Playwright J.T. Rogers (a.k.a. home-grown talent)
Unbound is, technically, a book festival, but really we just love words, however they come at us. Last year Carol Birch dazzled audiences with her powerful storytelling and playwright Willy Conley spoke about his award-winning plays. Willy's visit was so well received that this year we wanted to invite another playwright to discuss their work. (We're also putting on a workshop about how oral storytelling can help writers with dialogue... more on that in another post.)
We're delighted to announce that internationally acclaimed playwright J.T. Rogers will be coming to Unbound to talk about his craft and career. Last year, among may other awards, his play Oslo won the Tony Award for Best Play, and it's been a smash hit on Broadway and in London.
Photo credit: Rebecca Ashley
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J.T. Rogers’s plays include Oslo (Lincoln Center Theater, then Broadway; National Theatre, London, then West End); Blood and Gifts (Lincoln Center Theater; National Theatre); The Overwhelming (National Theatre, then UK tour with Out of Joint; Roundabout Theatre); White People (Off Broadway with Starry Night Productions); and Madagascar (Theatre 503, London; Melbourne Theatre Company). For Oslo he won the Tony, New York Critics, Outer Critics, Drama Desk, Drama League, Lortel, and Obie awards. As one of the playwrights for the Tricycle Theatre of London’s The Great Game: Afghanistan he was nominated for an Olivier Award. His works have been staged throughout the United States and in Germany, Canada, Australia, and Israel. Rogers’s essays have been published in the New York Times, Guardian, and The New Statesman. He is a Guggenheim fellow and has received three NYFA fellowships in playwriting. Rogers is a member of the Dramatist Guild, where he is a founding board member of the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund. He is an alum of New Dramatists and holds an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
He is also an alumnus of Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, MO, and we're thrilled that on the Friday before the festival he'll be speaking to high school performing arts students from across the Columbia Public School district as part of the Authors in the Schools program.