Susan Kathryn Hefti's AMERICAN DAMES is Huge Hit at Stella Adler Studio's Play Reading Festival!

Thanks to everyone who came out to hear the first-ever public reading of Susan Kathryn Hefti's AMERICAN DAMES, or...Waiting for Dolley in the 2012 Harold Clurman Playwrights Division's New Play Reading Festival at the Stella Adler Studio this past Wednesday, April 11th!

The evening was a huge success: We had a smashing turn-out and everybody was so pumped, the energy in the room was truly electric!

As we continue to move forward in the play development process, we’ll be sure to keep you posted on the progress of AMERICAN DAMES, or…Waiting for Dolley - the 2011-2012 Harold Clurman Playwright-in-Residence Competition Finalist - written by Susan Kathryn Hefti.

Thanks again for coming to hear the Stella Adler Studio and the Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company's reading of Susan Kathryn Hefti's AMERICAN DAMES, or...Waiting for Dolley! We hope to see you again soon! 

Waiting for…

Dolley Madison, circa 1815-17

Susan Kathryn Hefti's AMERICAN DAMES Selected for Play Reading Festival in NYC!

We are delighted to announce that Susan Kathryn Hefti's AMERICAN DAMES (or...Waiting for Dolley), the 2011-2012 Harold Clurman Playwright-in-Residence Competition Finalist, has been selected for The Stella Adler Studio's 2012 New Play Reading Festival!

As part of the festival, the Playwrights Division of The Stella Adler Studio of Acting and the Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater will be producing the first-ever staged reading of AMERICAN DAMES this spring!

For reservations and details about this very special play reading, please visit The Stella Adler Studio's Facebook Events Page.

Harold Clurman Finalist Susan Kathryn Hefti's New Play to Have Reading at The Stella Adler Studio

The Stella Adler Studio Playwrights Division - which is affiliated with NYU's Tisch School of the Arts - will produce the first of two readings of 2011-2012 Harold Clurman Playwright-in-Residence competition Finalist Susan Kathryn Hefti's newest full-length play AMERICAN DAMES (or...Waiting for Dolley) on Thursday, October 13, 2011 at The Studio.

As the initial step in the play development process, this first reading will be closed to the public. The second reading - a fully-staged reading produced by The Stella Adler Studio's Playwrights Division - will be open to the public and we hope to see you all there. As soon as the fully-staged reading is scheduled, we'll be sure to post the date so you can mark your calendars in advance.    

To learn more about Susan Kathryn Hefti or to make a tax-deductible contribution to The Emerging American Artist's Fund, please visit her website or simply click on this link. Thank you for your continued interest in the work of this emerging American playwright.

We hope to see you all at the theater for the fully-staged public reading of AMERICAN DAMES (or...Waiting for Dolley) - and we'll be sure to post the details as soon as we set a date!

Susan Kathryn Hefti Playwright

An emerging American playwright, Susan Kathryn Hefti's plays have been developed or produced at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater NYC; The Lark Play Development Center NYC; The Harold Clurman Playwrights Division at The Stella Adler Studio NYC; St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery Theatre NYC; Capital Stage Company CA; Long Beach Playhouse Theatre CA and in Paris at Théâtre Mélo d'Amelie & La Comédie Bastille. 

Susan's newest play THE POWER PLAY, or Smart Bombs & Other Sexy Toys received a Roundtable Reading at the Lark Play Development Center NYC in July and a staged reading in August as it was selected to be part of Capital Stage Company's annual New Works Festival PLAYWRIGHTS REVOLUTION 2013.

AMERICAN DAMES, or Waiting for Dolley (2012 Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival Finalist; 2011-2012 Harold Clurman Playwright-in-Residence Finalist & Beverly Hills Theatre Guild's 2012 Julie Harris Playwright Award Semi-Finalist) enjoyed readings at both the 2012 Harold Clurman Playwrights Division's New Play Reading Festival in NYC and the 2012 Long Beach Playhouse Theatre's New Works Festival in Long Beach, California.      

Inspired by the tragic death of one of her Yale students, Hefti's play KEEPIN' COOL was selected 2004 Princess Grace Award Semi-Finalist.

In 2006 Hefti's one-act history play A DEFIANT SOUL  was presented at the St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery Theater (directed by Vernice Miller) as part of a city-wide event entitled 5 Dutch Days. Set in 1661, A DEFIANT SOUL brings to life the dramatic battle of wills between New Amsterdam‘s Dutch Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant and the English Quaker John Bowne whose dangerous and singular act of civil disobedience led directly to the establishment of religious freedom in the new world.

Written in verse, A DEFIANT SOUL was later adapted to be used as a teaching tool in the NYC school system - in workshops led by theatre artist Vernice Miller - where it has been widely performed by students exploring early NYC history and the establishment of religious freedom in America.

The success of that play also brought Hefti a commission from the City of NY; to write the narrative for the related exhibit on the 1657 document protesting religious intolerance in New Amsterdam. The exhibit, The Flushing Remonstrance: Who Shall Plead For Us?, was designed to travel around the country following its celebrated 2009 NYC debut. Enjoying an encore return to NYC in April 2010, the exhibition was again extended due to popular demand. Following a 2012 installation in Pennsylvania, the exhibition is expected to travel on to the American midwest.

A proud member of the Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights' Center and Fractured Atlas, Susan debut work for the stage was launched by the highly successful 2003 world premiere of her play Dear Prudence which enjoyed an extended run at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. The impressive success of Dear Prudence also led Tony Award winning Arielle Tepper Productions to select Hefti as Guest Speaker for the 2003 Syracuse University Tepper Theater Program in Manhattan. 

Hailed by Gay City News as "a light, wonderful play that will have you laughing all the way through", Dear Prudence wowed a whole new audience in 2010 with two exciting staged readings in Paris ( Théâtre Mélo d'Amelie and La Comédie Bastille)! 

Hefti began her professional writing career as a journalist specializing in environmental news before transitioning into writing for the stage. In 2009, Susan was invited to dust off her reporter's notebook and write a regular column for The Clyde Fitch Report. Happy to use the opportunity to explore another issue close to her heart, Hefti dubbed the online series, The Preservation Diaries. 

A 2004 recipient of a PEN American Center Writers Grant, Hefti has taught at several Universities including Brown and Yale.

For more information about Susan Kathryn Hefti or to make a tax-deductible gift to help support the continued development of this American artist's work, please visit The Emerging American Artist's Fund by simply clicking on this link.

The Emerging American Artist's Fund is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of The Emerging American Artist's Fund must be made payable to 'Fractured Atlas' and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.