Artist Bio

Lenora Inez Brown

(Bio as of February 2005)

Lenora Inez Brown most recently collaborated with the Goodman on Mariela in the Desert during the 2004/2005 Season. She was also the dramaturg for Lydia Diamond’s The Bluest Eye for Steppenwolf Theatre’s Access pro­gram. As the former director of new play development for Madison Repertory Theatre, she helped organize the theater’s inaugural play festival, the Fall Festival of the Future. While she served as the literary man­ager and dramaturg for the Crossroads Theatre Company, the nation’s leading African­-American theater, the theatre received the 1999 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater. She was part of the artistic leadership for Crossroads’ new play festival, the Genesis Festival. Ms. Brown has been a guest dra­maturg for the Sundance Theatre Lab 2000 and 2001, the Southern Writer’s Project at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Kennedy Center’s Youth and Family Program’s New Visons/New Voices and the Cleveland Play House. She continued her relationship with the Kennedy Center by serving as the dramaturg for the Dear America series, which involves six playwrights adapting scholastic novels to the stage, including Naomi Iizuka and Jerome Hairston. In addition to theater, Lenora worked as an associate editor for American Theatre Magazine and for Cleveland’s NPR affiliate WCPN as an assistant producer for Jazztracks. Her Tomato Show garnered an Ohio Educational Broadcasting Award in its inaugu­ral year. She currently serves on the ASSITEJ/USA board and occasionally writes for The Chicago Sun-Times. Her essay on Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel will appear in Best New Plays 2003-2004. She also teaches dram­aturgy at the Theatre School at DePaul University. Ms. Brown holds a B.A. in art his­tory from Dartmouth College and an M.F.A. in dramaturgy from the Yale School of Drama.

View IBDB page