Playwright Lila Rose joins line-up for bareNaked Reading Series LA

Lila Rose

The short novella How are a Bear and a Bird Alike? was Lila Rose's writing debut. A compelling piece complete with illustrations, it showed great promise. However, it was deeply misunderstood by her first grade class. So, Lila Rose moved on to new modes of storytelling. Nothing quite fit. Poetry was lonely. Acting was fun, but she missed writing. Journalism required a lot of facts and punctuation. Finally, Lila Rose discovered playwriting. Her first play, BUSY SIGNAL was produced at her high school in Mamaroneck, NY. Soon after, Lila Rose left her hometown to attend Brown University. At Brown, she was fortunate to work with mentor playwrights Paula Vogel and Sarah Ruhl. Her thesis play WRITING FELLOWS debuted at the

McCormack Theatre in 2002. Upon graduation, she received the I.J. Kapstein Award for Excellence in Playwriting and was a finalist for The Princess Grace Award.

Lila Rose left Providence to explore the infinite theatre of New York. She moved to Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn where Zofia, her landlady, called her Lily-Anne and periodically tried to marry her off to a nephew in Warsaw. While in New York, Lila Rose wrote, directed, and drank a lot of coffee. She helped found the Temporary Theatre Company and interned at New Dramatists. To earn money and to help keep civil liberties alive, Lila Rose worked at the National Coalition Against Censorship. During this time she co-founded The Ladies of Liberty, a theatrical protest group. The Ladies dressed as suffragettes and performed in New York and Washington D.C. After three years of New York, Lila Rose drove to San Diego to pursue an MFA in Playwriting at UCSD. She was perplexed by the palm trees and glaring lack of seasons. Now she lives in Santa Barbara and commutes to LA. She's starting to come to peace with the palm trees.

Lila Rose's plays have been produced and developed by Second Stage, Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse/UCSD, Chalk Rep, Perishable Theatre, Mixed Blood, The Camden Fringe Festival, New Dramatists, PlayPenn, and The Lark among others. Dramatists Play Service recently published Lila Rose's Off-Broadway debut WILDFLOWER. Lila Rose is developing a new play with the Center Theatre Group Writers' Workshop in Los Angeles ths year. She belongs to the Dramatists Guild of America and The Playwrights Center. She is a proud founding member of The Playwrights Union in Los Angeles.

If you are interested in reading How are a Bear and a Bird Alike?, it is no longer in print.