Mary Hall Surface

Background

Mary Hall Surface was born on June 15, 1958, in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States.

Education

In 1980 Mary Hall Surface received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Centre College.

Career

From 1981 to 1987 Mary Hall Surface was an associate director of California Theatre Center. From 1999 to 2006 she worked as a guest director and playwright at George Mason University Center for the Arts and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. From 2006 to 2018 she served as a guest artist and curator at Atlas Performing Arts Center. From 2007 to 2008 Surface served as a guest director and playwright at Round House Theatre in Bethesda.

From 2009 to 2015 she was a founding artistic director of the Intersections Festival at Atlas Performing Arts Center. From 2015 to 2016 Surface was a guest director of Folger Shakespeare Library. From 2016 to 2017 she was a guest director of Adventure Theatre MTC. Currently, she is a guest director, playwright, dramaturg, and teaching artist at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and at the National Gallery of Art.

She has served as an advisor to American Theatre Magazine, on the board of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Youth and as a National Endowment for the Arts on-site evaluator and 2003 theater panelist.

She has written and staged many plays for family audiences. Her most widely produced works include Most Valuable Player, about the life of Jackie Robinson; Prodigy, a story of Mozart’s childhood; A Perfect Balance, a fantasy inspired by the work of artist Alexander Calder; Broken Rainbows, about hate-violence; and an adaptation of The Reluctant Dragon.

Her several books include Short Scenes and Monologues for Middle School Actors (2000), More Short Scenes and Monologues for Middle School Students: Inspired by Literature, Social Studies, and Real Life (2007), Spirit Shall Fly (2007), The Tales of the Custard Dragon (2009), etc.

Achievements

• Mary Hall Surface is one of the most widely-produced playwright/directors specializing in theatre for family audiences in the United States, including twelve productions at the Kennedy Center. She has been nominated for several Helen Hayes Awards, winning the award for outstanding director of a musical for her play Perseus Bayou in 2002. In 2006, she was awarded the Charlotte Chorpenning Prize from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education for her outstanding body of work as a playwright.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Spirit Shall Fly

    (Spirit Shall Fly places a recently-arrested inner-city bo...)

    2007
  • Most Valuable Player and Four Other All-Star Plays for Middle and High School Audiences

    (A collection of plays for young adults addresses Jackie R...)

    1999
  • More Short Scenes and Monologues for Middle School Students: Inspired by Literature, Social Studies, and Real Life

    (National award-winning playwright, director, and teacher,...)

    2007
  • Prodigy: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    (Prodigy opens as six-year-old Wolfgang and his nine-year-...)

    1988
  • The Reluctant Dragon

    (Playscript by Mary Hall Surface, a nationally successful ...)

    1997
  • The Tales of Custard the Dragon

    (Based on The Tale of Custard the Dragon and Custard the D...)

    2009
  • Short Scenes and Monologues for Middle School Actors

    (Eleven- to fourteen-year-olds bring unrivaled energy to t...)

    2000
  • The Sorcerer's Apprentice

    (Playscript. A magical new look at a timeless tale. Origin...)

    1994
  • Dancing Solo 1996
  • Perseus Bayou: The Search for the Cajun Medusa 2002

• music

  • Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales 2000
  • The Odyssey of Telémaca 2004

Membership

Mary Hall Surface is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "Mary Hall Surface is an amazingly imaginative and thoughtful director. She has a keen sense of what it takes to make and lead performances that speak to a wide audience and are enjoyed by many. She collaborates with musicians and theatre artists beautifully." - Janet Alexander Griffin.

Connections

Mary Hall Surface is married to Kevin Reese, an actor, and designer. They have a daughter, Malinda.

Spouse:

Kevin Reese

Daughter:

Malinda Reese

colleague:

David Maddox

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2010
• The Official Website of Mary Hall Surface
• The Page of Mary Hall Surface on Linkedin