STEVEN DIETZ
Still Life with Iris
Seattle Children's Theatre, WA

Still Life with Iris is a magical adventure about a little girl's search for the simplest of things—home. Captured by Miss Overlook and Mr. Matternot, Iris is taken to the land of Nocturn, where only one of each item in the world has been collected—the best! She herself is the only—and best—little girl. But in return she has lost her memory of her parents and home and retains only a nagging longing for something she once knew. Weaving the ageless enchantment of magic into the fabric of a dramatic fantasy, Still Life with Iris taps into the imaginations of young and old, bringing together Steven Dietz's language and story-telling with the magic effects of Steffan Soule and the visual poetry of illustrator Cooper Edens.

Steven Dietz's plays, which include Lonely Planet, God's Country, Handing Down the Names, Trust, Halcyon Days, Ten November, Boomtown, Foolin' Around with Infinity, Painting it Red, and More Fun Than Bowling, have been seen at more than 80 regional theaters across the country, as well as Off-Broadway. Lonely Planet won the 1994 PEN U.S.A. West Award in Drama. Trust was voted one of the 10 Best Plays of 1995 by Backstage. In addition to more than 100 productions in the United States, including Actor's Theatre of Louisville's prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays, God's Country was also seen in Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa. Dietz's stage adaptation of Shusaku Endo's Silence, which was co-produced by the Institute of Dramatic Arts in Tokyo and the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, received the Yomuiri Shinbum Award as one of the best five plays produced in Japan in 1995. Other stage adaptations by Dietz include Shusaku Endo's Silence, seen last year at the Institute of Dramatic Arts in Tokyo as well as at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater Joyce Simmons Cheeka's The Rememberer, winner of a Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest award and produced by Seattle Children's Theatre; and Bram Stoker's Dracula, originally produced by the Arizona Theatre Company, and which will be seen at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego in 1997. In addition to directing numerous productions of his own work, Dietz has directed more than 20 world premieres of new plays, including John Olive's The Voice of the Prairie, Jon Klein's T Bone N Weasel, Doris Baizley's Tears of Rage, Jim Leonard, Jr.'s Gray's Anatomy, Tom Williams' New Business, Kevin Kling's 21-A, and the American premiere of Eskil Hemberg's opera Saint Erik's Crown. His recent work includes Private Eyes, which premiered at the Arizona Theatre Company in May, and The Nina Variations, which will be produced at Classic Stage Company in New York.

Opening: Fall 1997