4090 Amaranta Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 857-0782
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~Playwright, dramaturg, and producer of new dramatic works~
Playwright
Full-length Plays Produced:
Hanging Georgia
script by Sharmon J. Hilfinger, music by Joan McMillen
A play with music about Georgia O’Keeffe’s passionate affair and marriage to the famous photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz.
Pear Avenue Theater, Mountain View, CA
Jake Margolin, Director
May 24 – June 9, 2013
Silicon Valley Small Theatre Award Honoree for Standout New Works
San Jose Mercury News review: “Hanging Georgia a powerful success at the Pear…an exhilarating, inventive and mostly absorbing “biography” of the unique American artist Georgia O’Keeffe.”
Jake Margolin, Director
October 8 – 30, 2011
San Jose Mercury News review: “Hanging Georgia roils and explodes across the stage like a Texas lightning storm."
Tell It Slant
script by Sharmon J. Hilfinger , music by Joan McMillen
A play with music about young Emily Dickinson, rebel and lover caught in an emotionally volatile love triangle involving the poet, her brother Austin, and their intimate friend Susan Gilbert.
Southside Theater, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
BootStrap Foundation Production
Virginia Reed, Director
April 17 – May 16, 2010
Pear Avenue Theater, Mountain View, CA
Co-production by Pear Avenue Theater and BootStrap Foundation
Rachel Anderson, Director
September 11 – 17, 2009
Silicon Valley Small Theatre Award Honoree for Standout New Works
Palo Alto Weekly review: “Tell It Slant brims with emotion but is never sentimental. The wry wit and dark moods of Dickinson herself help steer the show away from those dangerous theatrical waters…this potent combination of poetry,biography and music is a welcome addition to the realm of Dickinson lore and provides an evening of consistently surprising theatrical bliss.”
Deuce
A drama about a revered Women’s Studies professor’s sexual exploitation of his female graduate students and the damaging consequences to his son and one of these women.
Pear Avenue Theatre, Mountain View, CA
Co-production by Pear Avenue Theatre and BootStrap Foundation
Ann Kuchins, Director
June 32 – July 15, 2006
San Mateo County Times review: “This is a marvelous play with well-crafted, interesting characters, an exciting plot and superb dialogue. Hilfinger created real dialogue that fits each character well. Good dialogue is arguably the toughest part of writing a play and Hilfinger is a master at it.”
got water?
script by Sharmon J. Hilfinger, music by Joan McMillen
song lyrics by Hilfinger and McMillen
Created for the SF Fringe format, this short play with music depicts a future where high schoolers must line up to receive drinking water in government-issue bottles. Rebellion breaks out when free (but limited) water is replaced by a costly vending machine.
Actors Theater of San Francisco
BootStrap Foundation Production
Bear Capron, Director
September 6 – 15, 2003
Also performed at Castilleja School, Palo Alto, CA for the public and in two all-school assemblies as the conclusion of a two-year educational outreach program, September, 2003
Imaginal Disks, A Tale of Transformation
script by Sharmon J. Hilfinger, music by Joan McMillen
song lyrics by Hilfinger and McMillen
In this intimate play with music, a girl on the edge of womanhood and her invisible dancing Doppelganger provoke questions about genetics, biotechnology, and manipulations of nature as she struggles against her single father’s wishes for his only child.
Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, Mountain View, CA
BootStrap Foundation Production
Kristin Walter, Director
September 6 - 16, 2001
Also performed at Castilleja School, Palo Alto, CA in an educational
outreach program, April, 2002
San Mateo County Times review: “Imaginal Discs proves that literariness, science
and art may be successfully blended into a moving and accessible theatrical
experience. For those who appreciate felicity of artistic expression, this is a
must-see.”
A History of Things That Never Happened
A comic romance in which misdirected mail leads to a fanciful literary correspondence between two strangers, infused with fantasies of how famous literary characters might have averted their tragedies.
Heartland Theatre Company, Bloomington, Illinois
Mike Dobbins, Director
October 13 – 23, 2006
Magic Theatre, San Francisco, CA
BootStrap Foundation Production
Andrea Gordon, Director
July 14 - August 8, 1999
San Francisco Bay Guardian review: “The play finds delightfully fresh comedy in the largely ignored province of midlife romance. Hilfinger is definitely a talent to watch.”
An Ideal Mother
A play within a play in which actors rehearsing Lady Windemere’s Fan discover parallels with their own lives, emotional needs and personal relationships.
Burgess Theater, Menlo Park, CA
Menlo Player's Guild Production
Dean Burgi, Director
October 2 - 17, 1992
San Mateo County Times review: “An Ideal Mother is a surprisingly pleasing stew…This is a good start for Hilfinger. It’s clear she’s no newcomer to the theater. It will be interesting to see what she cooks up next.”
Short Plays Produced:
Quiet Backstage, Please!
The Pear Avenue Theatre, Mountain View, CA
Troy Johnson, Susannah Greenwood, Directors
Pear Slices April 13 – 29, 2007
Best Laid Plans
The Pear Avenue Theatre, Mountain View, CA
Jane Geesman, Director
Pear Slices, March 25 – April 10, 2005
Graveyard Shift
The Pear Avenue Theatre, Mountain View, CA
Meredith Hagedorn, Director
Pear Slices, March 19 – 28, 2004
Playwriting Grant
The Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word, affiliated with Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon:
2004 and 2008 Grants for a two week collaborative retreat with composer Joan McMillen for development of Tell It Slant
Dramaturg
In 1998 I founded BootStrap Foundation, now incorporated as BootStrap Theater Foundation, with the mission to help artists bootstrap their way to visibility. Our work is to develop and fund new plays. In recent years, we have co-produced new works at The Pear Avenue Theatre. I have worked with the following playwrights as dramaturg on these productions at The Pear Avenue Theatre:
Space Is Blue and Birds Fly In It, Gregory Meyer; Dramaturgical Workshop,
February 2 – 13, 2007; production slated for June, 2007
What the Birds Carry, Elizabeth Gjelten, June, 2005
Veracruz, John F. Levin, September, 2004
A Beautiful Home for the Incurable, Ian Walker, June, 2004
Professional Activities
Executive Director and Producer, BootStrap Theater Foundation, Palo Alto, CA
1998 – present (originally BootStrap Foundation, under CAPA 501c (3) corporate umbrella)
Pear Avenue Theatre, Mountain View, CA, Board Member 2001 – present
Pear Avenue Theatre, Mountain View, CA, Steering Committee 2001 - present
TheatreFirst, Berkeley, CA, Board Member 2012 – present
Eureka Theatre, San Francisco, Board Member, 1999 - 2001
Palo Alto Playwright Forum, Board Member, 1988 – 1989
Playwriting Studies
Eureka Theatre Playwriting Group, San Francisco, 1991 - 1998
Eureka Theatre Playwriting Workshop, San Francisco
Ellen McLaughlin, Spring 1990
Eureka Theatre Playwriting Workshop, San Francisco
Oskar Eustis, Spring 1988; Fall 1988; Spring 1989
Playwriting, San Francisco State University,
Rick Foster 1986 – 1987
Degree
BFA, Illinois Wesleyan University, summa cum laude
References
Ellen McLaughlin, Playwright and Professor, Barnard College,
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Lisa Steindler, Executive Director, Z Space, San Francisco, CA 94103;
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Diane Tasca, Artistic Director, Pear Avenue Theatre, 1220 Pear Avenue, K, Mountain View, CA 94043;
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; 650-327-7071