Creative CV
A complete record of my artistic work, including current and past projects, productions, collaborations, and related professional activity.
Professional Affiliations
Active member of the Dramatists Guild.
Education
Edward Albee Playwriting Workshop and Modern Drama Seminar, The University of Houston.
Selected by Edward Albee for his semester-long master class in playwriting and modern drama.
MFA in Writing, the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.
Trustee Fellowship.
BA, English Major in Writing Fiction, Northwestern University.
Edwin L. Shuman Award for Fiction.
Current Projects
Together with collaborator Robert Melton, I create original musicals:
Computer Chess: The Musical – in this musical comedy adapted from Andrew Bujalski’s cult film, a 1980 chess tournament collides with a couples’ encounter group over one fateful weekend. Full libretto complete; demo recorded.
SOPHiE – a rock musical set in 1995 about four 20-something misfit mallrats who channel their angst into an all-female band. Full libretto complete; demo recorded.
Other Ways – a musical connecting two captivity narratives separated by more than three centuries. Script in draft; music and lyrics in development.
Jaybird Woodpecker – a musical about the violent 1889 conflict between the Jaybirds and Woodpeckers in Fort Bend County, Texas, and the buried secrets that surface a hundred years later; in early development.
Selected Theatrical Productions
Texas Music: The Untold Stories (Performance Director, 2020)
Directed the inaugural Texas Monthly & SXSW music and storytelling show at ACL Live Moody Theater, featuring T Bone Burnett, Shawn Colvin, Charley Crockett, Lil’ Keke, and others (SXSW canceled due to COVID-19).
Texas Monthly LIVE (Producer & Director with Musical Director Carrie Rodriguez, 2018)
Conceptualized , co-wrote, and staged Texas Monthly’s first full-length multimedia event, a large-scale music and storytelling event at the Paramount Theatre blending journalism with theatrical performance.
Inappropriate Touching (Solo Performance, FronteraFest Long Fringe, 2014)
A darkly comic storytelling piece exploring the intersections of personal history and cultural taboos.
The Casket of Passing Fancy (Co-creator & performer, Rubber Repertory, 2008)
An immersive theatrical experience where audience members selected from 500 unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, shaping each night’s performance.
Funded by: Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund Grant for its groundbreaking structure.
Awarded: Outstanding ‘None of the Above’ & Best Actress, Austin Critics Table.
Have You Ever Been Assassinated? (Playwright & Librettist, Rude Mechanicals, 2006)
A politically charged, genre-blurring play with music by composer Graham Reynolds.
Finalist: David Mark Cohen New Play Award.
Awards, Grants, Fellowships, & Residencies
2014: Residency, Pilot Balloon Church-House, a pop-up artists’ colony in Lawrence, Kansas (run by Rubber Repertory)
2009: Recipient, Outstanding ‘None of the Above’ Austin Critics Table (Play: “The Casket of Passing Fancy”)
2007: Recipient, Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund Grant (with Rubber Repertory)
2007: Finalist, Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Play: “This Night Is Different”)
2007: Nomination, David Mark Cohen New Play Award (Plays: “Have You Ever Been Assassinated?” and “The Assumption”)
2006: Recipient, Austin Community Foundation Grant (with Rude Mechanicals)
2006: Finalist, Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Play: “10 Works of Art”)
2006: Semi-Finalist, PlayLabs Festival, The Playwrights’ Center (Play: “BEAR”)
2005: Finalist, Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Play: “This Is How Life Is Created”)
2004: Honorable Mention, Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest (Story: “163 Questions”)
2004: Nomination, David Mark Cohen New Play Award (Play: “Don’t Drown”)
2002: Honorable Mention, Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest (Story: “Response to the Number Nine”)
