Anne Hamilton

Dramaturg, Playwright, Educator
Quakertown, Pennsylvania USA

I once asked Judith Malina what she does when she’s not working, and she answered, “I work”. I feel like I take the same approach to life, because I seek out beauty, inspiration, and truth everywhere.

However, to take my mind off of writing, dramaturging and editing, I like to make up new recipes. One of my newest creations this year was a Red Velvet Gingerbread tree sculpture, in which I stacked heart and flower-shaped cookies to make a tree reminiscent of Dr. Seuss’ artwork. Things like that give me great delight.

When my mind is puzzling over a dramaturgical problem, I like to visit the ocean. I particularly enjoy going to Coney Island and watching the beluga whales at the aquarium and laughing at the antics of the otters.

The production which changed my life was GUYS AND DOLLS at St. Joseph’s High School in Metuchen, NJ. When I was a teenager, we would always see the musicals at my brother’s high school, which had a fine arts department. I fell in love with the first musical I saw there. In the “Luck Be A Lady” number, they used black lights. When the costumes and dice glowed in the light during the song and dance number, I fell in love with the theatre. And that was it for me. I’ve been in it ever since.

One of my favorite lines from a play is, “More life” from ANGELS IN AMERICA. I’ve made artwork with the phrase and placed it prominently in my home. I also write my own poetry on the walls of my home, in places appropriate for the content of the poem.

I would like to make a writer’s retreat for my friends in the city to escape to. It is beautiful here in Bucks County and I find it to be very conducive to writing and expanding my thoughts. I’ve already made the invitation to several of my friends in the League and I hope that they take me up on the offer soon.

Anne Hamilton is the Founder of Hamilton Dramaturgy, an international consultancy based in New York City’s professional scene, and located in Bucks County, PA. Anne also write plays, poetry and children’s literature, and give workshops in script development. (www.hamiltonlit.com).

Linda Chapman

Associate Artistic Director – New York Theatre Workshop
New York, New York USA

I find ongoing inspiration from my dear college theatre teachers. Joan and Bob Welch (Andrews) were students of The Dramatic Workshop at The New School for Social Research post WWII, where they studied with American greats Martha Graham and Lee Strasberg as well as Erwin Piscator, John Gassner, and other prominent ex-pat artists who there found refuge from the European totalitarian governments they had fled. Joan and Bob’s classmates included Judith Malina, Harry Belafonte, Walter Matthau and Tony Curtis.

I met Joan at Central Valley High School when she visited our Thespian Society. By this time, Joan and Bob had created a drama department at the small Catholic women’s Fort Wright College in Spokane, WA. Having relocated to Spokane from NYC in 1949 to raise their family, Joan and Bob made a life in the theatre for themselves in the most unlikely of locations.

At Fort Wright, Bob and Joan imparted the values they had brought with them from their New School experience. They believed in the power of theatre to create social change and to introduce audiences to new ideas. They valued the theatre as an evolving art form to be enjoyed and appreciated by individuals from all walks of life.

During my four years of study with Joan and Bob, the co-ed theatre majors lived and worked as a company; playing small roles as freshmen, taking on the larger parts as we developed, in plays by Brecht, Shakespeare, Genet, Ionesco, Giraudoux, Albee and more. We learned and practiced all aspects of theatre making, from designing and building sets, lights and costumes to marketing our productions. We studied theatre history, read world drama and learned voice and movement for the stage.

Joan and Bob created The Inter Players Ensemble, Spokane’s first professional resident theatre company, which still exists today.

Linda Chapman Recent work includes co-writing the GLAAD Award winning Beebo Brinker Chronicles with Kate Moira Ryan, published by DPS and Gertrude and Alice: A Likeness to Loving with Lola Pashalinski. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, LPTW, National Theatre Conference and is Founding President – Youth Arts, NY.