Leah's Writings

Iowa – The Iowa Theatre Gallery serves many purposes but its most important is to remind students that others who stood where they now stand have gone on to make important contributions in our field. The Gallery also stands as a monument to our department’s long and rich tradition. Leah Ryan is an important part of that tradition.
Leah’s writings, including plays, essays, letters, and other works have found a home at the Iowa Women’s Archive. The Iowa Women’s Archives holds more than 1200 manuscript collections that chronicle the lives and work of Iowa women, their families, and their communities. These personal papers and organizational records date from the nineteenth century to the present. Together with oral histories, they document the activities of Iowa women throughout the state and beyond its borders. The Iowa Women’s Archives is open to the public.
ADAPTATIONS
Antigone-in-Progress
Commission, Epic Theater Center,
Winner of the Smith College Social Justice Award
The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov
Commission, Gorilla Repertory Theater, NYC, 1998
Performed Washington Square Park, NYC, 1998
Reviews/Interviews:
“Chekhov Updated: ‘Got a Problem with That? Anita Gates, The New York Times, 8/28/1998
Hello, Meatman – Loosely adapted from the short story “Murder” by Anton Chekov
Chekhov NOW, The Connelly Theater, NYC, 2000
Mother Courage and her children Bertolt Brecht
Commission, Gorilla Repertory Theater, NYC 1998
The Overcoat
Sutton Amateur Dramatic Club, NYC, 2003
Pigeon, an adaption of Anton Chekhov’s the Seagull
The Seagull, Anton Chekov, 1994
Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA
NYU English and Dramatic Literature Organization, 2002
Vassar College and New York Film and Stage Powerhouse Apprentice Company
Uncle Vanya
New York University English and Dramatic Literature Organization, 2002
Untitled Play based on part of the Cupid and Psyche myth, 1996
AWARDS
Denis Johnson Playwriting Award, first and second prizes, 1993.
Best play or musical written by an undergraduate at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith colleges or the University of Massachusetts.
Outstanding Teaching Award, 1997-1998, University of Iowa Council on Teaching
Jill Commins MacLean Prize, 1993
To a drama major for outstanding dramatic achievements with a comic touch in writing acting or dance.
2013 Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance Armenian Star Award (posthumous)
FICTION
Crystalville, USA, 4-Part Series in the Valley Optimist (Northampton, MA), January – February 1994
Porn, Perkins Press, March 1991
Brendan’s Car, Perkins Press, Late Summer Issue, 1991
Fumes (excerpted from The Other One, a novel in progress)
FILMS
Short Order, feature length
Goucher College, Department of Theater, 2001
Hudson Valley Film Festival, 1999
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES, FICTION AND FEATURES
Punk Planet
Contributing columnist with monthly column, 1995 – 2005, fiction editor
Perkins Press
Founding member of the Collective and regular contributor, 1991- 1995
Articles
“Urban Renewal in Asbury Park: When the Boos romanticized the Jersey Shore for America, did he start a process that pushed out the poor?” Punk Planet January/February 90, 2006, pp. 74-77.
“Equal Opportunity Condoms,” Perkins Press, February 1993
“A Kind of Education,” (under the pseudonym Franny Smith) Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, October 1991
“An Evening of Original One-Acts (As opposed to what? An evening of Two Acts?),” The Proscenium, April 1991
“The Jesus Thing: What’s it About?” The Proscenium, December 1990
Fiction
“Stomach Trouble,” Perkins Press, February 1995
“Birds,” Pioneer Valley Forum, March 1994
“Crystalville, USA,” 4-Part Series in the Valley Optimist (Northampton, MA), January – February 1994
“The Wedding Dress,” Perkins Press, Fall 1994
“Convalescence,” Perkins Press, Summer 1992
“Porn”, Perkins Press, March 1991
“Brendan’s Car,” Perkins Press, Late Summer Issue, 1991
Interviews
Interview with Billy Bragg, Perkins Press, March 1992
“Overcoming the B-Word: A Conversation with Rich Stearns and Judy Hyman of the Horse Flies,” Perkins Press, May 1991
Interview with Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, with Will Georgiades, Perkins Press, March 1991
“Weaving Rituals: An Interview with E.M. Broner,” Valley Women’s Voice, December 1983, p. 6.