1999-2001: Trustee Fellowship, The School of The Art Institute of Chicago
1991: Edwin L. Shuman Award for Fiction, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Additional Theatrical Productions
Honey
Production: The School of the Art Institute’s Alumni Bow (Chicago, IL) 2009
Workshop Prod.: FronteraFest (Austin, TX) 2003 & 2004
American Women And Their Hatchets
Publication: ScriptWorks 20/20: 20 plays from 20 years of Out of Ink, 2018
Production: Austin Script Works Out of Ink Festival (Austin, TX) 2007
The Assumption
Award: Best Comedy, Austin Critics Table, 2007
Nomination: David Mark Cohen New Play Award, Austin Critics Table, 2007
Production: Contributing writer; Refraction Arts (Austin, TX) October/November 2006
Flight 916
Workshop Prod.: Co-writer; Refraction Arts Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX) April 2006
10 Works of Art
Publication: Hobart Magazine, 2007
Production: Actors’ Apprentice Showcase, Actors Theatre of Louisville, January 2007
Finalist: Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville, 2006
Production: Austin Script Works, Out of Ink Festival, 2006
Reading: Script Works (Austin, TX) 2005
BEAR
Workshop Prod.: Theatre Department, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) February 2006
Staged Reading: Rude Mechanicals (Austin, TX) 2004
This Is How Life Is Created
Publication: Fence Books, A Best of Fence: The First Nine Years, 2009
Publication: Fence Magazine, Fall/Winter 2004-2005
Finalist: Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville, 2005
Award: Best Actress (Yasmin Kittles) Austin Critics Table, 2004
Production: Austin Script Works, Out of Ink Festival, State Theater (Austin, TX) 2004
Don’t Drown
Award: Best Actress (Yasmin Kittles) Austin Critics Table, 2004
Nomination: David Mark Cohen New Play Award, Austin Critics Table, 2004
Workshop Prod.: Rude Mechanicals, Second Stage (Austin, TX) 2004
Reading: Austin Script Works (Austin, TX) 2003
Film Performances
2022: Phantom cast member, “There There,” feature film, dir. Andrew Bujalski (Austin, TX)
2021: Actor/Self, “Dear Mr. Brody,” documentary feature, dir. Keith Maitland (Austin, TX)
2016: Actor, “TOWER,” documentary feature, dir. Keith Maitland (Austin, TX)
2015: Actor, “7 Chinese Brothers,” feature film, dir. Bob Byington (Austin, TX)
2015: Actor, “Results,” feature film, dir. Andrew Bujalski (Austin, TX)
2013: Actor, “Computer Chess,” feature film, dir. Andrew Bujalski (Austin, TX)
2012: Actor, “Finger,” short film, dir. Robert Melton (Austin, TX)
2010: Voice Actor, “Harmony and Me,” feature film, dir. Bob Byington (Austin, TX)
Past Collaborations
2020: SXSW & Texas Monthly magazine (Austin, TX), performance director of the inaugural “Texas Music: The Untold Stories” music and storytelling event at the ACL Live Moody Theater [canceled 11 days out due to the coronavirus pandemic]
2018: Texas Monthly magazine (Austin, TX), producer and director of the inaugural “Texas Monthly LIVE” music and storytelling event at the Paramount Theatre
2017-present: Austin Film Society (Austin, TX), occasional host, “History of Television” series
2014-2016: Austin Film Society (Austin, TX), co-producer, emcee, and storyteller
2012-2016: Annie La Ganga & The Grownup Lady Story Company (Austin, TX), co-founder and co-performer
2006 and 2015: Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX), guest artist and interviewer
2014: Bill Cotter (novelist) and McSweeney’s, The Parallel Apartments Tour (USA), storyteller
2006-2010: Rude Mechanicals (Austin, TX), company member and playwright
2008 and 2011: Rubber Repertory (Austin, TX), guest co-creator and performer
2006 and 2007: Refraction Arts (Austin, TX), guest co-writer and contributing writer
Stage Performances
2019:
Guest Lecturer, The Hidden Room Salon Series at the Neill-Cochran House, “Parlor Games: How to Behave and How to Amuse,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller and Host, The Austin Film Society’s “History of Television: Rebecca Beegle presents Bionic Wonders,” (Austin, TX)
2017:
Storyteller, “Eat Your Words” benefit for the Austin Bat Cave (Austin, TX)
