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Empowering Theatre Arts Professionals through Performance, Edcuation, Networking, Service, and Outreach in Southern California | |
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Michael & Carol Kiernan Convey
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 Velina Hasu Houston has written over thirty plays (fourteen commissions) in a career that began Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club and the Negro Ensemble Company, and in Los Angeles at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and East West Players. Her plays have been produced internationally including at the Old Globe Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Smithsonian Institution, Whole Theatre (Olympia Dukakis, producer), NHK (Japan, nationwide), Pasadena Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, Barrington Stage, and others. She has been awarded fellowships from Japan Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, James Zumberge Research Foundation, Sidney F. Brody Foundation, and the Center for Feminist Research; as well as being honored by Sidney Poitier, American Film Institute, Pinter Review Prize for Drama (Silver Medal), Made In America Visionary Award, Visions and Voices Arts & Humanities Project, and others. Film history includes work with Columbia Pictures, Sidney Poitier, PBS, and several indie producers. She is Professor of Theatre, Resident Playwright, Associate Dean of Faculty, and Creator/Director of the Master of Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing, University of Southern California, School of Theatre. Her work is published internationally with Smith and Kraus, Dramatists Play Service, Temple University Press, and others. Currently, she is writing commissions with LA Opera and Chicago’s Silk Road Theatre Project. She serves on the Department of State’s Japan-US Friendship Commission, US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange, and Japan-US Bridging Foundation. Archives at The Velina Hasu Houston Collection, Huntington Library, San Marino, California. www.velinahasuhouston.com |