New York playwright Howe to deliver lecture at Wheaton

Obie Award-winning playwright Tina Howe will give a public lecture, "The Thrill and Danger of Writing for the Theater," on Tuesday, March 25. The lecture will be held in Weber Theatre, at 7:30 p.m.

The playwright's lecture, along with master classes for students, is part of the new Evelyn Danzig Haas '39 Visiting Artist Program. The visiting artists will deliver public lectures, mount gallery exhibitions, collaborate on installations or perform for students, faculty and the region's arts lovers during intensive, short-term engagements in which they also work with students and faculty on a variety of master classes and private consultations.

Wheaton launched the program with initial funding from the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, which also has issued a $1 million challenge grant to inspire other donors to support this initiative. The college seeks an endowment of at least $4 million--including the Haas Fund's gift--to sustain a series of high-quality offerings in the arts that inspire students and nourish the community.

A writer for the stage for more than thirty years, Howe's best known works include The Art of Dining, Painting Churches, Coastal Disturbances, Approaching Zanzibar, One Shoe Off, and her most recent play, Pride's Crossing. Her plays have premiered at the Los Angeles Actors Theater, the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Kennedy Center, The Old Globe Theater, Lincoln Center Theater and the Second Stage.

Howe's work has garnered an Obie Award for Distinguished Playwriting, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. Coastal Disturbances received a Tony nomination for best play. Pride's Crossing was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize and won the 1998 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. She has also received a Rockefeller grant, NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim fellowship.