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* Latinos along with African-American actors have often found it difficult to get cast in roles that have not been specifically written to be played by a Latino. even when there have even been times when films, TV shows, and plays have been written for Latino actors, and yet they have ended up being played by non-Latino actors.
* Latino groups had a difficult time assimilating within the U.S. cultures and ideals. Latinos often would question who they were as they faced challenges of adopting certain U.S. ideals and also keeping their culture, heritage, and traditions still alive within their lives.
*Through their assimilation into America, many Latinos began to mix languages, which later birth a new way of speaking, Spanglish. A mixture of Spanish and English.
*This new version of language in America began to translate into the written work of Latino theatre.
* The first mainstream plays that was written about the Latino culture and immigration experience in America was The Oxcart by René Marqués. It follows Puerto Ricans sense of belonging in America, and their adaptation and immigration/assimilation into America.
* Well known Latino productions:
The Oxcart by René Marqués (1940)
West Side Story by (1961)
The Capeman by Paul Simon (1998)
Marisol by José Rivera (1992)
In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda (2005)
Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda (2015)

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*Born in Delano, California, in June 1940, to migrant farm workers from Mexico, Armeda and Francisco Valdez migrant. The second child out of 10 brothers and sisters.
*His parents made a living picking seasonal crops, he was raised in worker camps across California, at age six he started to help his parents in the fields which later color his creativity and activist career later on.
*Attended San Jose State College in 1960. He won a playwriting contest for his one-act play, The Theft, in the early year of college. At the end of his four years of college, he produced his first full-length play, The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa (1964). The next year he joined activist Cesar Chavez to bring attention to the plight of migrant farmworkers.
*He began writing plays as an undergraduate then started his own traveling theater company, El Teatro Campesino, after graduating.
* Luis Valdez is an American playwright known for being a pioneer in what's known as the Chicano movement, particularly in the theater.
*He soon set down roots with Centro Campesino Cultural in 1967 and settled into a full-time life of activism through both writing plays and hosting cultural events. He wrote and produce many plays and films, becoming the "godfather of Chicano theater" along the way
* Valdez combined his love of the theater and his activism to form El Teatro Campesino (Farmworkers Theater), which was a drama group that represented the struggles of farmworkers and the Chicano movement.
* The troupe traveled and performed at churches, town squares and near the fields where Valdez grew up on flatbed trucks.
* He won an honorary Obie Award in 1968 for his “workers’ theater” and continued to write and produce plays, among them the plays he wrote was “Zoot Suit” in 1987 which Valdez also directed as a film for theatrical release, another most notable film he created was La Bamba (1987). Both films were nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, Drama.

Chicano-a person of Mexican origin or descent, especially a man or boy

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Many regional and off-Broadway theatres experienced difficulty staying in business after 1975. These theatres had to find a way to stay afloat when facing challenges like: dwindling audiences, competition from commercial theatre, film, television, and a lack in government support. Some of the ways that these theatres would try to get around these obstacles would be to hire alternative and diverse artists and artistic leadership.

The La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego produced the commercial success, Tommy, which later went to Broadway, and Jersey Boys.

The Actors Theatre in Louisville introduced many new playwrights and plays. They also had a competition for 5-minute plays. Many of these plays went to Broadway in the late 70s. In 2000, the artistic director at the time, Marc Masterson, moved the theatre to a new space and developed new educational programming.

The American Repertory Theatre (ART) was known for their classical plays done by avant-garde directors.

The Goodman Theatre, one of the oldest in the US, staged classical works with unique interpretations, introduced new diverse playwrights, and works. Many of these eventually going to Broadway.

The Guthrie Theatre and the Public made radical changes to their theatres to compensate. The Guthrie Theatre hired Liviu Ciulei (livju t͡ʃjuˈlej) from Romania as artistic director. He brought in a new approach and the theatre later became known for having a strong permanent acting ensemble and for controversial stagings of historic plays.

The Public was more forced into change after the death of their artistic director. Afterwards, George C. Wolfe eventually took on the role and directed Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika. He won a Tony Award for best direction for the former.