Storyteller and Host, The Austin Film Society’s “History of Television: The Judy Garland Show,” (Austin, TX)
2016:
Storyteller and Emcee, The Austin Film Society & The Grownup Lady Story Company present “Shorts & Stories,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “Best Frenemies Forever,” The Story Department (Austin, TX)
2015:
Storyteller and Emcee, The Austin Film Society & The Grownup Lady Story Company present “Shorts & Stories,” (Austin, TX)
Co-host and Storyteller, “Beegle & La Ganga on Broadmoor,” monthly event series (Austin, TX)
Co-host, “We Need to Talk,” with Annie La Ganga, Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX)
2014:
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert at Brenner and Kiger’s,” (Pflugerville, TX)
Storyteller, The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert at Craig and Eva’s,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert At Mary Hooper’s,” (Houston, TX)
Storyteller, “Close Encounter of the Human Kind,” The Living Room (Austin, TX)
Storyteller and Emcee, “The 3rd Grownup Lady Story Company Storytelling Workshop Showcase,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller and Emcee, Austin Film Society & The Grownup Lady Story Company present “Summer Shorts and Stories,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller and Emcee, “The 2nd Grownup Lady Story Company Storytelling Workshop Showcase,” (Austin, TX)
Presenter, Pecha Kucha #20, on the rooftop of the Contemporary Austin (Austin, TX)
Storyteller and Emcee, “The Grownup Lady Story Company Storytelling Workshop Showcase,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert at Karen and Joe’s,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Parallel Apartments Tour,” a Grownup Lady Story Company partnership with novelist Bill Cotter and McSweeney’s (USA)
Storyteller, “Inappropriate Touching,” solo show, FronteraFest Long Fringe (Austin, TX)
2013:
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert at Stacy’s,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert at Keith and Sarah’s,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert at the Beegle’s,” (Houston, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert at Joan’s,” (Houston, TX)
Storyteller and Emcee, “Day of the Dead,” The Living Room (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert at Karen and Joe’s,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Concert at Bob’s,” (Austin, TX)
Emcee, “Xmas in July,” The Story Department (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company Pacific Northwest Tour,” (USA)
Emcee, “Night Terrors,” The Story Department (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “Family Undoing,” The Living Room (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company House Party,” (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “The Grownup Lady Story Company Tea Party,” Mi Casa Es Su Teatro (Austin, TX)
2012:
Storyteller and Emcee, “On The Road,” The Story Department (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “It’s Not Fair,” The Story Department (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “Affairs,” The Story Department (Austin, TX)
2011:
Performer, “The Zellner Brothers–Robots Rule vs. Robots Drool,” Fantastic Debates (Austin, TX)
Performer, “Biography of Physical Sensation,” Rubber Repertory/Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX)
Storyteller, “Traveler’s Tales,” The Living Room (Austin, TX)
2008:
Performer, “The Casket of Passing Fancy,” Rubber Repertory (Austin, TX)
Publications
June 2018: ScriptWorks 20/20: 20 plays from 20 years of Out of Ink, “American Women And Their Hatchets”
March 2014: Café Armageddon, CYNOSURE anthology, “28”
June 29, 2012: What’s the Worth, “Bird’s Nest”
December 2011: Café Armageddon, Minerva’s Wreck: 2011, “163 Questions”
August 2009: Fence Books, A Best of Fence: The First Nine Years, “This Is How Life Is Created”
Fall 2007: fold: the reader, “The Tick-tock Club”
Early 2007: Hobart, “10 Works of Art”
February 2005: The Austin Chronicle, “163 Questions”
