John Weidman to Host 'A Conversation with Theresa Rebeck' at Drama Book Shop, 10/21

Smash creator, Theresa Rebeck opens up about her career and the release of her fourth volume of collected plays with a book signing to follow. The event is set for Monday, October 21st at 5pm at The Drama Book Shop.

Theresa Rebeck is a widely produced playwright throughout the United States and abroad. New York productions of her work include Dead Accounts at the Music Box Theatre; Seminar at the Golden Theatre; Mauritius at the Biltmore Theatre in a Manhattan Theater Club Production; The Scene, The Water's Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels at Second Stage; Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House at Playwrights Horizons; The Understudy at the Laura Pels Theater in a Roundabout Theatre Company production; and View of the Dome at New York Theatre Workshop. Omnium Gatherum (co-written, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2003) was featured at the Humana Festival, and had a commercial run at the Variety Arts Theatre. Poor Behavior premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2011.

All of Ms. Rebeck's past produced plays are published by Smith and Kraus as Theresa Rebeck: Complete Plays, Volumes I, II III, and IV and in acting editions available from Samuel French or Playscripts. Ms. Rebeck's other publications are Free Fire Zone, a book of comedic essays about writing and show business. She has written for American Theatre Magazine and has had excerpts of her plays published in the Harvard Review. Ms. Rebeck's first novel, Three Girls and Their Brother, was published by Random House/Shaye Areheart Books in April 2008. Her second novel, Twelve Rooms With A View, was published by Random House/Shaye Areheart Books in May of 2010. Both novels are available online and at booksellers everywhere.

In television, Ms. Rebeck has written for Dream On, Brooklyn Bridge, L.A. Law, American Dreamer, Maximum Bob, First Wave, and Third Watch. She was the creator of the NBC drama Smash. She has been a writer/producer for Canterbury's Law, Smith, Law and Order:Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue. Her produced feature films include Harriet the Spy, Gossip, and the independent features Sunday on the Rocks and Seducing Charlie Barker, an adaptation of her play, The Scene. Awards include the Mystery Writer's of America's Edgar Award, the Writer's Guild of America award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody, all for her work on NYPD Blue. She has won The National Theatre Conference Award (for The Family of Mann), and was awarded the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award in 2003 for The Bells. Mauritius was originally produced at Boston's Huntington Theatre, where it received the 2007 IRNE Award for Best New Play as well as the Eliot Norton Award. Other awards include the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, a Lilly Award and in 2011 she was named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek.

Ms. Rebeck is originally from Cincinnati and holds an MFA in Playwrighting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, both from Brandeis University. She is a proud board member of the Dramatists Guild, a Contributing Editor to the Harvard Review, an Associate Artist of the Roundabout Theatre Company and has taught at Brandeis University and Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

John Weidman has written the book for several award-winning musicals including Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes and Contact. Mr. Weidman also wrote the book for Pacific Overtures, Assassins and Road Show with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, as well as Big with Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, and Happiness with Scott Frankel and Michael Korie. He has written for Sesame Street since 1986, receiving more than a dozen Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Children's Program. From 1999 to 2009, he served as president of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Works Include: Pacific Overtures (1976); Anything Goes (1987); Assassins (1991); Big (1996); Contact (2000); Take Flight (2007); Road Show (2008); Happiness (2009).

About the Book:

Theresa Rebeck Complete Plays Volume IV includes seven of her newest plays, including her three Broadway productions (Mauritius, Seminar and Dead Accounts). The volume has an introduction by Producing Artistic Director of REP, Sanford Robbins and a preface by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Marsha Norman.