Artist

Lenora Inez Brown recently dramaturged Karen Zacarias' world premiere Mariela in the Desert at The Goodman Theatre. 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 serving as the literary manager and dramaturg for the Crossroads Theatre Company, the nation's leading African-American theater, the theater received the 1999 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. She was part of the artistic leadership for Crossroads' new play festival, the Genesis Festival. Lenora 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 theatre, 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 teaches dramaturgy at The Theatre School at DePaul University. Lenora holds a B.A. in art history from Dartmouth College and an MFA in dramaturgy from the Yale School of Drama.