Theatre Conversations: Marsha Norman

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, in association with The Dramatists Guild, presents conversations from their 2007 two-week playwriting intensive at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts geared towards university students, faculty and young professionals from across the country. The program consisted of writing workshops and discussions of the business of playwriting with the Program's Director, Gary Garrison and a wide range of distinguished guest artists.

Marsha Norman was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Hull-Warriner, and Drama Desk Awards for 'Night Mother, which received its world premiere at the A.R.T. in 1982. Her play Traveller in the Dark also premiered at the A.R.T. in 1984. Ms. Norman won the 1992 Tony Award and Drama Desk awards for The Secret Garden; and the John Gassner Medallion, Newsday Oppenheimer award, and the American Theatre Critics Association Citation for Getting Out. Other plays include Third and Oak, The Laundromat, The Poolhall, The Holdup, Traveler in the Dark, Sarah and Abraham, Loving Daniel Boone, and Trudy Blue. Published work includes Four Plays and a novel, The Fortune Teller. Television and film credits include Face of a Stranger, starring Gena Rowlands and Tyne Daley. Grants and awards include National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; Ms. Norman also serves on the council of the Dramatists Guild. Ms. Norman was born in Louisville, Kentucky; received her B.A. from Agnes Scott College; and her M.A. from the University of Louisville. Since 1994 she has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School.