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Although she was born in Chicago, Donna Spector spent most of her childhood and adolescence in Los Angeles. She attended U.C.L.A. on a theater scholarship, then transferred to U.C. Berkeley, where she received her B.A. and M.A. in English, with a minor in French.
In the late Sixties she directed and acted in an improvisational theater troupe called Dementia, often performing with folk and rock groups like Santana and the Grateful Dead. From the time she was seven, she has studied dance-ballet, modern, jazz, folk, Balinese, African, Kathakali— both in California and in New York, where she has lived since the mid-Seventies. She has taught English, drama, French and creative writing in high schools and colleges. Recipient of two National Endowment for the Humanities grants to study in Greece, she has traveled to Greece many times (most recently for the International Women Playwrights Conference) and speaks a passable Greek.
Ms. Spector has written fifteen full-length plays (and is working on her sixteenth) and many one-acts. A member of Dramatists Guild, Women Playwrights International, ICWP, Harbor Theatre in Manhattan, New Jersey Theatre Educators Coalition and Poets & Writers, her poems, stories and monologues have been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies.
Her latest full-length play, GOLDEN LADDER (Women Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2002 by Smith & Kraus) was produced Off Broadway in 2002, at the Players Theatre on MacDougal Street. Her first play, ANOTHER PARADISE, was produced by the Open Space Theatre in an Equity Showcase in 1984, then at the Chinook Theatre in Edmonton, Canada, in 1985, and finally Off Broadway at the Player's Theatre in 1986. After a staged reading at the International Women Playwrights Conference in Galway, Ireland, in 1997, her play HANGING WOMEN was produced at the University of California, Hayward, in 1998.
Other plays and theaters where they appeared include: THESE ARE MY ADULTS (finalist in the Beverly Hills/Julie Harris and Mill Mountain Theatre contests), staged reading at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey; MANHATTAN TRANSITS (semi-finalist in the Beverly Hills/Julie Harris contest & the Chesterfield Writer's Film Project, short-listed in the BBC/British Council International Playwriting Competition), staged readings at Medicine Show, Trenton's Passage Theatre and Contemporary Theatre of Syracuse; STRIP TALK ON THE BOULEVARD, staged readings at Lark Theatre in their Festival of New Works and Hoboken's Waterfront Ensemble; NOT FOR THE FERRYMAN, produced by Pickup Styx through a grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, also staged readings at Buffalo Ensemble Theatre and Princeton University Theatre; MISSING FAMILIES (semi-finalist in the Mill Mountain Theatre Competition), staged reading at Bloomfield College Theatre; DANCING WITH STRANGERS (semi-finalist in the Chesterfield Writer's Film Project), staged readings at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and Wings Theatre in NY; A SENSE OF MOVEMENT produced through a grant from the New York Council for the Arts; SEDUCTIONS, staged readings at Lark Theatre in their Festival of New Works, Playwrights Theatre of N.J., and the William Mount-Burke Theatre, N.J.; DEMENTIA, workshop at the Harbor Theatre, and LIFE LINES, staged reading at the New York Theatre Workshop.
Ms. Spector lives in an old farmhouse in Warwick, New York, across from a wildlife sanctuary.
After the Play
After the play someone always asks
how much of what I wrote is real—
though sometimes they say true—
and I say some or none or all,
knowing they mean was that my life
up there under the lights. Yes,
all that I've imagined is, of course,
my life, but no more real than rain
falling on my hand as I wave to Teddy,
leaning out her window on MacDougal Street,
alive with lights and laughter, or the hot
scent of Mamoun's falafel, and no more true
than yesterday's news, wet and dirty
under our feet. The actors emerge, tired
and happy from creating lives, two hours
of reality, of truth for us and them
each night before we lose ourselves in smoke
and wine at Minetta Tavern, music
so loud we become mimes, abandoning
language, as in the end we must.
NEW:
THE CANDLE OF GOD, a novel by Donna SpectorSet in the Fifties, THE CANDLE OF GOD is about a family divided by religious beliefs. The catalyst who ultimately brings the family together is Danny, a bright, talented fourteen-year-old struggling with cystic fibrosis.
Read full synopsis of and an excerpt from THE CANDLE OF GOD
RESUME | PLAY SYNOPSES | REVIEWS & QUOTES | NOVEL
CONTACT INFORMATION
115 Blooms Corners Road
Warwick, New York 10990
Email: donnaspector@optonline.net
www.donnaspector.net
All material copyright 2001-2008 by Donna Spector.
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