Melissa James Gibson
Encyclopedia
Life
The child of former BC Liberal MLA Gordon Gibson and his journalist wife Valerie, Gibson grew up in North Vancouver. She graduated from Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and from the Yale School of Drama
Yale School of Drama
The Yale School of Drama is a graduate professional school of Yale University providing training in every discipline of the theatre: acting, design , directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, sound design, technical design and production, and theater...
with an M.F.A. in Playwriting. She is working on commissions for the La Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit, professional theatre-in-residence on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. -Background:...
and The Adirondack Theatre Festival. She has received fellowships from the Jerome Foundation and the MacDowell Colony
MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
.
The New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood wrote that with her play This, Gibson “graduates into the theatrical big leagues with this beautifully conceived, confidently executed and wholly accessible work.”
Awards
- 2002 ObieObie AwardThe Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for playwriting, Kesselring Prize, The Best Plays of 2001-02 for [sic] - 2002 Whiting Writers' AwardWhiting Writers' AwardThe Whiting Writers' Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2007, winners receive US $50,000.-External links:**...
Works
- [sic] Steppenwolf Theatre Company commission
- Suitcase, or Those That Resemble Flies From A Distance (NEA/ TCG Theatre Residency Program, 2004 production at Soho Rep)
- Brooklyn Bridge, music by Barbara Brousal (The Children's Theater Company/New Dramatists Playground program commission)
- Given Fish (Steppenwolf Theatre Company commission, grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Greenwall Foundation)
- Six Fugues
- God’s Paws
- Nuda Veritas
- Current Nobody, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, DC, 2007
- This, Playwrights Horizons, 2009, Canadian Premiere: Vancouver Playhouse, January 2011, directed by Amiel GladstoneAmiel GladstoneAmiel Gladstone is a Canadian playwright and director. A graduate of the University of Victoria, Gladstone is a founder of Theatre Skam, an alternative theatre company in Victoria, BC and is the former Artistic Associate at Caravan Farm Theatre and the Belfry Theatre...
.