Paula L Cizmar
Adjunct Faculty

Her many honors include two Ovation Awards for the production of her play Street Stories at Playwrights Arena; a Rockefeller Foundation Residency at Bellagio, Italy; a DramaLogue Award; two NEA grants; the Ohio University Medal of Merit, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize silver medal. In addition, she has received commissions from Salt Lake Acting Company, Vital Voices, Cypress College, Echo Theatre, the Jerome Foundation in association with WTP of Minnesota, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Her work has been selected for the prestigious O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Sundance Theatre Lab, and ENVISION at Bard, and she has been writer-in-residence at numerous venues including Portland Stage, Skidmore College, Ohio University, Passage Theatre, and the University of Washington.

Paula’s work as a journalist includes articles on a variety of topics from the arts to the economy. Her articles and essays have appeared in Mother Jones, the Detroit Free Press, and The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Books & Arts. Her theatre pieces have been published and are anthologized in a number of collections of scenes, monologues, and plays, including Great Scenes and Monologues for Actors (St. Martin’s Press), Duo (edited by Lavonne Mueller, Applause Books), and The Great Monologues from the Women’s Project (edited by Julia Miles, Smith and Krause Publishers). In addition to her publications, Paula’s work is archived at the New York City Library’s theatre collection as well as online in the Women’s Collection of the Alexander Street Press.

Paula is one of the award-winning writers who put together two documentary theatre pieces about courageous women around the world who are doing the dangerous work of fighting for human rights. One of these projects, Journeys, was produced at LaMaMa e.t.c. in New York. The other, Seven, tells the true story of seven women—from Russia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Guatemala, and Cambodia—who are overcoming injustice in their countries, often at great risk to themselves. Written with Anna Deavere Smith, Ruth Margraff, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, and Susan Yankowitz, Seven was featured at Culture Project’s Women Center Stage Festival in New York. It has been performed in four cities in Sweden as part of the nationwide Swedish HomeNotHome Festival, as well as in Deauville, France and at the Harman Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C. in an event sponsored by Hilary Clinton. Upcoming productions of Seven include a performance at the Guthrie, a presentation on International Women’s Day at Diane von Furstenberg’s Studio in New York City, as well as shows in seven different countries. Seven will be published in Spring 2009 (Dramatists Play Service).

For more information, go to paulacizmar.com.