Stephanie LissPlaywrightladywritr@sbcglobal.net Home phone - 818 995-6628 Stephanie was born and raised in NY, NY. Her family moved to Los Angeles while she was in high school, but she wanted to go back to NY, so she went back to NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She graduated from the theatre program, and moved back out to L.A., where she began her writing career almost immediately. Although it took almost six years to have a movie for television made, she is proud that the first time she ever saw her name on screen was for ‘Second Serve – the Renee Richards Story.’Following ‘Second Serve,’ came ‘David,’ for which she was nominated for both an Emmy and a Writers Guild Award, ‘Hidden In Silence,’ for which she won the Writers Guild Award and the Berlin Film festival for best television film, and a host of other television movies. She has testified before congress on behalf of issues about which she has written television movies, and researches her work extensively.For her play, ‘Faces of War,’ Stephanie went underground with PLO, Hamas, Al Fatah, and has been back and forth in Gaza and West Bank during the intifada, and spent a great deal of time with Arafat and his commandos in their compound in Tripoli, Lebanon. “Faces of War,” is based on a true story about an Israeli and a Palestinian who were raised together in Israel, as brothers. It has received staged readings at several theatres, including Makor/92 St. Y in N.Y. In fact, the play was received so well, that after the initial readings, they brought it back six months later for additional readings. The play has been requested by several major organizations, including the U.N., as an evening for their delegates, with a talkback afterwards.All of Stephanie’s plays are not only Jewish in orientation and theme, but through her films, there is always the thread of Torah, somewhere. Stephanie moves back and forth between television and theatre, but theatre is her heart, soul, and first love, and bringing Judaism to the stage in her plays, actually makes her heart sing…Play Roster
“DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE” (the story of Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah) –At the moment, this is a one act, one woman ,piece. It has received staged readings at the Lyric Theatre in Los Angeles, Cultural Arts Center in Denver Colorado, the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, and I have ‘given, ‘ it to Hadassah as fundraisers, to help them raise money. Michelle Lee did the very first reading of the play, in Los Angeles, Billie McBride did the Denver readings, and Frances Fisher did the Lyric Theatre and other Los Angeles readings for me. As it is, the play runs about 40 – 45 minutes, depending upon the actress, and requires very little in the way of set, etc. Lights are probably the most important for this piece at the moment. The play is about Henrietta Szold, and her journey as a staunch Zionist, and a woman – a story spanning forty years of her life, not only as a pioneer in the world of Jewish works, as she edited Louis Ginzberg’s seminal , “The Legends of the Jews,” but also as a woman who was profoundly and deeply rejected as a woman, by Ginzberg himself. Much older than he, she developed a deep love for him, and whether it was real on his part, or she created it in her head, he seemed to be drawn to her as well – until he returned to Germany to tend to his dying father, and found himself in a circle with the young woman who was to become his wife. My play deals with Henrietta and her relationship with Ginzberg – her feelings for him, and his rejection of her, and her complete devastation, and how out of that anguish and despair, she made her first trip to what was then Palestine, and had a powerful vision of what it was to be… Through the despair of her broken heart, she helped to create the state. She went into Hitler’s Germany at the request of the Jewish parents of the bund, who begged her to save their children, and out of that trip, Youth Aliyah was born, and she went on to save tens of thousands of lives of Jewish children – the children who built Israel and turned it into what it is, today. This is my story of Henrietta and that journey, from strong to broken, and back to strong again – more powerful than before, and more sure of her own voice. The One Act play has one actress, the elder Henrietta, telling her life. She moves back and forth from elder to younger Henrietta, as the story unfolds. I am in the process of expanding this into a full length play, with two actresses playing Henrietta. – one the ‘older,’ Henrietta, sitting on stage, narrating her life, and the other, the’ younger,’ Henrietta, in her late forties, playing the scenes as they unfold. I’m rewriting to be ready with the full length in time for Hadassah’s centennial, in 2012. I am hoping to have a rolling premiere situation, where theatres get together to create an ‘event,’ with the run. Meanwhile – the one act remains a forshpeis of what is to come…
