PLAYWRIGHT/DIRECTOR AND WRITER/ACTOR TO PRESENT WORK
ON HERMITAGE BEACH
On Friday, October 13, at 6:00 pm, two award-winning artists, Playwright/Director Lisa Peterson and Writer/Actor/Storyteller Denis O’Hare, will offer readings of their work on the Hermitage Artist Retreat beach, 6660 Manasota Key Road in Englewood. These creative residents will then present an informal conversation about the writing process, including partnerships between the two, how they use improvisation, as well as the use of foundational literature and creative impulse. Sunset is at 7:00 pm and visitors are invited to stay and enjoy this grand finale. Please bring beach chairs or blankets to sit on and any refreshments to enjoy. The program is free but reservations are requested, in the event the program needs to move indoors where space is more limited. To reserve, simply call 941-475-2098, ext. 8 or email [email protected].
“Superstars-in-Residence abound at the Hermitage and these two artists are no exception,” explained Bruce E. Rodgers. “Most visitors who join us on October 13 will recognize the work of Lisa and Denis, and perhaps even Denis O’Hare himself, who has appeared in many popular TV and film projects. We are excited to have them with us and to share them with our community.”
Denis O’Hare is an actor, writer and storyteller who has performed numerous times on Broadway and Off-Broadway, appeared in over 40 films and has been a regular on American Horror Story for the past five years. Other TV work includes The Good Wife, True Blood, This is Us, all Law and Order franchises and others. As a writer, Denis recently had his first screenplay filmed and produced. The Parting Glass is expected to be released soon. With Lisa Peterson, he is the co-playwright for An Iliad, which won an Obie Award, Lortel Award and Drama Desk nomination. Peterson and O’Hare also wrote The Good Book which premiered at The Court Theatre in Chicago in 2015. Currently, they are working on a new commission from the McCarter Theatre, in Princeton NJ, called The Song of Rome.
Lisa Peterson is a writer/director. In addition to the previously mentioned plays, her credits include Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, We’re Gonna Be Alright and It Can’t Happen Here. She has directed world premieres by many major American writers including Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, Donald Margulies, Jose Rivera, Sandra Tsing Loh, Fernanda Coppel, Ellen McLaughlin, and others. She won her first Director Obie Award for Caryl Churchill’s Light Shining In Buckinghamshire at the New York Theater Workshop, where her other productions include The Trestle At Pope Lick Creek, Slavs, Traps, and The Waves, which she adapted from the Virginia Woolf novel with composer David Bucknam. For ten years, she was Resident Director at the Mark Taper Forum. She regularly works at Actors Theater of Louisville, Berkeley Rep, California Shakespeare Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, La Jolla Playhouse (where she served as Associate Director for three years), Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, the Guthrie, O’Neill Playwrights Conference and Sundance Theater Lab. Currently, she is Associate Director at Berkeley Repertory Theater.
“Come engage in not only entertainment, but intellectual discourse, as we sit on the beach with Denis and Lisa,” said Patricia Caswell, Hermitage program director and co-founder. “They embody the full spectrum of theater, from delightful TV horror to virtuosically wrought classics and brilliant new work. “
The Hermitage is a not-for-profit artist retreat located at 6660 Manasota Key Road in Englewood, FL. It invites accomplished painters, sculptors, writers, playwrights, poets, composers and other artists from all over the world for residencies on its beachfront historic campus. Many of these artists are Pulitzer Prize, Tony, Emmy, Grammy and MacArthur Genius Award winners. Artists are asked to interact with the community during their stay and as a result, Hermitage artists touch thousands of Gulf Coast community residents with unique and inspiring programs each year. Hermitage community programs are partially sponsored by the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council of Arts and Culture and the State of Florida (Section 286.25, Florida Statutes). In addition, the Hermitage awards and administers the prestigious Greenfield Prize, an annual $30,000 commission for a new work of art, rotating among visual art, music and drama. The Hermitage also partners with the Aspen Music Festival and School to award the annual Hermitage Prize to a composition student during the Festival. For more information about The Hermitage Artist Retreat, call 941-475-2098, ext. 5, or visit the website at www.HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