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There are tons of alternative regional theatre around the US, but many of them have been established in Chicago. Many of these theatre were established in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Their goal was to introduce new artists and playwrights to new audiences.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company:

Founded in the 1970s, Steppenwolf has produced many a production. For example, The Grapes of Wrath (1990 Tony), The Song of Jacob Zulu, and August: Osage County (Pulitzer 2007).The original acting company at Steppenwolf included many performers that went on into the media including: John Malkovich, Gary Sinise (sɪˈniːs), and Laurie Metcalf. It is now an established regional theatre of Chicago.

Wisdom Bridge:

Robert Falls, the artistic director of the Goodman Theatre, began his directing career here.

Looking's Theatre Company:

Founded in 1988, is known for using intriguing staging devices in literary adaptations. David Schwimmer is a founding member of the company.

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Sam Shepard was born November 5, 1943 and died July 27, 2017. He is known as one of the most inventive American playwrights for his blend of the American west, pop motifs, and science fiction. He has won more Obies than any other author (eleven for those keeping track) and has a Pulitzer Prize as well. He is considered by many to be the dominant and most prolific playwright of his generation.

Shepard originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but decided against it after one year of college. Later, in 1963, he arrived in New York at the ripe age of 19 with the dying dream of becoming an actor (aren't we all). He became involved in the world of rock 'n' roll and actually toured with Bob Dylan; later writing a book about his experience (Rolling Thunder Logbook). He became known as the "genius" of off-off-Broadway for his work as a playwright. And, in 1966, he was the first dramatist to win three Obies in one year (because having eleven altogether just wasn't enough for him I guess).

He had a reclusive life with his wife Jessica Lange and has not written much for theatre in the last decade.

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Shepard uses a lot of story-telling in his plays. His characters are given long monologues with various amounts of stories within them. However, he does not reveal how much truth is within these stories. Allowing his audiences to create their own ideas and speculations on the matters. So his plays are truly up to interpretation.

Shepard enjoys using broken family dynamics in his plays along with, "the violence of American Society." His best know plays of this genre  are from his "family trilogy": Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child, and True West. He also likes to include themes like, longing for a simpler time and the inability to form lasting relationships.

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In the early 20th century, theatre was around in Canada (and active at that), but Canadians felt they had no theatrical voice of their own.
Theatre activists began committing their time through university and community theatres (often through non-paid work) to develop literature and performance styles (such as "symphonic expressionism") that were unique to the Canadian experience.
After WWII, there was a push in Canada to provide more funding for theatres, especially with the Massey Report published in 1951. After this, professional regional theatres became popular, such as the Citadel Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse, Manitoba Theatre Centre, and Stratsford Shakespeare festival. These regional professional theatres began teaming up with Canadian playwrights of the time, such as John Herbert, James Reaney, and many others to further cultivate a Canadian theatre culture.
As funding continued to sustain the theatre, experimental theatre began to flourish and express themes specific to Canadian politics and socioeconomics.
Moral of the story? FUND THEATRE

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There was a growing Latin-American theatre community in the states in the early 20th century, as more and more latinx people were entering and living in the country (especially in Tampa, where modern Latin-American theatre found one of its earliest homes).
Sadly, the activity dropped off during the Great Depression, and didn't pick back up until the rise of social revolution of the 60's.
Many feel that the new age of Latin-American theatre began with Luis Valdez, who was a playwright and founded El Teatro Campesino. This is translated to "farmworker's theatre," as the theatre was a way of Valdez declaring full support for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.
Latin-American theatre began as a way of political and social activism. As the Chicano movement lived on past the 60's, so too did Latin-American theatre. Many colleges of the early 70's followed suit and rode the wave of activism. Many bilingual theatre companies popped up (including one here in Tampa, Spanish Lyric Theatre, a community group), and many Latinx playwrights came into prominence.

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- Concept Musical: A production that is built around an idea rather than a story
- Company, Follies, Assassins,
Sunday in the Park with George
- Choreographer turned Director
- Michael Bennet, Bob Fosse,               Jerome Robbins
- Emergence of British Composers/ Lyricists
- AKA "The British Invasion of Broadway"
- Reached its peak in the 80s, though it started in the 70s
- Phantom, Miss Saigon, JCSS, Cats, Evita, Les Mis, etc.
- Film to Stage Musicals:
- The Producers, Hairspray, Billy Elliot, Frozen
- Jukebox Musicals: Popular songs of composers or singers are the basis for the show
- Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia, Rock of Ages, American Idiot
- The standard book musical though still popular, is pushed to the side

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Born November 30, 1947 and is still kicking. He grew up on the South Side of Jewish Chicago. Mamet lived with his mother, a teacher, after she divorced from his father, a labor lawyer, and attended private school in Olympia Fields. Mamet made his debut on a television show playing different Jewish children with various religious problems.

