Award-winning playwright Melinda Lopez discusses her Cuban-American heritage, which she uses as a backdrop for dramas that address timeless and universal questions of humanity.
Ms. Lopez is a playwright and actress. Her *Sonia Flew* won the Elliot Norton Award for Best New Play and the *IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England)* for Best Play and Best Production. It has been produced at the Huntington Theatre, Coconut Grove Playhouse, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, the Summer Playwrights Festival in New York, the Milagro Theatre and the Steppenwolf Theatre. It was also broadcast on NPR's "The Play's The Thing!" Her other award-winning plays include *God Smells Like a Roast Pig* (Women on Top Festival, Elliot Norton Award--Outstanding Solo Performance,) *Midnight Sandwich/Medianoche *(Coconut Grove Playhouse),* The Order of Things *(CentaStage, Kennedy Center Fund for New Plays), and * How Do You Spell Hope?* (Underground Railway Theatre). Lopez was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a promising new voice in American Theatre. Lopez is also an actress who has appeared in regional theatres across the country, and works in film and radio. She has served as a panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts and has enjoyed residencies with Sundance and The New York Theatre Workshop. She teaches theatre and performance at Wellesley College and playwriting at Boston University.