Reviews
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, New York Post, September 9, 2007
The Ministry of Special Cases, Nathan Englander, New York Post, May 6, 2007
Michael Tolliver Lives, Amistead Maupin, New York Post, June 17, 2007
The Mistress’s Daughter, by A.M. Homes, New York Post, April 8, 2007
Excerpt from play
Aggravated Bureaucracy Syndrome, Perkins Press, November 1992
ONE WOMAN SHOWS AND PERFORMANCES
Special Price for You, Okay
Performed by Kate Rigg, Brave New World: American Theater Response to 9/11, Town Hall, NYC, September 11, 2002
Reviewed in NY Times.
Birth of a nASIAN, co-written with Kate Rigg
Out North, Anchorage, Alaska, 2006
New World Theater, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2005
Mark Taper Forum Asian American Theater Workshop, NYC, 2004
La Mama etc., NYC, 2003
MACLA (Movimiento de Arts y Culture Latino Americans), San Jose, CA, 2005
Consolidated Works, Seattle
Just Say Blow Me, Commission, co-written with Susan Mele (performer)
Theater Project, Baltimore, 2001
Seattle Fringe Festival, 1998
EXIT Theater, San Francisco, 1998
Trap Door Theater, Chicago, 1999
How to be a Post-Modern Slut
Reviews/Interviews:
New City, Chicago, April 29, 1999
Roxi Starr in 3D, written with Susan Mele
Rose’s Turn, NYC, 2003
PLAYS
Aggravated Bureaucracy Syndrome
Holyoke Community College Drama Club, 1994
Holyoke Community College, 1989
Bleach
Co-produced with the Turnip Theater, NYC, 1999
Lark Theater, New York, No date
University of Iowa Theater, 1997
Reviews/Interviews:
“’Bleach’ Blends Tragedy, Comedy,” by Mose Hayward, Daily Iowan, October 9, 1997
Blackout
Holyoke Community College, 1989
Chopper
Hyde Park Theater, Austin, TX, 2005
Wildflower Productions, NYC
Ensemble Studio Theater, NYC, 2005
Crazy
Powerhouse Theater and Vassar, New York Film and Stage Company
Smith College Theater, 1990
Hallie Flanagan Studio Theater, Smith College, 1992
Proscenium, Hallie Flannagan Studio Theater, Smith College, 1991
Dead Brother Joe
Maipayne Productions at Urbus Orbis, Chicago, 1992
Smith College Theater, 1990
Holyoke Community College, 1989
Reviews/Interviews:
Reader: Chicago Free Weekly, Stephanie Shaw
Debt
Producers Club, NYC, 1998
Expanded Arts, NYC, 1998
Mai Payne Productions, San Francisco Fringe Festival, 1997
Yale Cabaret, NYC, 1996
21st Century Playwrights Festival, Springfest ’96, National Arts Club, NYC
The Red Room, NYC
Fixed
The Echo Theater Company, LA, 2004
Prospect Theater Company, NYC, 2008
Grade Eight from Outer Space
Playwrights Week, Lark Theater, NYC, 1999
NADA, NYC, 1997
Iowa Writers Workshop (workshop), 1996
Maipayne Productions at Urbus Orbis, Chicago, 1992
Review/Interviews:
“Leah Ryan’s Full Circle Leads her Back to HCC,” HC Connection, March 2001, p. 1.
I’ll Be There
Turnip Theater, NYC, 1997
Riverside Theater, Iowa City, 1996
New Century Theater, Northampton, MA, 1994
Holyoke Community College Drama Club, 1994
The Jesus Thing
Printers Devil Play Bonanza, (workshop), Seattle, 1996
Offstage Theater, London, 1993
Urbis Orbis Theater, Chicago, 1992
Powerhouse Theater/New York Stage and Film at Vassar College
Smith College Theater, Hallie Flannigan Theater, Smith College, 1990
Gypsy Road Company, NYC
Maipayne Productions at Urbus Orbis, Chicago, 1992
Reviews/Interviews:
Puff! December 1966, pp. 11-12
New City: The Chicago Weekly, “Dead Brother Joe & The Jesus Thing,” July 16, 1992
“’The Jesus Thing’ What’s it About?” The Proscenium, December 1990, p. 2.
