JUANITA ROCKWELL: WRITER/DIRECTOR
Member: Dramatists Guild, Stage Directors & Choreographers Society
SUMMARY:
Writer/Director, 1985 – PRESENT
- Writer: plays, songs, opera libretti, audio plays, short plays, microdramas, adaptations, dance-theatre, puppets, multimedia, site-specific, devised, multi-author…
- Director specializing in the creation of new works for a variety of stage and media, as above
PROFESSOR, TOWSON UNIVERSITY, 1994 – 2015 (Emerita, 2016)
- Founding Director: MFA in Theatre, training the creator of original experimental projects
- Teaching: Playwriting; New Works Development; Directing; Translation/Adaptation
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, COMPANY ONE THEATER, HARTFORD, CT, 1989 – 1994
- Directed over 50 premieres for Stage and Radio by leading experimental playwrights: Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Rachel Sheinkin, Erik Ehn, et al
EDUCATION
- MFA in Directing, University of Connecticut (Hinkel Award) 1987
- BS in Theatre and Semiotics, Colorado College (Phi Beta Kappa, Linguistics Honors) 1980
HONORS, AWARDS, GRANTS, RESIDENCIES (selected)
- Marion International Fellowship, Performing and Visual Arts 2016-2017
- Rubys Artist Project Grant, 2015-2016
- Fulbright Scholar, Costa Rica 2006
- Artist Residencies: Djerassi 2016; UCross 2016/2017; Playa 2016/2017; The Studios at Key West 2013; Wildacres Retreat 2013; Ko Festival of Performance 2010, 2012
- Invited Artist: Norman Mailer Writers Colony 2010; National Theatre Institute at O’Neill Theatre Center 1999-2004; Gallaudet University Visual Playwriting Conference 2004
- Finalist: Heideman Playwriting Award 2011
- National Endowment for the Arts Access to Excellence Award (Between Trains) 2010
- Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award: Playwriting 2007
- Who’s Who in the World/East/Entertainment/Women/etc, from 1993
PRODUCED WRITING (selected)
- BACKWARDS FROM WINTER (libretto; music by Douglas Knehans)
Center for Contemporary Opera at Symphony Space, May 2018 and
Foundation IHOS Amsterdam at Dark MOFO, Hobart, Tasmania June 2018
- LITTLE PATCH OF GROUND (book/lyrics/music)
Concert reading, Single Carrot Theater, Baltimore 2016
- BROKEN (book/lyrics/music)
Interrobang Theatre, Baltimore 2015
- THE CIRCLE (site-specific audioplay)
banished? productions, DC 2012/2014
- ZOO; PERFECT; WHAT THE MIND DOES; THE BIG PICTURE (microdramas)
One-Minute Play Festivals, Baltimore 2013/2014
- BETWEEN TRAINS (book/lyrics; music Chas Marsh)
Gas & Electric Arts, Philadelphia 2010
- QUANTUM SOUP (short play)
The Acme Corporation, Baltimore 2012
- PACKING/PECKING (short play)
Source Festival, DC 2009
- LANGUAGE MONKEY (short play)
Source Festival, DC 2011
- IMMORTAL: THE GILGAMESH VARIATIONS: TABLET ONE (multi-author)
The Bushwick Starr , NYC 2011
- A TABLE IN HELL (microdrama)
The Drilling Company, NYC 2010
- PLAYING DEAD (adapted from Presnyakov Brothers) City Paper Top Ten
New Russian Drama Conference, Single Carrot, Baltimore 2010
- WHAT’S A LITTLE DEATH (book/lyrics: music Chas Marsh)
Baltimore Theatre Project & Source Festival (DC) 2008
- LUNAR PANTOUM: FOR TIBET (text: dance theatre)
Maryland Institute College of Art 2002
- A CAVE IN THE SKY (play w/puppets)
Artists at St. Ann’s Puppet Lab/Culture Project, NYC 2001
- WATERWALK: SURFACE AND DEPTH (libretto: gamelan music Robert Macht)
The Labyrinth/Hopkins Bayview Hospital, MD 2001
- THE WORLD IS ROUND (adapted libretto from Gertrude Stein; music James Sellars)
Company One Theater/Wadsworth Atheneum 1993
RECENT STAGE DIRECTION, PROFESSIONAL PREMIERES (selected)
KAWA TO KAWA w/Naoko Maeshiba 2012
Baltimore Theatre Project, MD
24, 7, 365 by Jennifer Nelson 2011
Theatre of the First Amendment, DC/VA
MAD BREED by Jacqueline C. Lawton 2008
Active Cultures, DC
BARELY THERE by Charles Borkhuis 2006
The Ontological, NYC
SHOOT THE MESSENGER Site-specific performance by Jeffry Walker 2005
Church Farm Barn, Ashford, CT
BURN multi-media performance co-direction 2001
Squonk Opera/City Theatre, Pittsburgh
FALLING ON HEARING EYES by Willy Conley 1998
Worldwide Deaf Theatre Conference, CT
LOSS OF VIRGINIA by Rachel Sheinkin 1992