FACES OF WAR “Faces of War” is a deeply personal story for me. It is based on a true story of an important, well known,member of Mossad, and the Palestinian who was raised with him as his brother. In order to fully research and to better understand, I went underground with the PLO into Lebanon during the war of 1981,and later with Hamas into the West Bank and Gaza during the Intifada and the uprising of the late 1990s and again in the early days of 2000, and 2002. There is nothing in this play in terms of Hamas or PLO, that I did not witness firsthand. If I could not back it up, I did not write it. The story takes place in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and the West Bank. The focus, however, and the backdrop, are always Jerusalem, the core of the Jewish soul and home. It is the story of Benny and David, their wives, Seffa and Mina, respectively, their two young sons, and their lives that are torn apart by the Intifada and the pending attacks on Israel. In the telling of the story, the play focuses not only on the Mossad agent and the Palestinian, but on the uneasy relationship between their wives – the Jewish woman, and the Muslim woman, as well as on the relationship between their father and his two sons. And so my prayer is that this play will be for good… Production History is as follows – Staged readings at 92 St Y/Makor, in NY. The “Y,’ brought it back because the demand was so great – including a request by the U.N. for a reading for some of their delegates, including their CHILDRENS’ GENERAL ASSEMBLY. Staged reading at the Lyric Theatre in Los Angeles, at a weekend festival of plays Staged reading at the San Diego Rep Theatre, at a weekend festival of Jewish work/plays Staged reading at the West Valley JCC – as a fundraiser for the Federation, in Los Angeles. Sets are minimal. There are 8 characters. This play has ‘almost,’ been produced several times, but at the last minute, the productions haven’t happened. I long to have this play produced by a theatre with the vision and fearlessness to do it. We’ve had talkbacks after every performance and they have been amazing – but none as strenuous as the dialogue it engendered by the U.N. delegates.
JOURNEY FROM TEHRAN--THE STORY OF SORAYA NAZARIAN AND HER FAMILY Currently a one act play that runs about 45 minutes. It is the story of Soraya, an Iranian Jew, and an activist within the Jewish community in Los Angeles, and her family, and their escape from Iran after the Shah was ousted, and the Khomeni took over the state. It is the story of her family – parents and siblings – forced to go underground by the storm of hatred and torture. This is the story of how they fled their home, and the chaos and turmoil during those frightening days. This play has had staged readings at the Skirball Cultural Arts Center in Los Angeles, and the Lyric Theatre during a festival of cultural experience , plays.
AND THEREFORE…A few brief words about this play – a work in progress and an extraordinary journey… the story of Jewish World Watch – an organization founded by Rabbi Harold Schulweis and Janice Kamenir Reznick, to help put an end to genocide… This play is a work in progress…. I am in the midst of my research, which will culminate with a trip to the Congo with Jewish World Watch. I am telling the story of their work on the ground in the Congo from the Jewish perspective of Tikkun Olam. This project is a dream come true. Six months ago, I was named their playwright in residence, after my having a vision that I had to tell their story, and the story of Rabbi Harold Schulweis, and how this organization was founded. It has been a profound and powerful journey so far, and the last piece of my research will be my trip. Upon my return, I will start writing the play. This is a play of Jewish and African voices – souls crying out for freedom, for answers, and for dignity. 10,000 CHILDREN Another work in progress… This is the story of Vivian Glyck, the child of survivors, with a need to be of service and to be a healer in the world. In her late forties, Vivian goes to Uganda, and meets Sister Ernestine, a Ugandan nun/nurse, with whom she forges an uneasy relationship. There is no trust from Ernestine for this muzungu (white) woman in Uganda to ‘do good.’ Ernestine has been burned by white do gooders too many times in the past, but Vivian, moved by the thousands of children who are orphaned by AIDS, displaced by war and corrupt government, and the work Sister Ernestine does with them in the far reaches of the country, will not walk away, and so the two women form a bond and a sisterhood that literally creates six hospitals and countless schools and a village just to house the thousands of orphaned children. This is Vivian’s vision – to bring to a home the 10,000 children of Uganda, no matter the cost to her, personally, professionally, financially. She overcomes the strain placed on her marriage, and the sadness of missing milestones in her son’s life – all for this greater cause. Full length to be. The two women so far, the only characters. We’ll see where it takes me…
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