Sheila Callaghan

Infobox Writer

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name = Sheila Callaghan
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birthdate = birth date and age|1973|1|24|mf=y
birthplace = Queens, New York
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nationality = American
period = Contemporary
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website = http://www.sheilacallaghan.com

Sheila Callaghan (born 1973) is a New York City-based playwright who emerged from the RAT (Regional Alternative Theater) movement of the 1990s. Her work is considered to be part of the downtown theater (or "experimental") scene, [cite web|url=http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/theater/jan04/callaghan.html|title=in dialogue: Devouring the Scenery with Sheila Callaghan
publisher=The Brooklyn Rail] and is known for its unusual use of language and narrative structure. Callaghan's writing has been described as "comically engaging, subversively penetrating" [cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/01/DDGL5JMVEL1.DTL|title=Achingly funny comedy that has serious issues with capitalism|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle] , "whimsically eloquent" [cite web|url=http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/261602,0,5839666.event|title= Dazzling 'Crumble' is stalwartly screwy|publisher=Los Angeles Times] , "unique and completely contemporary" [cite web|url=http://www.offoffonline.com/archives.php?id=751|title=Bloomsday Revisited|publisher=offoffonline] , and "downright weird" [cite web|url=http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=dram30&date=20050930&query=sheila+callaghan|title="Weird" play christens new theater space|publisher=The Seattle Times] . The "New York Times" has said Callaghan "writes with a world-weary tone and has a poet's gift for economical description," [cite web|url=http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/theater/reviews/02dead.html|title='Dead City': It's a Wonderful, Lively Town, Where the Dead Men Speak|publisher=The New York Times] and the "Philadelphia Weekly" has called Callaghan a "provocative playwright" with a "national following" who "creates work that's realistic and unpredictable, dark and funny, reassuring and disturbing." [cite web|url=http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=5366|title=Review|publisher=Philadelphia Weekly]

She has been profiled by "American Theater Magazine", "Time Out New York" [cite web|url=http://www.timeout.com/newyork/Details.do?xyurl=xyl://TONYWebArticles2/557/features/the_not_ready_for_broadway_playwrights.xml|title=The not-ready-for-Broadway playwrights|publisher=Timeout New York] , "Theatremania" [cite web|url=http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm?int_news_id=3018|title=People to Watch|publisher=Theater Mania] , and "The Village Voice" [cite web|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0621,reidy,73321,11.html|title=Rejoyce:A playwright's modern-day downtown riff on Ulysses|publisher=The Village Voice] , and she occasionally contributes articles to the theatre section of "The Brooklyn Rail".

She is a member of the Obie award winning playwrights' collective 13P and the Tony award winning playwrights' organization New Dramatists.

Callaghan is also the recipient of several writing honors, including The Princess Grace Award, The LA Weekly Award, The Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright's Center, The Chesley Prize for Lesbian Playwriting, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, a grant from The New York Foundation for The Arts, and an NYSCA grant. In 2007 her play "Dead City" won a Special Commendation Award for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is also a 2007 recipient of the Whiting Writers Award.

Callaghan has taught playwriting and English at the University of Rochester, The College of New Jersey, Spalding University, Brooklyn College, LaGuardia Community College, and Florida State University.

She is also the author of a blog popular within the theatre community, which deals with her life as a writer in New York City. She is married to composer Sophocles Papavasilopoulos.

Plays by Sheila Callaghan

Her most well-known play to date is "Dead City", a free adaptation of James Joyce's "Ulysses", which was produced by New Georges in 2006. Her other plays have been produced and developed with Soho Rep, Playwrights Horizons, The Flea Theater, South Coast Repertory, Clubbed Thumb, The LARK, Collision Theatre Company, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, New Georges, the Bloomington Playwrights Project, Theatre of NOTE, Impact Theatre and Moving Arts, among others.

Internationally, her plays have been produced in New Zealand, Norway, Germany, and the Czech Republic. She has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Several of her plays are published by Playscripts, Inc., Samuel French Inc., and S. Fischer Verlag (in German translation), and she has been anthologized in the New York Theatre Review.

List of plays:
*"Scab"
*"Lascivious Something"
*"Dead City"
*"Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake)"
*"Crawl, Fade to White"
*"Kate Crackernuts"
*"We Are Not These Hands"
*"Fever/Dream"
*"That Pretty Pretty (Or, The Rape Play)"
*"Roadkill Confidential"

External links

* [http://sheilacallaghan.com Official site]
* [http://www.sheilacallaghan.com/blog/ Personal blog]
* [http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsC/callaghan-sheila.html Information on Sheila Callaghan by doollee.com]
*cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/theater/16bloo.html?ei=5088&en=b7fb65886ca631a0&ex=1308110400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1162946581-ozndkxKgf00LxhgKhdbeTw|title=Playwright of 'Dead City' Substitutes Manhattan for Dublin|publisher=New York Times|date=2006-06-15
*cite web|url=http://www.maestro.ws/arts/la/2005Callaghan.html|title=Interview|publisher=Maestro Arts and Reviews|date=2005-10-07

References