DOROTHY’S DICTIONARY

by E.M. Lewis, directed by Laura Giannarelli
Featuring Helen Hayes Award recipient Deidra LaWan Starnes and Alexander Kim.

September 28 through October 22, 2023

Words are powerful…books can transform. Sparks fly when Zan, an angry high school student, is forced to work off his community service assignment helping ailing but feisty librarian Dorothy. With seemingly little in common, this unlikely pair may find deep meaning in each other’s life experiences… if they can only find the right words. An Area Premiere

I always tell people that plays are made out of playwrights.  There are big pieces of ourselves in what we write — who we are, what we love, what frightens us, what delights us.  And in this play, I finally had a place to put all my love of words and books and libraries. — E.M. Lewis

CHARMING AND AFFECTIONATE…No bells, no whistles, just A GOOD PLAY. [Starnes is]…SENSATIONAL — Broadway World DC

EMOTIONALLY EVOCATIVE … [Dorothy’s Dictionary] has a cohesive arc, COMPELLING dialogue, and the characters are both very well-drawn and well-acted. AN ENJOYABLE EVENING OF THEATER. — MDTheatreGuide

Washington Stage Guild’s current production….is a perfect diversion, cast impeccably. Laura Giannarelli has directed this play with grace…the characters captivate. — DC Theater Arts

…bibliophiles may relish this ode to the written word…Under Laura Giannarelli’s direction, the play’s final chapter is particularly moving. It is in this well-written sequence that Lewis fully unleashes her love of words, particularly those that encompass emotions and relationships much larger than our everyday language can adequately describe. [Alexander] Kim…gives a strong showing in his Washington theater debut. — Washington City Paper

Photos: DJ Corey Photography

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directors-chair

A founding Stage Guild company member, Laura Giannarelli is delighted to again begin a Stage Guild season with a directing assignment.  Having directed last season’s opener, The Good Doctor, she relishes this opportunity to direct a two-hander that invites audiences to see the blossoming of a relationship between generations and celebrates a love of books and libraries.  A lifelong bookworm and a narrator since 1979 for the Library of Congress’ “Talking Books for the Blind” Program, Laura has recorded over 1200 books.  Laura has directed both here at WSG and elsewhere since 2012.

E. M. Lewis is an award-winning playwright, musical theater writer, teacher, and opera librettist. Her work has been produced around the world, and published by Samuel French.

Lewis received the Steinberg Award for both How the Light Gets In and Song of Extinction and the Primus Prize for Heads from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for outstanding writing of a world premiere play, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a playwriting fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Commission, the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Drama, and an Edgerton Award for Magellanica, produced by Artists Repertory Theater, then released as a five-part audio podcast.

Other plays by Lewis include: Apple Season (NNPN rolling world premiere), Infinite Black Suitcase, The Gun Show (which has had more than fifty productions across the country and went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival), True Story, You Can See All the Stars (a play for college students commissioned by the Kennedy Center), and How the Light Gets In (seen last season at 1st Stage).

In the Deep, a full-length musical Lewis wrote with composer Roscoe McDonald, premieres this fall at Willamette University. Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant, a new opera Lewis wrote with composer Evan Meier, commissioned by American Lyric Theater, premieres this season at Opera Modesto and Portland State University.

Lewis is currently Playwright-in-Residence at Artists Rep through the Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program. She is a proud member of LineStorm Playwrights, Opera America, and the Dramatists Guild, and is represented by Samara Harris at the Michael Moore Agency.  She teaches playwriting at Lesley University. She lives on her family’s farm in Oregon.

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