Fall/Winter 2004-2005: Fence, “This Is How Life Is Created”
Fall 2004: elimae, “Texan Drowns in Vegetable Oil”
Fall/Winter 2004-2005: fold: the reader, “A Brief History of Heartbreak”
January 2003: The Austin Chronicle, “Response to the Number Nine”
July 2001: 5-trope, “Lustron”
Related Professional Work
2016: Co-host and moderator of SparkleCast, a bi-weekly podcast that explored the use of story in parenting and education (recorded in Austin, TX)
2016: Moderator, opening weekend screening Q&A, TOWER film (Austin, Texas)
2016: Interviewer, in conversation with author Karen Olsson, The Wild Detectives (Dallas, TX)
2014-present: Instructor, The Grownup Lady Story Company Storytelling Workshop (Austin, TX)
2007-present: Rough Cut Screener, for filmmakers Andrew Bujalski, Zellner Brothers, Bob Byington, Karen Skloss, Ben Steinbauer, Alex Karpovsky, Heather Courtney, and others (Austin, TX)
2015: Moderator, Texas Book Festival (Austin, TX)
2013: Moderator, Texas Book Festival (Austin, TX)
2009: Judge, Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest (Austin, TX)
2008-2009: Screener, Narrative Features, SXSW Film Festival (Austin, TX)
2008: Panelist, Literature Grants, City of Austin Cultural Arts Division (Austin, TX)
2008: Dramaturg, Maggie Gallant’s “Our Angle in Heaven,” Austin Script Works (Austin, TX)
2007: Mentor, “Grrl Action” youth program, Rude Mechanicals (Austin, TX)
2006: Dramaturg, “Red Cans” workshop, Rubber Repertory (Austin, TX)
2004-2005: Member Representative, Austin Script Works (Austin, TX)
2003-2005: Core Member, Austin Script Works (Austin, TX)
2005: Assistant Dir., Carson Kreitzer’s “Flesh and The Desert,” UT New Works Festival (Austin, TX)
2000-2010: Contributing Writer, Matthew Goulish’s Annual Alumni Renga, (Chicago, IL)
Bibliography
Robert Faires, “Summer’s Easy Readin’: Writers on their go-to books for when their gray cells need a vacay, too,” The Austin Chronicle, June 12, 2015.
Lauren Smart, “Listening, Grand Narratives and Hyperlocality,” Arts+Culture Texas, May 1, 2015.
Lauren Smart, “Playing Outside the Fusebox: a Texas Festival Expands Its Civic Vision,” American Theatre Magazine, April 20, 2015.
Shannon McCormick, “Can We Talk?” Fusebox Festival blog, April 10, 2015.
Arcie Cola, “These Austin Ladies Tell Stories So Well They Formed Their Own Company!” Austin.com, April 8, 2015.
Wayne Alan Brenner, “We Remember What the Dormouse Said,“ The Austin Chronicle, March 31, 2015.
Wayne Alan Brenner, “The Q&A Hole: What Does It Take To Succeed in This World?” The Austin Chronicle, January 12, 2015.
Elizabeth Stewart, “Bill Cotter Tackles Austin, Matriarchy and Maladjustment in The Parallel Apartments,” Texas Observer, February 24, 2014.
Stacy Alexander Evans, “Inappropriate Touching,” The Austin Chronicle, January 31, 2014.
Robert Faires, “Change of Venue,” The Austin Chronicle, January 10, 2014.
Jack Helbig, “The Alumni Bow,” Chicago Reader, September 2009.
Wayne Alan Brenner, “Top 10 Favorite Arts Events Across the Disciplines (In No Particular Order),” The Austin Chronicle, January 2, 2009.
Hannah Kenah, “Top 10 Parts and Wholes (In No Particular Order), Plus One Standout,” The Austin Chronicle, January 2, 2009.
Wayne Alan Brenner, “The Choice Is Yours,” The Austin Chronicle, October 10, 2008.
Robert Faires, “Cashing In,” The Austin Chronicle, October 26, 2007.
Robert Faires, “Culture Flash!,” The Austin Chronicle, November 10, 2006.
Robert Faires, “Have You Ever Been Assassinated?,” The Austin Chronicle, November 10, 2006.
Jonathon Morgan, "Have You Ever Been Assassinated?," Austinist.com, November 1, 2006.
Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, “Have You Ever Been Assassinated?,” Austin American-Statesman , October 31, 2006.
Eliza Bent, “Austin: Death Becomes Them,” American Theatre Magazine, November 1, 2005.
Shawn Badgley, “13th Annual ‘Austin Chronicle’ Short Story Contest,” The Austin Chronicle, February 18, 2005.
Robert Faires, “Don’t Drown,” The Austin Chronicle, February 6, 2004.
Shawn Badgley, “11th Annual ‘Austin Chronicle’ Short Story Contest,” The Austin Chronicle, January 31, 2003.