Later in life Mamet attended Goddard College majoring in theatre and literature. He then took an 18-month hiatus to work under Stanford Meisner in a Sbanislovski-Oriented program at the Neighborhood Playhouse. After a while Mamet lost interest in acting and went back to Goddard College as an instructor which led to his start in writing plays for his classes.

David Mamet has won three Chicago Jefferson Awards, two Obies, two New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. (For those still counting that's eight total which means Sam Shepard is still in the lead).

His Play Oleanna stirred up a lot of controversy when it came to sexual harassment. In the play a female student charges her male professor with sexual harassment.

SPOILERS: John (the professor) touches Carol's (the student) shoulder. This eventually gets super misconstrued and turns into Carol charging him for attempted rape. Which leads to him beating the crap out of her which raises the question of "Was he provoked?"

ALSO FUN FACT: word on the street is Mamet has a play about Harvey Weinstein in the works.

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Mamet was strongly influenced by Harold Pinter, a British playwright. His characters have problems that are easily recognizable with naturalistic language and settings. His niche, however, was that these easily seen problems were not easily resolved. "Mamet's plays question the ability of humans to communicate and interact honestly."

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1970: Lakeboat
1972: The Duck Variations
1974: Sexual Perversity in Chicago
1975: American Buffalo
1976: The Water Engine
1977: he Woods
1982: Edmond
1983: The Frog Prince
1983: Glengarry Glen Ross
1985: The Shawl
1988: Speed-the-Plow
1989: Bobby Gould in Hell
1992: Oleanna
1994: The Cryptogram
1997: The Old Neighborhood
2004: Faustus
2007: November
2009: Race
2012: The Anarchist
2015: China Doll

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1981: The Postman Always Rings Twice
1982: Verdict
1987: House of Games
1988: Things Change
1991: Homicide
1994: Oleanna
1997: The Edge
1998: The Spanish Prisoner
1998: Wag the Dog
2000: State and Main
2000: Lakeboat
2001: Heist
2004: Spartan
2008: Redbelt

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1964: Cowboys
1964: The Rock Garden
1965: Chicago
1965: Icarus's Mother
1967: La Turista
1969: Oh! Calcutta
1971: Cowboy Mouth
1972: The Tooth of Crime
1974: Geography of a Horse Dreamer
1975: Action
1976: Angel City
1976: Suicide in B Flat
1978: Curse of the Starving Child
1978: Buried Child
1978: Tongues
1980: True West
1983: Fool for Love
1985: A Lie of the Mind
1993: Simpatico
2004: The God of Hell
2007: Kicking a Dead Horse

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Zosia Mamet on Growing Up With David Mamet - CONAN on TBS

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1978: Days of Heaven
1982: Frances
1983: The Right Stuff
1985: Fool for Love
1986: Crimes of the Heart
1987: Baby Boom
1989: Steel Magnolias
1991: Voyager
1992: Thunderheart
1993: The Pelican Brief
1999: Snow Falling on Cedars
2001: The Pledge
2004: The Notebook
2009: Bothers

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Remembering Sam Shepard: 1945-2017 | THR

