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DIRECTOR JOE DOWLING ANNOUNCES

PLAYWRIGHT CARSON KREITZER

AS RECIPIENT OF THE 2014 DOWLING FELLOWSHIP

Kreitzer will attend Irelands Tyrone Guthrie Centrean artist retreat on Guthries estateto develop new work.

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(Minneapolis/St. Paul) Guthrie Theater Director Joe Dowling today announced playwright Carson Kreitzer as the recipient of the Joe Dowling Annaghmakerrig Fellowship Award, given to an established theater professional who is associated with the Guthrie. The recipient is provided the opportunity to benefit personally and professionally from the experience of spending two weeks at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre on the estate of Annaghmakerrig, Guthries home in Ireland. The Centre is a residential retreat for artists from around the globe, offering time and space in which to research, create or develop work.

Kreitzers body of work at the Guthrie dates back to the summer of 2003, when she wrote the short play The Glory of God for A Guthrie Experience for Actors in Training. Since then she has written two plays specifically for the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training ProgramBe Here Now, a riff on Chekhovs Three Sisters, for the class of 2008 and South Street for the class of 2013. Kreitzer recently received a commission to write a new play for the Guthrie, made possible by a grant through the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Program for Commissioning Women in the Performing Arts.

Kreitzer plans to use the time in Annaghmakerrig to begin work on the new play. On learning of the fellowship, Kreitzer admits that she was both thrilled and stunned. This is so unexpectedthe process for the commission was very quick. I was still adjusting to that wonderful news when Joe Dowling called to give me the Annaghmakerrig Fellowship! Kreitzer continues, I told him that I've always dreamed of going to Ireland, and that I'm one quarter Irish. He promised me I'd be at least half by the time I come home.

Carson is a playwright whose work combines great imagination with meticulous craft, says Dowling. I know she will greatly enjoy sharing her work with Irish playwrights and artists at Tyrone Guthries ancestral home. We look forward to seeing the results of her Fellowship.

Carson Kreitzers Lasso of Truth was recently announced as the National New Play Networks 40th Rolling World Premiere, with productions at Marin Theatre Company, Synchronicity in Atlanta, and Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City. She is a member of the Workhaus Collective, an alumna of New Dramatists, and a Core Member and current Board Member of the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. She and composer Matt Gould are currently under commission from Yale Rep and New Dramatists for their new musical LEMPICKA. Carson is the past recipient of two Jerome Fellowships and two McKnight Advancement Grants, and was the first Playwrights Of New York (PONY) Fellow at the Lark. Behind the Eye, her play about surrealist muse and WWII combat photographer Lee Miller, can be seen at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul this coming May. Her collection SELF DEFENSE and other plays is now available from No Passport Press.

The Joe Dowling Annaghmakerrig Fellowship Award was created by Guthrie staff and members of the community who shared the desire to honor Joe Dowling and recognize the deep roots and historical artistic connections between Minnesota and Ireland. The award also serves to maintain the memory of Sir Tyrone Guthrie and his extraordinary vision for both the Guthrie Theater and for the Tyrone Guthrie Centre.

The award is made possible by generous support from the Annaghmakerrig Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the University of St. Thomas Center for Irish Studies, the Irish Fair of Minnesota, and by David and Donna Brown.

The GUTHRIE THEATER (Joe Dowling, Director) was founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie in 1963 and is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. The Tony Award-winning Guthrie Theater is dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature, developing the work of contemporary playwrights and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. With annual attendance of nearly 500,000 people, the Guthrie Theater presents a mix of classic plays and contemporary work on its three stages. Under the artistic leadership of Joe Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie continues to set a national standard for excellence in theatrical production and performance. In 2006, the Guthrie opened its new home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, the Guthrie Theater houses three state-of-the-art stages, production facilities, classrooms and dramatic public lobbies. www.guthrietheater.org

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