Each month on The Subtext Brian speaks with a playwright about life, writing, and whatever itches we are scratching.
On this episode, Brian travels to Maine to visit with his longtime friend Callie Kimball, an award-winning, nationally commissioned and internationally produced playwright, who has a dedicated track record of advocating for underrepresented voices. She earned her MFA under Tina Howe at Hunter College, where she won the Rita & Burton Goldberg Playwriting Award two years in a row. Her plays have been produced and developed by theatres, colleges, and festivals across the country. She’s an affiliate artist at Portland Stage Company, an affiliate writer at the Playwrights’ Center, playwright-in-residence at Theater at Monmouth, and a former MacDowell Fellow. She won a Ludwig Vogelstein grant to research her play Sofonisba, which won the Clauder Gold Prize, was a finalist for the O’Neill, a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award, and was included on The Kilroys’ List in 2016. Kimball has taught or been a visiting guest artist at Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Maine College of Art, Southern Maine Community College, Kings College London Shakespeare Centre, the ACS International Schools in London, and National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts.
Kimball’s work ranges from historical dramas and classical adaptations to sociopolitical comedies and futuristic dystopian dramas. Many explore emotional violence and parasitic relationships, with characters who live at the intersection of language and power.
On this episode, Callie talks about her lifelong connection to the state of Maine and how it lured her back after years of living in Washington, D.C., and New York City. She was primarily working as an actor when an out-of-the-blue opportunity to adapt a play for a major D.C. theatre dropped onto her lap, and her work soon began to shift from performance to playwriting. Following the completion of her MFA at Hunter College, she returned to her home state in 2018, and suffered a severe head trauma in an event that would redirect the trajectory of her life. Callie recounts what she can remember from that moment, how she has recovered in the years since, and how both her life and her practice have been forced to change.
This episode can also be found here.
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