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*Born April 27, 1945, Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel Jr. in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
*He was the fourth child out of six children
*His father Frederick August Kittel Sr., was a Sudeten German immigrant, his mother was an African American from North Carolina.
*He was raised primarily by his mother in a two-bedroom apartment in an economically depressed neighborhood until he was 5, it was predominantly black Americans, Jewish and Italian immigrants. His father wasn’t in his life as much. Later his mother divorced his father and remarried, moving into a predominantly white working-class neighborhood where they experience racial hostility (bricks were thrown through a window at their new home) they eventually left due to the craziness they experience.
*He dropped out of 3 High School (one school wasn’t as challenging to him and one he was accused of plagiarizing)
*“extensive use of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh resulted in its later "awarding" him an honorary high school diploma.” He enjoyed reading and the library, he’s not a director but when he took on a directing role for his 8th cycle play Jitney he learns to direct by checking out books teaching him how to.
*He spent most of his time growing up reading novels from many African American writers such as Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright and many others.
*At the age of 20 he wrote poetry for a magazine name Harper’s
*he married 3 times
*He fell in love blues and absorbed himself into his writing in cafes, bars and cigar store where he is absorbed the voices, dialect, accents and characters around him taking notes of everything he came across and adding them in his stories (not censoring the language).
* “Malcolm X's influenced Wilson's life and work a lot (such as The Ground on Which I Stand, 1996). Both the Nation of Islam and the Black Power spoke to him regarding self-sufficiency, self-defense, and self-determination, and he appreciated the origin myths that Elijah Muhammad supported.”
*In 1968, he co-founded the Black Horizon Theater in the Hill District of Pittsburgh along with a friend Rob Penny.
*Wilson's first play, Recycling, was performed for audiences in small theaters, schools and public housing community centers for 50 cents a ticket.
*Wilson, Penny, and poet Maisha Baton started the Kuntu Writers Workshop to bring African-American writers together and to assist them in publication and production. (still active)
*Wilson maintained a strong voice in the progress and development of the contemporary black theater during his time, taking influences from the examples of his youth, such as those displayed during the Black Arts Movement.
*August work included a series of ten plays, 9 setting in Pittsburgh and one in Chicago. (Pittsburgh Cycle)
*Each of his series are set in a different decade and depicts comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the 20th century.
*He was dedicated to writing for theater, however he was proposed to a Hollywood studio to make his play Fences into a film. Which he would only do if the director was black not because of a basis of race but because he felt a white director wouldn’t get the culture across through the film like an actually black person would.
*” Wilson stated that he was most influenced by "the four B’s": blues music, the Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges, the playwright Amiri Baraka and the painter Romare Bearden. He went on to add writers Ed Bullins and James Baldwin to the list later.”
*August Wilson won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for his play Fences and earned a second Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson. He won many honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Humanities.

Joe Turner's come and gone
August Wilson second installment of his decade-by-decade chronicle of the African-American experience, The Pittsburgh Cycle, Joe Turner's Come and Gone is a serious play set in 1911 about "private struggles, family situations, or a character grappling with some form of social injustice or another”. The play premiered 1984 at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut and opened on Broadway on 27 March 1988 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, running for 105 performances. “Joe Turner lives in the small world of the Holly's boardinghouse and examines the struggles of its residents. “The style and language used in Joe Turner is realistic in nature and depicts that of the dialogue and movement of that time. Each of the characters has a specific rhythm and speech pattern

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*Gem of the Ocean
*Joe Turner's Come and Gone
*Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
*The Piano Lesson
* Seven Guitars
*Fences
*Two Trains Running
*Jitney
*King Hedley II
*Radio Golf

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Richard Foreman
This guy is legit. Graduate with a BA from Brown University, then proceeded to get his MFA from Yale School of Drama in 1962. He was born in 1937 making him 80 years old today. He founded the Ontological Hysteric Theatre. This company from 1992 until 2010 was located at the St. Mark's Church in the Bowery. Foreman's works are typically driven by a sort of constant reawakening of the audience. He creates very avant-garde works. He describes his works as "Total Theatre" which I'm not really sure what that means but it sounds legit, considering he went to Yale. His goal for each performance is a "disorientation massage", the reverse of Aristotle wanting catharsis.

Anne Bogart
An award winning American theatre (and opera) director. She was born in 1951 and currently is one of the Artistic Directors of SITI Company. She founded this company with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is also a professor at Columbia University and runs the Graduate Directing Concentration. She is also the author of three book on theatre making: A director Prepares; And Then, You Act, and What's The Story. In short, she does it all.

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This avant-garde theatre company was founded in 1970 in New York City. at a press event in 1990 the company said "The artistic purpose of Mabou Mines has been and remains the creation of new theatre pieces from original texts and the theatrical use of existing texts staged from a specific point of view. Each member is encouraged to pursue his or her artistic vision by initiating and collaborating on a wide range of projects of varying styles, developing them from initial concept to final performance. This process is intense and often lengthy. While the director of a Mabou Mines work is responsible for its concept and its basic structure, the ultimate production reflects the concerns and the artistic input of all its collaborators." 2005 was a good year for Mabou Mines as they recieved a part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation. They were one of 406 arts groups to receive this.

