polly052009
On the homepage
Vita.mn
Out There
Vita.mn
Vita.mn
Home | Entertainment | OnStage
Playwrights' Center head moving to Chicago
Polly Carl ran the new-play development center in a seven-year growth period
Print this story
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Share on Facebook
Share on Digg
Polly Carl, who has served as artistic director of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis for seven years, will leave the Twin Cities in September to take a job with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. The news is to be announced today.
The Minneapolis-based service organization serves as both midwife and research-and-development lab for new plays. During Carl's tenure, the group heightened its national profile, upped its annual budget from $600,000 to $1.4 million, and saw its member-playwright ranks swell from 200 to more than 900.
Carl shies away from naming favorite plays -- "They're all special," she said Tuesday. She worked on Craig Lucas' "Small Tragedy," which later won an Obie Award in New York in 2004 for "best American play."
A former political activist and labor organizer in Florida, the Elkhart, Ind., native moved to the Twin Cities in 1991 to work on a doctorate in comparative studies at the University of Minnesota.
She joined the Playwrights' Center in 1998 -- a year before completing her degree -- as development director.
She will join another Twin Citian at Steppenwolf. Managing director David Hawkanson formerly served in the same capacity at the Guthrie Theater.
ROHAN PRESTON
Recent OnStage stories
Spotlight: Movement Architecture - May 20, 2009
Spotlight: Movement Architecture - Opens Friday: With "Ode to Dolly, The Sheep, Inter Alia," Debra Jinza Thayer/Movement Architecture explores the politics and ethics of cloning. More
Karen Vieno Paurus at the Ritz Theater in N.E. Minneapolis. (photo by Leslie Plessar)
See thousands of photos from other StarTribune.com readers and share your own photos and video today.
StarTribune.com: Steals + Deals & Classifieds
Learn how to do it right.
Simplify your job search by learning the best way to approach networking, resumes, cover letters, and interviewing.
Tips for getting more for less
Subscribe to the weekly
Win tickets to The Midnight Movie Society's screening of cult-classic film "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" at Red Stag Supperclub.Vita.mn and DJ Jake Rudh present the first meeting of The Midnight Movie Society at Red Stag Supperclub on Feb. 19, with drinking, dancing and a midnight screening of cult-classic film, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls." |
Comment on this story | Be the first to comment | Hide reader comments