Biography of China Clark

aka China Clark Pendarvis. China Clark (Debra): Playwright, Director, Filmmaker, Installation Artist, Philosophy Professor, and Screenwriter, began her career as a television staff writer for The Bill Cosby Show, ÒCos.Ó Recognized as being one of the leading black authors in theatre today, China Clark has written over 30 plays, many produced in New York, San Francisco, Germany, and England: including Sugar Brown-Divine and May, which was produced at the Friends of Italian Opera Theater in Berlin, Germany, Bessie Smith Speaks, produced by Woody King Jr. and the New Federal Theater in New York, and The Hearts and Souls Bar, produced at Theater Zum Westlichen Stadthirschen in Berlin, Germany. A collection of her work is published as A Black Woman in Contemporary Drama, and she is featured in Black Voices, Edited by Woody King Jr., and published by Applause Drama Books of New York. Essence Magazine and other publications have published her poetry. A poetry album of her work is produced by Folkways Records. China is a former professor of screenwriting at City University, Parson's The New School of Social Research, and she was a guest lecturer on film at Potsdam University in Berlin, Germany. Ms. Clark has instructed at her own school for screenwriters, Home, where she has taught script writing to Oscar-winners Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, Geena Davis, Charlie Kaufman, Ben Stiller, a Roberto Benigni, and thousands of Hollywood's finest writers. China has won many, many, critical accolades and awards as both a writer and a director: Hannah B. Del Vecchio Award (Scriptwriting), Creative Artist Award from New York Arts Council (Playwriting, In Sorrow's Room), The Goldberg Award (Life's Work), The Martin Award, (installation art), and The Puffin Award, Playwriting. China holds two Master's degrees, one in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Philosophy, and one in English Literature with a concentration in the Teaching of Writing. She is currently a PhD candidate, teaches philosophy at the College of New Rochelle in New York, and is the dramaturgy at Woody King's New Federal Theater in New York.