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The group arose in 1975 and did productions composed and directed by Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte. This group has been able to maintain a full-time ensemble since their beginning in the mid 70's. Over the years this evolving theatre group has performed twenty one pieces for theatre, twelve film projects and five dance pieces. On their website it is stated that the members who decide to "move on" always come back to start new pieces and new work. From 1975-1980 both The Performance Group and The Wooster Group shared the space in Soho which was similar to an empty warehouse. They shared the space until Richard Resigned and Elizabeth took over and the two groups became one

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The Performance Group and Richard Schechner

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The Performance Group and Richard Schechner

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The Performance group was a troupe of experimental theatre. This group was started by Richard Schechner in 1967 in New York City. “HomeBase” for these performers was the Performing Garage located in SoHo.Not to be confused with Tampa bay’s SoHo. Different drama caused Schechner to Resign in 1980, allowing the troupe to reinvent itself as The Wooster Group. Elizabeth LeCompte Ead and Directed this new group. TPG was considered environmental theatre, which mean every production was produced in a completely redesigned space so the audience wouldn’t recognize the inside. Until 1980, most productions were lead by Richard Schechner.

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-  Uses visual arts, dance, and popular entertainment combined with dramatic performance
- Art is presented "live," usually by the artist
- Roots go back to Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism
- This practice is used when artists believe that traditional forms of their work don't  answer their needs
- The performance aspect helps bring in new audiences
- Past 30 years:
- Related to dance and painting
- Body asn art object; self-inflicted pain
- One-person shows
- Artists include:
- Yoko Ono
- Chris Burden
- Anna Deavere Smith

"Cut Piece" by Yoko Ono

- Ono sat in silence as viewers went up and cut off pieces of her clothing
- Brought up the dangers of objectification in society by making the viewers responsible for their voyeurism

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-Cuban American theatre developed chiefly in Florida.
-The Federal Theatre Project of the 1930s resulted in 14 Cuban American productions in 1936 and 1937.
-Some notable Cuban American dramatists are Maria Irene Fornes, Manuel Matrin, Mario Pena, Dolores Prida, Ivan Acosta, and Omar Torres.
-The Cuban American playwright, Nilo Cruz, won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for his play Anna in the Tropics.
-Nuyorican is a term that refers to Puerto Rican Culture, mostly in New York but elsewhere as well.
-Works by playwrights with a Puerto Rican orientation began to be produced in the 1960s and 1970s by groups such as the Teatro Repertorio Espanol, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, and the Public.
-The Nuyoricans Poets' Cafe presented works by numerous Puerto Rican playwrights, including Miguel Pinelo.
FUN FACT: Miguel Pinelo was an ex-convict who wrote a play based on prison life called Short Eyes and won a number of awards in the 1973-1974 season.
-Other prominent Puerto Rican playwrights include Yvette Ramirez, Candido Tirado, Edward Gallardo, and Juan Shamsul Alam.
-In Chicago, there are two companies dedicated to Latino/Latina playwrights: Teatro Vista and Teatro Luna.
-Teatro Vista: founded in 1989 by Edward Torres and Henry Godinez and had the goal of sharing Latino culture with diverse audiences.
-Teatro Luna: organized in 2000 by ten Latina women of various backgrounds; one of its founders is the Mexican- born playwright Tanya Saracho.

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-For most of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Asians appeared in American dramatic offerings strictly as STEREOTYPES.
-With the coming of greater cultural and ethnic awareness in the 1960s and the 1970s, this began to change.
-In 1965, the East West Players was founded in Los Angeles.
-in 1973, two more groups were formed: the Asian Exclusion Act in Seattle and the Asian-American Theater Workshop in San Francisco.
-In 1977, the director-actor Tsia Chang founded the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York.
-These group employed Asian American performers, produced dramas from the Asian cultural heritage, and emphasized new plays written by and for Asian Americans.
-David Henry Hwang: came to prominence in the 1980s; wrote FOB in 1980 ( which was a success), The Dance and the Railroad,  and later M. Butterfly, which opened successfully on Broadway.
FUN FACT: plotline and references correlated to the opera Madame Butterfly
- Other plays by Hwang: Golden Child, The Sound of a Voice, Flower Drum Song, Tarzan, Yellow Face, and Chinglish
- Hwang and the actor B.D. Wong, who played the Chinese opera singer in the original production of M. Butterfly, led a vigorous protest against the hiring of an English actor to play the leading role in the musical Miss Saigon.
-That battle was lost, but in 1996, when a revival of The King and I opened on Broadway, it had a large proportion of Asian American performers.

