Inside the Imagination of Playwright and Screenwriter Darrah Cloud

Born in Northern Illinois, award-winning playwright and screenwriter Darrah Cloud debuted her work on the American stage in 1982 with The House Across the Street. The success of her second produced play, The Stick Wife, secured her place among feminist playwrights of note in the United States.

Much of her work for the stage and screen focuses on the social concerns of women’s lives — so we are thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview Darrah for the Truly Amazing Women Radio Show on the Inkandescent Radio Network.

Her early plays of the 1970’s and 1980’s depict women’s struggles to gain autonomy within a culture of socially prescribed and oppressive roles, as well as their efforts to find and employ authentic voices to break the silence of sexual repression.

Later works, in the 1990’s and early twenty-first century (including her adaptation of Willa Cather’s 1913 novel O Pioneers!), depict strong, intelligent, self-emancipated women who defy traditional stereotypes and succeed on their own merits and efforts. Other plays raise awareness about ongoing racial injustice in the United States (The Honor Song for Crazy Horse) and about surviving sexual and other physical abuse (The Sirens).

This decade, the woman with a dual master of fine arts degree in English and theater from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, has created even more works of note, including “Our Suburb,” which debuted at the DCJCC’s TheaterJ in Washington, DC.

In this podcast interview you’ll learn:

• About “Our Suburb,” and why Cloud felt compelled to write it and pay homage to Thornton Wilder’s classic, “Our Town.”

• How Cloud came to connect with director and actress Judith Ivey, a four-time Tony Award-nominee — most recently in 2013 for “The Heiress,” and two-time winner for her performances in Steaming and Hurlyburly.

• What inspired her to write the children’s play, “What’s Buggin’ Greg,” which was the winner of the Macy’s New Play Prize, and was produced by Cincinnati Playhouse in 2012.

• How she came up with the idea for “Makeover!,” a theatrical musical based on the life of Estee Lauder and Mary Kay.

• How she got into the playwrighting business in the first place, and what advice she has for others who want to follow in her footsteps.

And more!

• Download the podcast now!

• And be sure to read more about Cloud in the March 2014 Truly Amazing Women issue of Be Inkandescent magazine.