Avila
Avila’s plays have been performed across the U.S., Canada and Europe. Some of her favorite projects include “Lieutenant Nun” (based on the true story of a woman conquistador), “Burn Gloom” (a music-theatre collaboration involving writers from 14 cities) and “Good Fooling” (the story of Shakespeare’s Clown).
She is the recipient of numerous awards including The Victoria Critic’s Circle for Best New Play, a Canada Council Millennium Grant, New Works for Young Women Award/Residency from Tulsa University, the A.S.K. Theatre Projects Scholarship, and the Alden B. Dow Fellowship.
Her screenplays include “Fortune,” “Kai takes a Solo” and “Lead Dress.” She is currently at work on her novel, “Saudades,” about her Portuguese grandfather immigrating to North America from the Azores. Avila has an M.F.A. in playwriting from California Institute of the Arts, where she worked closely with Suzan-Lori Parks and Erik Ehn. She has taught in universities from British Columbia to Tasmania.
One of her passions is working with people who do not traditionally have access to theatre because of life threatening illness, violence, poverty, language barriers or disability. Highlights in artistic leadership include serving as Artistic Director of a company specializing in international theatre and the classics, and spearheading LEAP, a multicultural initiative fostering young playwrights.
While working professionally as an actor/director in the U.S., Canada and Australia, she became one of the few people in the world trained in Pochinko clown through mask technique, a combination of Native North American and European clowning, as well as Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and commedia dell’ arte.
As the Robert Hartung Endowed Chair of Dramatic Writing, Avila is working with both undergraduates and M.F.A. students in UNM’s Dramatic Writing Program. This program offers continuing opportunities for producing new work which creates an environment where students are either preparing scripts for submission to the annual new works festival, Words Afire, submitting material for production to the local theatre community, or for the season of plays selected by students and presented in Theatre X. Students in the writing program have won national playwriting awards for the plays presented in this festival, including awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
The Oct. 21 reading will be followed by a brief reception where the public is invited to meet Avila. More information is available at: UNM Theatre or by calling (505) 277-4332.
Media Contact: Kathleen Clawson, (505) 238-6029; e-mail: kclawson@unm.edu