paula cizmar - LYRICIST, MUSICAL BOOK WRITER, playwright
she/her/hers
PAULA CIZMAR is a playwright and librettist whose work often combines poetry and politics.
Her plays have been produced at the Women’s Project, Cal Rep, Portland Stage, San Diego Rep, Playwrights Arena @LATC, the Jungle Theater, among others. Plays include Antigone X,The Chisera, Still Life with Parrot & Monkey, Street Stories,and The Death of a Miner. She is the recipient of an NEA grant, a TCG/Mellon On the Road grant, and the Israel Baran Award for The Last Nights of Scheherazade. She is one of the writers of the documentary play Seven, which has been translated into 20+ languages and produced in over 30 countries. She and 6 other women writers were commissioned by Center Theatre Group and Playwrights Arena to write the site-specific Hotel Playto celebrate the 25th anniversary of Playwrights Arena and to mark the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles. She wrote the libretto for the opera The Night Flight of Minerva’s Owl,music by composer Guang Yang, which will premiere at Pittsburgh Festival Opera in July 2020, and she wrote the book and lyrics for Golden, music by Nathan Wang, which has been presented in workshop in Los Angeles. She is an associate professor of playwriting at USC
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