RENATA FRIEDMAN
THE K OF D
Performed by Renta Friedman
Written by Laura Schellhardt
Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch
THE K OF D, an urban legend: a rehearsal project for Laura Schellhardt’s ghosty solo show about a lonely girl with the Kiss of Death.
RENATA FRIEDMAN (Performer). Credits include: Page 73, New Victory Theater, Aquila Theatre Co., Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, Humana Festival, Barrington Stage Co, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Illusion Theatre, TheatreWorks, plus multiple appearances at Berkeley Rep, ACT, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Milwaukee Rep and Portland Center Stage; new work development at Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Dramatists, Drama League, Labyrinth, and Rattlestick. www.renatafriedman.com
LAURA SCHELLHARD (Playwright). Original works include Ever In The Glades, The Comparables, Upright Grand, Air Guitar High, Auctioning The Ainsleys, Courting Vampires, and Shapeshifter. Adaptations include The Phantom Tollbooth and The Outfit. She is also the author of Screenwriting for Dummies. Her work has been produced at TheatreWorks Palo Alto, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, People’s Light Theatre, The Magic Theatre, Wooly Mammoth Theatre, Boston Court Theatre, ACT, and Northlight Theatre among others. Laura is a recipient of the TCG National Playwriting Residency, the Jerome Fellowship, ACT’s New Play Award, the Best New Play Award NYC Fringe, The AATE Distinguished Play Award, and a Dramatist Guild Fellowship. Her work has been developed at the SoHo Rep. Writer/Director Lab, The Ojai Playwright’s Conference, The Denver New Play Summit, The Bay Area Theatre Festival, The Women Playwrights Festival, The Kennedy Center New Voices/New Visions Festival, The Bonderman Symposium, The Goodman Theatre Playwrights Unit, and the O’Neill National Playwright’s Festival. Laura currently heads the undergraduate playwriting program at Northwestern University and is a Victory Gardens ensemble playwright.
GAYE TAYLOR UPCHURCH (Director) is a freelance director with a background in dance. She most recently directed Kathleen Turner in The Year of Magical Thinking (Arena). She has directed the world premieres of Clare Lizzimore’s Animal (Studio Theatre, Helen Hayes nominations for Outstanding Director and Play), Anna Ziegler's The Last Match (Old Globe), Melissa Ross’s Of Good Stock (South Coast Repertory), and Laura Marks's Bethany with America Ferrera (Women’s Project Theater, Lortel nomination for Outstanding Play) among others. She has directed the Off-Broadway productions of Nancy Harris’s Our New Girl and Simon Stephens’s Harper Regan and Bluebird with Simon Russell Beale (Atlantic Theater Company), and Lucy Thurber's Stay (Rattlestick). Her production of As You Like It (Hudson Valley Shakespeare) will be reinvented for the Folger in DC this winter. GT is an alumna of The Drama League, WP directors' lab, LCT directors lab, and University of NC School of the Arts. www.gtupchurch.com