Faye Sholiton
Playwright
2401 Allen Blvd.
Beachwood, OH 44122
Phone: (216) 292-6211
Email: fsholiton@ix.netcom.com
Faye Sholiton is a member of the Playwrights’ Unit at the Cleveland Play House, where she has developed her work since 1996. Her full-length works have been read or produced in more than three dozen venues worldwide and have won more than 20 national honors. She is a three-time winner of Individual Artist Grants from the Ohio Arts Council. Prior to writing plays, she was an award-winning journalist for local, regional, and national publications. Theatre writer for Northern Ohio Live magazine since 2001, she also conducts playwriting workshops. Her professional affiliations include the Dramatists Guild and International Centre for Women Playwrights.
Play Roster
THE INTERVIEW(drama), set in the home of a Holocaust survivor, explores the impact of silence in families. The play takes place on the day the survivor meets her interviewer, the child of other survivors, to record eyewitness testimony for posterity. “What begins as a simple history project,” says Chester Theatre Company, “blossoms into a story of mothers and daughters forgiving and being forgiven.” National honors: Winner, Dayton FutureFest; Midwest Theatre Network (MN); and Charlotte New Play Festival. Finalist in several other competitions; and winner of a $5,000 Ohio Arts Council (OAC) Individual Artists Grant. Scenes published in two Smith & Kraus anthologies (1998). The play has had seven full productions and 14 staged readings, from New York to L.A.; and it has been the centerpiece for Yom Hashoah commemorations in three cities. An 8th production is slated for The Women’s Theatre Project, Ft. Lauderdale, in 2009. (3 mature women; one young man; unit set – perfect for a theater rich in mature female talent).
THE GOODTIMES
(newsroom comedy) is set in the fictional Good, Ohio, where bad things happen to Good people. A sleepy newsroom run by four women comes alive with the arrival of a newly minted journalism school graduate. Before long, they are at odds with the First Amendment, a special prosecutor, and each other. Finalist in three national contests, it was done in staged reading at Cleveland’s Dobama Theatre. (5 F; 2M, and a flexible set that suggests multiple locales. Particularly timely, as journalists are routinely being asked to share their sources and notes with government investigators).
A FORM OF HOPE
(a memory play), written to honor David Mark Berger, the Cleveland-born athlete slain along with 10 other members of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team. Commissioned by the Cleveland JCC, it is a gathering of family and friends who come together to remember David. In articulating their memories, they discover how little they knew him. But they also appreciate how his loss still stings, more than 30 years after his death. (8M; 4F, and a flexible set with special lights and video projections. It’s a lyrical piece done in presentational style).
TELLING LIVES
(drama, with comedy) is the story of a 54-year-old copy editor whose mother arrives one night with her life in a 237-page manuscript ready for editing. As the daughter attempts to edit her mother’s life, she discovers some startling truths about her own telling life. When she discovers what prompted the memoir, she understands her mother’s urgency to be sure nothing is left unsaid. (3F, two contrasting living room sets).
V-E DAY
(a light drama/memory play) inspired by a box of actual wartime newsletters. On May 8, 2003, an elderly widow’s normal routine of barking at her daughter and patronizing the Home Shopping Network is interrupted with the arrival of a visitor from her past. He brings a box of newsletters that she had once edited for Jewish Clevelanders in the service. The visit stirs a pot of old memories, including the one love of her life that she let slip away. As the woman and her visitor revisit the heady days of World War II, the daughter is able to see her mother young again, for one day. Honored in four national contests and by a second Ohio Arts Council Grant, V-E day premiered at Dobama Theatre and has had multiple staged readings, including the Cleveland Play House, Cleveland’s JCC, and L.A.’s Blank Theatre. Portions appear in Scenes and Monologs from Best Plays II (Meriwether, 2007). Scenes will be published in Duos! Best Scenes for the 21st Century (Applause, 2009). (4F; 2M, and one little girl. Unit set. The next big anniversary of V-E Day is May 2010. Norman Corwin, the poet laureate of the Greatest Generation, has given the script his seal of approval).
ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL
(a drama) is a work of fiction inspired by a lawsuit that went to the U.S. Supreme Court. It explores the impact of a lawsuit involving two teachers (one black, the other a liberal Jew). Their school board, when deciding which woman should be laid off, made its decision on skin color. The play focuses on the journey of the Jewish teacher, who makes some unpleasant discoveries about the racial divide in contemporary America, and in her own heart. A finalist in three national contests, including the Dorothy Silver and Reva Shiner contests, it won a third Ohio Arts Council grant. The script has been read from London to L.A., with stops at Karamu (America’s oldest African-American cultural organization) and Notre Dame College, in celebration of its Tolerance Resource Center. One scene will appear in Duos! Best Scenes for the 21st Century. (2F; 5M. Flexible set suggested by movable pieces and lights; some video recommended).
U.S. v. HOWARD MECHANIC
(a dramatic adaptation of Howard’s autobiography, in draft – Fugitive Candidate). The life of a Shaker Heights High School classmate took a significant detour on the evening of May 4th-5th, 1970. Washington University senior Howard Mechanic was arrested at an antiwar rally, found guilty on the false charge of interfering with police, and sentenced to five years in federal prison. Instead of serving time, he went underground, to emerge as Scottsdale entrepreneur Gary Tredway. There he might have lived out his life had he not chosen to become a civic leader and run for public office. The play is about a fellow who keeps trying to repair the world, even after the world has demonstrated it has no use for his services. (2F; 6M, a flexible set suggesting multiple locales in and out of prison. A look at what can happen to an ordinary citizen in extraordinary times).
All of the above scripts are available immediately for staged reading or production.