Miss Information
Skidmore College, 1994
A Party of Four
New Century Theater, Northampton, MA, 1994
Radio Radio
Holyoke Community College Players, 1994
Dixon Place, NYC, 1996
Raised by Lesbians
NY Fringe Festival, 2008
Green Highway Theater, Chicago, 2000-2001
Subterranean Theater Company, Austin, 2001
Hangar Theater, Ithaca, NY, 2000
New Century Theater, Northampton, MA, 2000
Famous Door Theater, Chicago, 1999
Cornelia Street Café, NYC, 1998
Production Workshop, Iowa Playwrights Festival, 1998
Freaks Local, NYC
Interviews/Reviews:
“A Writer’s Homecoming,” Daily Hampshire Gazette, July 6, 2000, pp. 1, 11
Worcester Phoenix, July 2000
“’Raised by Lesbians’ Explores Teen-age Male Psyche.” Daily Hampshire Gazette, July 12, 2000, p. C2
Truck
Iowa Playwrights Festival, 1997
The Wedding Dress
Expanded Arts, NYC, 1998
Turnip Theater, 1995
New Century Theater, Northampton, MA 1994
Holyoke Community College Drama Club, 1994
Where I’m Headed
20th Century Playwrights Festival, Theater Row Theater, NYC, 1996, Reviewed in The New York Times, 1/31, 1996
21st Century Playwrights in Repertory, Theater Row Theater, NYC, 1995
New Century Theater, Northampton, MA 1995
Wordbridge Playwrights Laboratory, Eckerd College, 1994
Mai Payne Productions, Northampton, MA, 1994
Bailiwick Repertory, Director’s Festival, Chicago, 1993
The Wire
Linda Gross Theater at the Atlantic Theater, NYC, 2009
Smith College, Northampton, MA, 2008
Calling Luis (A short play)
UNPRODUCED PLAYS
Life is Like a Box of Death
Human Tiger: A Story of Geronimo
Can I Run, 1995
Untitled play based on part of Cupid and Psyche myth, 1996
PUBLISHED WORK
Book
For Here or to Go: Life in the Service Industry. Garrett Country Press, 2005, 195 pp.
Autobiographical Writing
400 Words: Autobiographies, Katherine Sharp, ed., 2005, pp. 80-81.
_________: Compulsions, Katherine Sharp, ed., 2006, pp. 54-5.
“Temp Time Frame,” The Best of Temp Slave, Jeff Kelly, ed., pp. 129-132.
Monologues
“Cigarette” (from Bleach), Even More Monologues from Women by Women, Tori Haring-Smith, ed., 2001, pp. 123-4.
Plays
Pigeon, Playscripts, Inc. 2002
Poems
“Grandpa’s Rugs,” Ararat: A Quarterly. Autumn 1995, p. 54.
“Things That Stay,” Affilia Journal of Women and Social Work, Fall 1995, pp. 353-4.
Short Stories
“The Only One,” The Touch: What you Don’t Know Can Kill You . . ., Patrick Merla, ed., 2000, pp. 195-212.
“Office,” [SIC], 1995, pp. 21-22.
“Birds,” Pioneer Valley Forum, March 1994, p. 27.
“Brendan’s Car,” Perkins Press, Late Summer Issue, 1991
“Porn,” The Siren, Spring 1992, pp. 9-16.
“Vermin,” The Amherst Review. 1990, p. 56-7.
“Why Don’t You Go,” Tarah, Spring 1989, pp. 18-20.
“Other People Live Here,” The Green Age Literary Review, 1988, pp. 40-7.
Essays
“Temp Time Frame: Observations on the Biz World by a Temp Receptionist,” Temp Slave, Issue 10, p. 24.
TELEVISION
The Cherry Tree, Arthur Episode, 2007
The Great MacGrady, Arthur Episode, 2008, with Peter Hirsch
ZINE
Violation Fez, 7 issues, 1995