The Liquid Plain by Naomi Wallace

The Liquid Plain brings to life a group of people whose stories have been lost in history. Set in 18th-century Providence, Rhode Island, two runaway slaves find love and a near-drowned sailor. As the mysteries of their identities come to light, painful truths about the past and present collide and flow into the next generation. Ms. Wallace’s The Liquid Plain was part of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s  first class of American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle commissions.

Bio:

Naomi Wallace is a playwright from Kentucky. Her plays—which have been produced in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and the Middle East—include In the Heart of America, Slaughter City, One Flea Spare, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Things of Dry Hours, The Fever Chart: Three Vision of the Middle East, And I and Silence, The Hard Weather Boating Party, The Liquid Plain. Her stage adaptation of William Wharton’s novel Birdy was produced on the West End in London. In 2009, One Flea Spare was incorporated in the permanent repertoire of the French National Theater, the Comédie- Francaise. Only three American playwrights have been added to La Comédie’s repertoire in 300 years, one is Tennessee Williams. Films: Lawn Dogs, The War Boys, Flying Blind (co-written with Bruce McLeod). Awards: Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (twice), Joseph Kesselring Prize, Fellowship of Southern Writers Drama Award, Obie Award, and the 2012 Horton Foote Award for most promising new American play. She is also a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts development grant. In 2013, Wallace received the inaugural Windham Campbell prize for drama, and in 2015 an Arts and Letters Award in Literature.

Signature Theater, the Of Broadway company that has historically mounted a season of plays, produced three of Wallace’s plays in 2014-2015, including the world premiere of Night is a Room.

Wallace is presently under commission with the Hampstead Theater of London and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company of Boston. Wallace is writing the book for the John Mellencamp musical, Jack and Diane. www.naomiwallace.com