Ellen McLaughlin (born November 9, 1957) is an American playwright and actress.
Early life
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on November 9, 1957, McLaughlin is the daughter of history professor Charles Capan McLaughlin and English professor and novelist Ann Landis. She received her BA from
Yale University in 1980.
[Kumar, Lisa (2004). Contemporary Authors. Vol. 220 . Farmington Hills : Cengage Gale. p. 246. .]
Writing
In 1992, McLaughlin began adapting Greek plays, beginning with
Electra, by Sophocles. For each adaptation, she reads as many English translations as possible, then begins to write her version. Each of her adaptations takes some liberties but retains the original play's basic structure.
Her plays include Septimus and Clarissa, Ajax in Iraq, Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity's House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians, Oedipus, and The Oresteia. Producers include: Actors' Theater of Louisville, The Actors’ Gang L.A., Classic Stage Co., N.Y., The Intiman Theater, Seattle, Almeida Theater, London, The Mark Taper Forum, L.A., the Public Theater in NYC, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The National Actors’ Theater, N.Y., The Guthrie Theater in Minnesota, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., among many other venues.
Acting
McLaughlin is also an actress, having worked on and Off Broadway as well as extensively in regional theater. She originated the part of the Angel in
Tony Kushner's
Angels in America, appearing in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its Broadway run. Other favorite roles include The Homebody in
Homebody/Kabul (Intiman Theater, Seattle), Pirate Jenny in
Threepenny Opera (Trinity Rep. Elliot Norton Award), Mrs. Alving in
Ghosts (Berkeley Rep.) Titania in
A Midsummer Night's Dream at McCarter Theatre and the Paper Mill Playhouse,
A Delicate Balance, (Arena Stage, Yale Rep.)
Good People (George St. Playhouse, Seattle Rep.),
Dear Elizabeth (People's Light and Theater) and
Outside Mullingar (George St. Playhouse.) On Broadway, she acted in
Angels in America: Perestroika (1993) and
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (1993).
In 2023, McLaughlin appeared in the role of King Lear at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder, CO (reference: https://cupresents.org/performance/2754/shakespeare/king-lear/).
McLaughlin's on-screen credits include Everything Relative, The Bed You Sleep In by Jon Jost, with guest appearances on Law & Order.
Other professional activities
McLaughlin has taught playwriting in numerous venues, from Yale School of Drama to Princeton University. She has been teaching at
Barnard College since 1995.
She is a member of New Dramatists and has served on the board of T.C.G.
Her most recent publication, by T.C.G., is The Greek Plays.
Awards and honors
-
Great American Play Contest
-
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
-
The NEA
-
The Writer's Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
-
The Berilla Kerr Award for Playwrighting
-
NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Grant.
External links
