Pennsylvania AATE

The Pennsylvania State Rep is:

Barry Kornhauser, Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, PA

Barry Kornhauser, Playwright-In-Residence and Director of Family Theater at the National Historic Landmark Fulton Opera House, is the United States nominee for the 2008 ASSITEJ International Award for Artistic Excellence.  He has received the AATE Distinguished Play Award, the IRT/Bonderman Playwriting Prize, a TYA/USA International Observership and its “Best Plays of the Decade” commendation, and fellowships and grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, TCG, and the National Endowment for the Arts.  This Is Not A Pipe Dream, Warped, Better Angels, Thunder and Potatoes, Calibanana, Worlds Apart, Honey & Sting, Power Play, and A Christmas Carol are some of his titles.  Directing projects have included Amazwi Omoya, New Kid, Sundiata, Two Donuts, Robinson & Friday, Wiley and the Hairy Man, Currently Franklin: The Story of a Paper Boy, and this season’s Bocon.  He also directs the Fulton’s Youtheatre program for at-risk and disabled teens, winner of multiple NEA grants, the Starbuck Foundation’s “Giving Voice” Honor, and the PCA’s “Keystones of Accessibility” Award. Barry has taught theatre everywhere from a one-room Amish schoolhouse to the University of New Mexico, and his HIV/AIDS prevention theatre project, created under a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, won the state’s “Best Practices” honor.  As playwright and/or director, his work has taken him to such venues as the San Diego Theatre of the World Festival, the New Play Festival of NYC’s Provincetown Playhouse, the Bonderman Festival, the Smithsonian, and both the Kennedy Center’s “New Visions/New Voices” and “One Theatre World” events.  Barry was the recipient of the Theatre Association of Pennsylvania’s first Educational Theatre Award for “outstanding service by an individual for the advancement of theatre education in the Commonwealth.”  He also was the 2006 recipient of the Ivey Award for playwriting for his script of Reeling which premiered at the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, recipient of the 2003 Tony Award as America’s “Outstanding Regional Theatre.” Barry’s verse adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, the Fulton’s 2000-2001 season opener, was remounted by Michael Kahn at the acclaimed Shakespeare Theatre, and was Washington’s most honored production in 2005, winning four Helen Hayes Awards including “Best Play.”  His newest work for the Fulton, Sowing The Wind, was developed through a PennPAT “New Directions” grant.  Barry has served on various panels of the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio Councils on the Arts, the Heinz Endowments and the NEA.  He is on the board of TYA/USA and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.  For the AATE, he has served as chair of the Winifred Ward Committee and as a “Playwrights In Our Schools” mentor. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, Barry shares an enthusiasm for the school with his wife Carol who works there, and sons Max (a recent grad) and (Junior) Sam.  Daughter Ariel (who will begin attending next year) completes his real-life’s cast of “characters.”    

For TIOS Month:

The TYA program here at the National Historic Landmark Fulton Opera House is now touring three plays - Lisa Loomer's BOCON, a company created five-actor fifty minute MACBETH, and a company created T.I.E. piece called SOWING THE WIND dealing with issues of health and safety in rural communities. We are also doing a Shakespeare residency in an area middle school and presenting the aforementioned BOCON in our studio theatre on March 28 & 29 for family audiences as part of the city's "Artist Saturday" celebration.