Tammy Ryan

I thought that it might be interesting to look up our playwright for some helpful information. And I found that she has her own website:

http://www.tammyryan.net/

All of her plays are listed there, as well as her Bio, which I will copy/paste at the end of this post.

From this website I learned that "Pig" was filmed for the Lincoln Center Archives. Did anybody go watch it while they were there? Just curious.

Also from her Bio, I gathered that she is currently working on a commission for the International Culture Lab, called "Lindsey's Oyster." After some further research on the ICL, it became clear what kind of plays Ryan writes. The ICL Website says it best:

"We believe that as artists representing the United States, we have a responsibility to both contextualize and promote the diversity of culture, using our art to encourage, celebrate and learn from cultural difference. To that end, ICL collaborates with artists from other countries, promoting the rich examination of the shared human condition that can occur when multiple points of view come together."

http://www.intlculturelab.org
(Some really interesting stuff that is worth looking at.)

Although "Pig" was not written for the ICL, I think there is something to be said about what purpose her plays are written for, and therefore what purpose our performance must fulfill. Its important to know what piece you are in.

Here's the Bio:

Tammy Ryan's plays have been produced and developed across the country at such theaters as The Alliance Theater Company, Florida Stage, People's Light and Theater Company, Philadelphia Theater Company, Playwrights Theater of New Jersey, City Theater and elsewhere.

She has received the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Creative Achievement Award, The Heinz Endowment's Creative Heights Grant and fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Sewanee Writers Conference. Her writing for young audiences has twice won the National Playwriting for Youth Bonderman Award for THE GIFT OF THE PIRATE QUEEN and THE MUSIC LESSON which also received the American Alliance of Theater in Education's Distinguished Play Award and was a finalist for the Christopher Brian Wolk Award.

Other plays include PIG (29th Street Rep), THE BOUNDARY (University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theater), DARK PART OF THE FOREST (Premiere Stages), IN THE SHAPE OF A WOMAN, BABY'S BLUES, THE GIFT OF THE PIRATE QUEEN, FBI GIRL (THE REP), and LOST BOY FOUND IN WHOLE FOODS which received a Seed Award from the Sprout Fund last year in support of its development at Bricolage Theater's In The Raw series. It was further developed at The New Harmony Project, The Lark Center for Play Development and the National Network of New Plays 2009 National Showcase of Plays, and is scheduled for a co-production with the Playwrights Theater of New Jersey and Premiere Stages in the fall.

Currently Ryan is working on a commission for International Culture Lab, entitled LINDSEY'S OYSTER to be produced at the Kitchen in Ithaca, NY, Irondale Ensemble in NYC and garagistanbul in Turkey in 2011.

-Kyle