The Midwest Dramatists Conference hosts a series of play readings by playwrights from all over the country with feedback from expert adjudicators. This year's adjudicators are actor and playwright Sean Grennan and playwright, dramaturg, educator, and theatre artist Lindsay Adams Kennedy.
Sean Grennan
Sean was an actor for many years, Sean began writing for the theatre as co-librettist for the musical Phantom of the Country Opera, which had its world premiere at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. He went on to debut five shows at the American Heartland Theatre –his comedies Beer for Breakfast and As Long As We Both Shall Live and his musicals (librettist/lyricist) Married Alive!, A Dog’s Life, and Another Night Before Christmas. In addition, Sean has had four world premieres at Peninsula Players Theatre — Making God Laugh, The Tin Woman, Now and Then and A Rock Sails By, which was part of the statewide festival, “World Premiere Wisconsin”. His play LUCK! won an honorable mention from the National Writers Association’s Playwrighting Festival and was produced by the Epic Theatre Company. Combined, his plays and musicals have gone on to hundreds of productions around the world, including China, England, Australia, Germany, Serbia, Russia, and others. Sean has been the Playwright in Residence at Centre Stage’s New Play Festival, the Playwright in Residence at Lamb Arts Regional Theatre and twice served as an adjudicator for the Midwest Dramatists Conference. Longtime Chicago and New York City residents, Sean and his wife Kathy recently moved to Pennsylvania when Kathy completed a 13-year run in Broadway’s Wicked. In PA, they share office space with their excellent dog, Hank. His musical Phantom of the Country Opera has been published by MTI, and his other plays/musicals have been published by Playscripts, Inc. Sean is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, SAG/AFTRA and The Dramatists Guild.
Lindsay Adams Kennedy
Lindsay is a playwright, dramaturg, educator, and theatre artist. She has been honored nationally for her work as a playwright—her plays, River Like Sin and Rattler were semi-finalists for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and her in-development musical Like Cinders (written with Rebecca Nisco) was a semi-finalist with the O’Neill National Music Theater Conference. Her Own Devices received the Judith Barlow Prize and a reading at WP Theatre in NY, followed by a production with KC Public Theatre. Her work has been produced and developed across the US with companies like Theatre Alliance (DC), Actors Theatre of Indiana (IN), Keegan Theatre (DC), and Midwest Dramatists Center (MO). Her work writing theatre for young audiences has also been commissioned by companies like CLIMB Theatre (MN) and Springville Center for the Arts (NY). She has dramaturged and directed for companies like the Unicorn Theatre, Confluence Theatre, and St. Louis Shakespeare in Kansas City, as well as worked independently with a number of playwrights as a new work dramaturg and director. She has been a script reader for theatre companies like Unicorn Theatre and Kitchen Dog Theatre and been a reviewer for the Dramatist Guild Foundation Playwriting Fellowship and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Playwriting Awards. Her creative works have been published in Their Own Devices: A Collection of Kansas City Playwrights (forthcoming), Stage It, Stream It: Plays for Virtual Theatre, Tahoma Literary Review, CutBank Literary Journal, Reunion: The Dallas Review, OxMag, some scripts, and Nexus Journal. She is a proud member of the Dramatists’ Guild and has an MFA in Playwriting from the Catholic University of America. She is currently a PhD Candidate at Saint Louis University and an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Benedictine University.
