Paula Cizmar is a playwright whose work often combines poetry and politics and is concerned with the way stories get told in a culture—and with who or what gets left out of the discussion. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a TCG/Mellon Foundation On the Road grant.

Theatres producing her work include Portland Stage Company, the Women’s Project, the Jungle Theatre (Minneapolis), San Diego Rep, Passage Theatre (NJ), Theatre LaBeet (London), The Warehouse (London), Actors Theatre of Louisville (short plays), and Playwrights Arena @ LATC. Among her many plays are The Death of a Miner, Candy & Shelley Go To the Desert, Still Life with Parrot & Monkey, Ghost Dance on Mulholland, Bone Dry, and Down 4 the Count. Street Stories, a play described by an admiring reviewer as “a prose poem to urban, multicultural America,” was awarded three Critics Picks for the Playwrights Arena production in Los Angeles. Her adaptation, Goat Springs Eternal, based on a 17th-century Lope de Vega play, transports the action to the U.S.-Mexico border and was part of the Golden Tongues 2 Festival in Los Angeles.

Paula has received commissions from Salt Lake Acting Company, Echo Theatre, Portland Stage Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Women’s Theatre Project of Minnesota, and Playwrights Arena and Center Theatre Group. Her numerous residencies include Playwright in Residence at Skidmore College and Portland Stage, and an international residency at the Rockefeller Study Center at Bellagio, Italy. Her work has been selected for both Sundance and the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, as well as an EnVision Retreat at Bard. Among her many awards are two NEA grants and a Special Commendation from the Susan Blackburn Prize for her play The Death of a Miner.

She is one of the authors of the acclaimed documentary theatre piece, Seven, written in collaboration with Carol K. Mack, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith, and Susan Yankowitz. The play, based on interviews the playwrights conducted with courageous human rights workers, focuses on the struggles of female activists who campaign against violence and corruption, even in the face of threats to their own lives. The play has been translated into 25+ languages and has been produced in 32 countries so far, including Japan, India, Ecuador, Morocco, Argentina, Russia, Latvia, Jordan, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Egypt, Ukraine, France, and England. It was performed at the 18th Istanbul International Theatre Festival and toured the Balkans as part of a campaign to end violence toward women and has inspired a women’s rights/arts movement there. It was performed at NATO headquarters by a group of male generals and has been performed all over the United States. Most recently it was produced by LA Theatre Works, where it was also recorded as an audio play which will air on public radio and be available as a CD.

She was commissioned by Center Theatre Group and Playwrights Arena, along with six other Los Angeles playwrights--Velina Hasu Houston, Nahal Navidar, julie taiwo oni, Janine Salinas, Jennifer Maisel, and Laurie Woolery--to write The Hotel Play, a site specific work commemorating the 25th anniversary of Playwrights Arena, which was formed in a response to the civil uprisings in L.A. following the Rodney King verdicts.

Paula is an associate professor of theatre at the School of Dramatic Arts at the University of Southern California where she has produced numerous events, including Water Rites and Lost Borders for Visions and Voices.

More information: www.paulacizmar.net

Represented by Samara Harris Anderson at The Robert Freedman Agency, NYC.
samara@robertfreedmanagency.com