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-Strictly speaking, there was no Native American "theatre" tradition; rather, there were spiritual and social traditions that had pronounced theatrical elements.
-Found primarily in ancient rituals and communal celebrations; infused with cosmic significance
-There was no audience: those observing were considered participants just as much as the principal performers.
-In the 19th century, America had outlawed these performances forcing these theatrical performances to go "underground".
-The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1972 made it legal once again for certain ceremonies to continue.
-Two groups that led the way in Native American Theatre during the last 3 decades were: the Native American Theatre Ensemble and Spiderwoman.
- The Native American Theatre Ensemble: founded by Hanay Geiogamah (identified as Kiowa/Delaware); gave its premiere performance at La Mama in New York City in 1972; later toured throughout North America and Europe
-Spiderwoman Theatre: both Native American theatre and feminist theatre; founded in 1975, it is the longest continually running women's and Native American theatre in North America; founded by Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, and Muriel Miguel; it draws on storytelling and other theatrical traditions to celebrate their identities as American Indian women
-Today, Native American theatre is not primarily historical or ceremonial; the emphasis is really on contemporary work, fusing the problems and aspirations of today's Native Americans with their heritage.
-Playwrights: William F. Yellow Robe, Jr., E. Donald Two-Rivers, and Bruce King
-King and Yellow Robe are also directors who have founded their own companies to teach playwrighting and performance
-Native American Theatre Organizations: Thunderbird Theatre at Haskell Indian Nations University, Red Earth Performing Arts founded in Seattle, Red Eagle Soaring Theatre Group founded in Seattle, and Tulsa Indian Actor's Workshop organized in 1993.
FUN FACT: The American Indian Community House in NYC provides its theatre space to Native American performing artists and maintains a database of American Indian performers.

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My heritage!

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Cherokee Nation Tribal Dance - Owasso Gathering on Main

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- 1975: A Chorus Line opens
- Broke away from the typical musical theatre structure
- 1983: La Cage Aux Folles becomes first musical in history to feature a mature gay couple as romantic leads
- 1996: Rent opens and becomes a pop culture icon
- The revival of Chicago opens, and is now the 3rd longest running Broadway show in history
- 2001: The Producers opens, wins a record of 12 Tony Awards
- Stayed strong during the troubling times following 9/11. Audiences flocked to see it to distract themselves from the troubling times
- 2017: Dear Evan Hansen sweeps the world off its feet with its relatable story and raw emotions

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- Born March 22, 1930 in New York City, New York.
-  Studied musical theatre at a young age  with Oscar Hammerstein II, who was a family friend
- Studied music at Williams College
- First Broadway show was West Side Story. He was the lyricist.
- Eventually wrote both music and lyrics for shows.
- Notable shows:
- Sweeney Todd
- Into the Woods
- Sunday in the Park with George
- Merrily We Roll Along
- A Little Night Music
- Gypsy
- Compnay
- Assassins
- And more!
- Known for complicated lyrics, ingenious characters, intriguing subject matter, and complex music
- Many of his shows have not attained widespread popularity; claimed to be too ironic for popular tastes

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"Sunday in the Park With George" - Sunday In The Park With George (1986) - Bernadette Peters

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Choreographers:
- Michael Bennett
- Bob Fosse
- Susan Stroman
-
Directors:
- Harold Prince
- George C Wolf
- Julie Taymor
Lyricists:
- Stephen Sondheim
- Lynn Ahrens
- Fred Ebb
Composers:
- Stephen Sondheim
- Stephen Flaherty
- John Kander
Book Writers
- Terrance McNally
- James Lapine
- William Finn
Designers:
- Natasha Katz (Lighting)
- William Ivey Long (Costumes)
- Beowulf Boritt (Scenic)

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- Most prominent African American performance artist in the U.S.
- Born in Baltimore in 1950, eldest of five children
- Attended Beaver College and then received her MFA in Acting from ACT in San Fransisco
- Veteran of both the stage and screen
- Best known for her series of one-woman works, On the Road: A Search for American Character
- She portrays many real people she has met and interviewed; and crosses gender and racial lines to represent all the people she has interviewed about racial and gender identity