Melinda Lopez is an actress, playwright, and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. [1] She is the first ever playwright-in-residence for the Huntington Theatre Company. [2] She is a professor at Northeastern University.
Melinda Lopez is an actress, playwright, and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. [1] She is the first ever playwright-in-residence for the Huntington Theatre Company. [2] She is a professor at Northeastern University.
As a playwright, Lopez has produced a sizable body of work that spans the last two decades and has garnered a variety of awards. Lopez's plays include Alexandros (Laguna Playhouse), Caroline in Jersey (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Sonia Flew, which premiered at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA in 2004 and won several Best New Play awards. [3] The Huntington's production of Sonia Flew was the inaugural production at the Huntington's space for new work, the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. [4] Sonia Flew has since been produced for radio broadcast and in multiple other cities. [3] Lopez has also authored God Smells Like a Roast Pig (Women on Top Festival), The Order of Things (CentaStage), How do you Spell Hope? (Underground Railway Theatre), and a translation of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding for Suffolk University. [3] In 2009, she was commissioned by the National Institute of Health to author a work celebrating the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth, leading to her play From Orchids to Octopi, An Evolutionary Love Story. [5] In 2013, Lopez was made the first ever playwright in residence at the Huntington Theatre thanks to a three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. [6] Lopez has held residencies with Harvard University, the New York Theatre Workshop, Sundance, and The Lark. [4] Lopez has also acted in regional theaters across the country, most recently with Huntington Theatre Company and Speakeasy Stage Company of Boston. [2]
Lopez's works frequently focus on the stories of Cuban or Cuban-American characters. Her play Becoming Cuba is set in 1897 Havana on the eve of the Spanish–American War, [7] Alexandros centers on a Cuban family in exile, [8] Sonia Flew is about a woman who was sent to the United States from Cuba as a child in 1961, [9] and her one-woman show Midnight Sandwich/Medianoche (previously titled God Smells Like a Roast Pig) deals explicitly with Lopez's own struggle with her Cuban heritage. [10]
In November 2016, ArtsEmerson produced Lopez's work, Mala. [11] Mala is Lopez's one woman show about "an utterly unsentimental journey towards the end of life, Mala is an irreverent exploration of how we live, cope and survive in the moment." [12] The production was directed by David Dower, and was remounted at the Calderwood Pavilion in January 2018 by the Huntington Theatre Company. [13] The Huntington presentation was recorded and broadcast by GBH Channel 2 in 2020. [14]
Lopez lives with her husband and daughter in Boston,. [15] She has been a member of Actor's Equity Association since 1990. [15] She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and a Master of Arts from Boston University. [5] She is Cuban American, and works with Boston-area charities that give humanitarian aid to Cuba. [5] She is also a long-distance runner and has completed two marathons. [5]
| Show | Role | Company | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Many Colors Make the Thunder-king | Guthrie Theater | 1997 | |
| A Month in the Country | Lizaveta Bogdanovna | Huntington Theatre Company | 2002 |
| The Rose Tattoo | Assunta | Huntington Theatre Company | 2004 |
| Anna in the Tropics | Conchita | Speakeasy Stage Company | 2005 |
| Persephone | Persephone | Huntington Theatre Company | 2007 |
| Oil Thief | Amy | Boston Playwrights' Theatre | 2008 |
| The Motherf**ker with the Hat | Victoria | Speakeasy Stage Company | 2012 |
| Our Town | Mrs. Gibbs | Huntington Theatre Company | 2013 |
| Appropriate | Toni | Speakeasy Stage Company | 2015 |
| Mala | ArtsEmerson | 2016 | |
| Grand Concourse | Shelley | Speakeasy Stage Company | 2017 |
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Charlotte Woolard Award | recognizing "a promising new voice in American theatre." | The Order of Things | Won |
| 1999 | Elliot Norton Award | Outstanding Solo Performance | God Smells Like a Roast Pig | Won |
| 2003 | Massachusetts Cultural Council | Grant for Playwriting | Won | |
| 2004 | Independent Reviewers of New England | Best New Play | Sonia Flew | Won |
| 2004 | Independent Reviewers of New England | Best Production | Sonia Flew | Won |
| 2004 | Elliot Norton Award | Best New Play | Sonia Flew | Won |
| 2004 | Elliot Norton Award | Best Production | Sonia Flew | Won |
| 2008 | Elliot Norton Award | Best New Play | Gary | Nominated |
| 2011 | Independent Reviewers of New England | Best New Play | From Orchids to Octopi | Won |
A Cuban sandwich is a variation of a ham and cheese sandwich that likely originated in cafes catering to Cuban workers in Tampa or Key West, two early Cuban immigrant communities in Florida centered on the cigar industry. Later on, Cuban exiles and expatriates brought it to Miami, where it is also very popular. The sandwich is made with ham, (mojo) roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard, and sometimes salami on Cuban bread. Salami is included in Tampa, where there is a large Italian population, but is not usually included in South Florida.
