Cover artwork of the Community Issue: Pen and colored pencil illustrations of people of different genders, ethnicities, and sizes clustered together in harmony
TABLE OF CONTENTS
As a Writer, What is the Most Unexpected Sense of Community You've Experienced?
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In the usual sense, I have always felt part of the community where I lived or taught. Perhaps the most surprising time I felt part of a community, however, was when I was thousands of miles and oceans away in India where I was doing a tour of my play, To the Death of My Own Family. Although I have lived and taught in Japan and Korea where I had to learn a new language and customs in order to adapt to these new countries and cultures, my visit to India provided a uniquely new understanding of life and community.

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David Meth

is a novelist and award-winning playwright who writes about people caught between cultures. In 2009, he received an Artistic Fellowship from the State of Connecticut for his play, To The Death Of My Own Family. His play, 9/12, about the loss of civil liberties after 9/11, won the 2008 Peace Writing International Award. DavidMeth.com

Jennifer Blackmer

’s plays have been produced across the country, and include Human TerrainUnraveled, Delicate Particle Logicand Borrowed Babies. Her awards include the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theatre Award for Emerging American Playwright and the Joseph Jefferson Award for her adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace. www.jenniferblackmer.com

Cavan Hallman

’s plays have been performed in NYC, Chicago, New Orleans, and on tour. He is a resident artist with The CRY HAVOC Company in NYC and holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of New Orleans. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Mirrorbox Theatre.

Terri Madden

is the founder and Artistic Director of PlayBuilders of Hawaii Theatre Company. She holds an MFA in theatre from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and has produced (and sometimes written) nine community-based plays; working with geographic communities such as Wahiawa, Waipahu, and Chinatown, and with special interest groups such as Honolulu’s LGBTQ, homeless, foster care, and most recently, sexual assault survivors. She is currently producing plays in collaboration with the Hawaiian Missionary Houses Historic Site and Archives and with the Domestic Abuse Action Center. She has been acknowledged by the Hawaii State Theatre Council with 7 Po‘okelas for excellence in acting, directing, and playwriting, and is a recipient of the Lisa Toshigawa Inouye Award for Excellence in Playwriting in the Pidgin language. She founded and produces The PlayFestival annually and has introduced almost 70 new plays to Honolulu audiences over the last eight years.

James Olm

is the Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Casper College in Casper, Wyoming. His musical, The Magdalene, opened off-Broadway at the Theatre at St. Clements in New York. Olm has written three other musicals and is published with Samuel French, Inc.

Sherry Lamoreaux

is a playwright, screenwriter, and sometimes poet. She lives in Oregon, where she coauthored Vitriol & Violets, which won the Oregon Book Award for Drama in 2004.

Ty Defoe

(Giizhig), is from the Oneida and Ojibwe Nations. He is a Grammy-award-winning composer, playwright, librettist, interdisciplinary artist, actor, choreographer, eagle dancer, and hoop dancer. Ty interweaves artistic projects with social justice, indigeneity, trans rights, Indigi-Queering, and environmentalism.