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Deborah’s play End Days was awarded The American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg citation in March, 2008. It will receive its Off-Broadway premiere at Ensemble Studio Theatre in March, 2009 through an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant. As a National New Play Network rolling world premiere it debuted in October 2007 at Florida Stage, The Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis in February, 2008 and Curious Theater in Denver in July, 2008. End Days will be recognized in The Burns Mantle Yearbook as one of the best regional plays of 2008. The Last Schwartz was nominated for a Carbonell Award for Best New Work when it premiered at Florida Stage and enjoyed a six-month run at The Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. It has received numerous productions around the country. Out of Sterno was workshopped at The Cherry Lane Alternative in New York City. It will receive its world premiere at Portland Stage in Maine in March, 2009 with a grant from The Edgerton Foundation.
Deborah is one of six playwrights commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville to write Brink, featuring their Apprentice Company at this year’s Humana Festival. Other short works: The Record, commissioned for Juilliard’s Centennial Celebration, where it premiered in October 2005 (published in The Best 10 Minute Plays of 2005). Saturday, produced in 2005 in the City Theatre’s Summer Shorts Festival. The Prom, produced in 2003 by City Theatre’s Short Cuts School Tour.
Deborah is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she was also a Playwright-in-Residence and where her play Fortune was produced. Fortune opened at The Marin Theatre Company in January of 2005, and has had several productions around the country. Other plays include: The Gulf of Westchester (Florida Stage/NNPN commission), Random Acts, and Miniatures. Her newest play, Sirens, has been selected for Florida Stage’s 1st Look Festival in March. Deborah is a two-time recipient of the LeCompte du Nouy grant from The Lincoln Center Foundation. Her plays have been developed at The Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Ojai Playwrights Conference, The Missoula Colony, The Cherry Lane Alternative, The Dramatists Guild Fellowship Program, New Georges and The Lark Play Development Center. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild.
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Check out Deborah’s plays, available from Samuel French
OUT OF STERNO
END DAYS
THE LAST SCHWARTZ
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Q & A with Deborah Zoe Laufer
Q:When and/or how did you know that you wanted to be a playwright?
A: I was an actress for most of my life, and also did stand-up for a couple of years. When I was pregnant with my older son, and even the audience suggested that being out at a smoky bar at 2 AM might not be the best lifestyle, I decided to write my first play. And it was so thrilling, and freeing and difficult that I was hooked. But I still didn’t know I was a playwright. In some ways, I’d revered plays so much since I was a child, that it seemed impossible that I could really make them and have them performed. I was at the Missoula Colony in Missoula MT, when Marsha Norman actually said the words, “You know you’re a playwright, don’t you?” I didn’t. Until she said that. So I actually had that rare lightning-rod moment. Sure do love Marsha Norman
Q: What inspires you to write a play?
A: My plays are generally about things that perplex me. And worry me. And make me feel a little lost. So I need to dive in and get dirty in the confusion. I never solve any problems. I usually wind up with more questions and uncertainty than I started with, but the process stretches me a little. I think, at its best, theater gets a whole lot of people together in a room to look at what it is to be human and to experience it together. It’s as close as I come to a religious experience. Oh, and funny. My plays are funny. I really like funny.
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