The San Jose Repertory Theatre was the first resident professional theatre company in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1980 by James P. Reber. In 2008, after the demise of the American Musical Theatre of San Jose, the San Jose Rep became the largest non-profit, professional theatre company in the South Bay with an annual operating budget of $5 million. In 2006, it was saved from impending insolvency by a $2 million bailout loan from the city of San Jose; this was later restructured into a long-term loan similar to a mortgage.
The Colonial Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, opened in 1900, is the oldest continually-operating theatre in the city. It is located at 106 Boylston Street on Boston Common at the former site of the Boston Public Library. It is a pending Boston Landmark.
Lydia R. Diamond is an American playwright and professor. Among her most popular plays are The Bluest Eye (2007), an adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel; Stick Fly (2008); Harriet Jacobs (2011); and Smart People (2016). Her plays have received national attention and acclaim, receiving the Lorraine Hansberry Award for Best Writing, an LA Weekly Theater Award, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the 2020 Horton Foote Playwriting Award from the Dramatists Guild of America.
Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) is a small professional theatre in Boston, Massachusetts and the home of Boston University's MFA Playwriting Program. As a venue, BPT rents its space for the rehearsal, reading, and production of new plays.
Ken Urban is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and musician based in New York. He is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and leads the Music and Theatre Arts Program's dramatic writing program. Urban is also a resident playwright at New Dramatists and an affiliated writer at the Playwrights' Center.
Larry Carpenter is an American theatre and television director and producer. In the theatre, he has worked as an artistic director, associate artistic director, a managing director and general manager in both the New York and Regional arenas. He also works as a theatre director and is known primarily for large projects, working on musicals and classical plays equally. In television, he works as a director for New York daytime dramas. He has served as executive vice president of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the national labor union for professional stage directors and choreographers. He is also a member of the Directors Guild of America PAC.
John Shea is an American playwright. Most of his plays are set in his hometown of Somerville, an old industrial suburb of Boston which has gentrified rapidly in the early 21st century. His one-man show, "JUNKIE," produced by Argos Productions, was nominated for an Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) award.
John Kuntz is an American actor, playwright, director, and solo performer. Kuntz is the author of 14 full-length plays, a founding company member at Actors' Shakespeare Project, has taught at Emerson College, Suffolk University, and Concord Academy, and is currently an associate professor of theater at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He was an inaugural playwriting fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company and a fellow at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in 2007. Kuntz is the recipient of six Elliot Norton Awards, two Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards, and New York International Fringe Festival Award, among others.
The Huntington Theatre Company is a professional theatre located in Boston, Massachusetts and the recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, under the direction of Managing Director Michael Maso. It is notable for its longstanding artistic relationship with African-American playwright August Wilson.
David Grimm is an American playwright and screenwriter.
Lila Rose Kaplan is a 21st-century American playwright. She currently lives in Somerville, MA, where she was a Huntington Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company (2012-2014) as well as a Next Voices Playwriting Fellow with New Repertory Theatre (2015-2016).
Company One is a non-profit theatre company located in the Boston Center for the Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The company is known for socially conscious theatre programming. Company One has produced more than 50 plays since 1998.
Sheri Wilner is an American playwright.
Emily D. Skeggs is an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2015 for playing the role of Medium Alison in Fun Home.
Kate Snodgrass is an American theater director and playwright. She is the artistic director of Boston Playwrights' Theatre. She is a professor of the practice of playwriting in the English Department of Boston University. Snodgrass won the 2012 Elliot Norton Award for Excellence.
Kirsten Greenidge is an American playwright. Her plays are known for their realistic language and focus on social issues such as the intersectionality of race, gender, and class. Her sister is the historian Kerri Greenidge.
Ronan Noone is an American playwright based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Nikkole Salter is an American actress, playwright, and advocate known for her work on the Obie Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize nominated play In the Continuum. Salter co-wrote and co-starred in In the Continuum with Danai Gurira. The success of In the Continuum prompted Salter to co-launch The Continuum Project with Glenn Gordon NSangou. The Continuum Project is a non-profit organization that "provides innovative cultural programming for the unification, enrichment and empowerment of the global African Diaspora." As a playwright, Salter has written seven full-length plays. Salter's plays have been produced Off-Broadway and in five countries around the world. As an actress, Salter has performed Off-Broadway and at many regional theaters including Arena Stage, Huntington Theater, Berkley Repertory Theater, and the Shakespeare Theater Company.
ArtsEmerson is a non-profit, professional theater and film presenting and producing organization. Conceived by Emerson College President Jackie Liebergott and founded in 2010 by theatrical producer Robert Orchard, ArtsEmerson is housed as part of the Office for the Arts at Emerson College's Boston, Massachusetts, campus. The organization focuses on contemporary world theater and presents or produces theatrical performances, films, and public dialogues across several Emerson College venues and in locations across Greater Boston.