THE OLDEST PROFESSION by Paula Vogel 1991
BETTING ON THE DUST COMMANDER by Suzan-Lori Parks 1990
Company One Theater/Wadsworth Atheneum/Hartford Arts Center CT
OTHER PROFESSIONAL STAGE DIRECTION (selected)
ACT A LADY by Jordan Harrison 2013
Iron Crow Theatre, Baltimore
GOING TO ST. IVES by Lee Blessing 2007
SOMEONE WHO’LL WATCH OVER ME by Frank McGuinness 2006 (City Paper Top Ten)
Everyman Theatre, Baltimore
CHANSON DADA opera by James Sellars/Tristan Tzara 1993
Memorial de America Latina, São Paulo, Brazil
FOR LOVE OF THE DOUBLE BASS, music-theatre by James Sellars 1991
Tour to Madrid, Helsinki, London
PLAY by Samuel Beckett 1989
Washington Project for the Arts, DC
MISANTHROPE by Moliere 1987
Blue Heron Theatre, NYC
DIRECTION OF WORKSHOPS AND UNIVERSITY PRODUCTIONS
SKI DUBAI by Laura Jacqmin (workshop) 2011
Theatre of the First Amendment, Fairfax, VA
DEEP DIVIDE by Charles Borkhuis (workshop) 2007
Flea Theater, NYC
THE SOUND OF WAVES Lyrics Donna DiNovelli, Music David Rodwin (workshop) 2002
Mabou Mines/Suite, NYC
BETWEEN TRAINS by Juanita Rockwell 2014
ALCHEMY OF DESIRE/DEAD MAN’S BLUES by Caridad Svich 2002
MARISOL by José Rivera 2000
Towson University, MD
PUBLICATIONS & RECORDINGS (selected)
- Backwards from Winter, Libretto Juanita Rockwell, Music Douglas Knehans
Chapbook: Blue Moon Plays, Virginia Beach, 2018
- Between Trains, Play and Lyrics by Juanita Rockwell
Book: Blue Moon Plays, Virginia Beach 2017
- Songs from Between Trains, Lyrics Juanita Rockwell, Music Chas Marsh
CD: Mobtown Studios, Baltimore 2014
- The Circle, Audioplay by Juanita Rockwell
MP3: banished? productions, DC 2013
- Packing/Pecking, Short Play in UnSaddest Factory: The Third Annual Ten Minute Play Festival
Book: Thinking Beard Press, Baltimore, 2011
- Playing Dead Adapted from Brothers Presnyakov in New Russian Writing
CD: Center for International Theatre Development, Baltimore 2010
- The World is Round Libretto by Juanita Rockwell/G. Stein, Music by James Sellars
CD & Score: Hog River Music, Hartford 2002
- Foreign Bodies by Charles Borkhuis (Dir. Juanita Rockwell)
CD: Exit 3 Productions, WBGO for National Public Radio, NYC 2001
- The Sound of Fear Clapping by Charles Borkhuis (Dir. Juanita Rockwell)
CD: The Radio Stage, WNYC for National Public Radio, NYC 1995
- Tantalus by John McDonough (Dir. Juanita Rockwell) 1993
CD: ZBS Studios, Saratoga Springs, NYC 1993
- May: The Month of Lust & Revolution and Soundscary (Dir. Juanita Rockwell)
by Erik Ehn, Bridget Carpenter, Eliza Anderson, Sue Bennett, Donna diNovelli, John C. Russell, Heidi Carla, Rachel Sheinkin 1992, 1993
Audio Cassettes: Company One Theater, Hartford (broadcast live, WWUH) 1990-1993INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS NOT LISTED ABOVE (selected)
Teaching Artist: Sofia, BG; sponsored by Art Office, BG & The Drama League, NY 2013
- Member: US Dramaturg’s Delegation Yekaterinburg, RU; Center for Int’l Theatre Dev’t 2005
- Sister States Project Delegate: Baltimore/Lodz, Poland 2005
- US Delegate: ITI World Conference of Professional Theatre, Marseille, France 2000
- Co-Director: ITI/TCG Conference: Int’l Origins for New Theatre Practice, Towson University 2000
- Member: US Director’s Delegation to Hungary/Slovakia 1999
- Toured: Devised graduate student project to Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged & Veszprem, HU 1997
ADDITIONAL POSITIONS & PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS (selected)
- Guest Artist/Program Consultant: Wilkes University Creative Writing MA/MFA(PA) since 2005
- Panelist: Convening on Global Performance; Georgetown University 2012
- Presenter: Dramatists Guild Conference (VA) 2011
- Presenter: Association of Writers & Writing Programs (Denver) 2010; (Chicago) 2009
- Pre-Publication Manuscript Evaluator, Gallaudet Press
- Presenter: Association for Theatre in Higher Education (Toronto) 1999, (NYC) 2003
- Board Member: National Training Committee of Int’l Theatre Institute (NYC) 1997-2004
- Member: Gov’s Advisory Commission, Arts Careers for People w/Disabilities (Balto) 1998-2002
- Member: Artist’s Board, The Radio Stage, WNYC (NYC) 1993-98