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MICHELE MAUREEN VERHOOSKY (1953 - ) |
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Nationality: USA Email: Click here to contact Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
Born hearing, Michele has performed with college and community musical theatre groups. She studied children's theatre, speech and oral interpretation at Emerson College in Boston, MA and went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa, Magna cum laude from The University of Connecticut. Michele's progressive hearing loss led to learning sign language and studying playwriting and deaf theatre arts at The National Theatre of the Deaf. She went on to be a two-time winner of The Sam Edwards Deaf Playwrights Contest, sponsored by New York Deaf Theatre. A Laying of Hands was performed on Theatre Row in New York City, earning a rave review from The New York Times. "Her insights into despair, hope, wickedness and rascality are extraordinary, and often brilliantly exploited. . .what is most striking is how natural all this conversation is and how much it reveals about imagination, speech and silence." Her second award-winning play, I See The Moon was showcased by The National Theatre of the Deaf at their 1st International Deaf Playwrights Conference under the direction of Tony-award winner, Phyllis Frelich. A member of The Dramatists Guild, Michele is a published poet, short-story writer, artists, musician, and songwriter. She and her husband traded in their long-time affiliation with the rugged New England coastline to move to the "Prince-of-Tides" low country of the Carolinas. They are the doting grandparents of three beautiful little girls and a Puerto Rican rescue puppy.
Plays by Michele Maureen Verhoosky
Beyond The Blue | ||
| 1st Produced: | Boston Playwrights Theatre | 2002 | ||||
Company: | Underground Railroad Theatre Sixth Annual Women on Top Theatre Festival | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #86381 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Coming-of-age drama with music | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Commissioned for the famed Women on Top Theatre Festival, Beyond The Blue is a story of faith and spiritual strength that explores what happens when we need to let go of what we most cherish and embrace what we most fear-the unknown. Features original songs and lyrics by the playwright. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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I See The Moon | ||
| 1st Produced: | Paul Mellon Art Center | 1995 | ||||
Company: | The National Theatre of the Deaf | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #86379 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | A coming-of-age drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | Nurses, patients, orderlies, infant | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | A story of the healing power of love as a young girl grapples with the fallout of her mother's schizophrenia. Based upon a true story. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Laying of Hands, A | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1995 | |||||
Company: | Onyx Deaf Theatre, NYC | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #85295 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 6 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | chorus | |||||
Notes: | This is a very versatile play production-wise in that many roles can be doubled. This play can be performed either as a deaf performance, a hearing performance, or a signed interpretation performance. There is only one deaf role-that of Sheba. Rita Mae's character as a young girl can be played by either a hearing or hard-of-hearing actress with some signing ability. All music is in the public domain. | |||||
Synopsis: | Set in the segregated rural South during the Depression and focusing on the strong bond forged between Rita Mae and her crippled, deaf aunt, Sheba, A Laying of Hands is a miracle play with a difference. Following an attack on a family member during a lynching, Sheba discovers she has the power to heal. But it takes more than the magic in her hands to cure the pain in her heart. Following a staged reading of this play, Michelle Banks, Onyx Deaf Theatre's producer, exclaimed, "How can you, a white woman, have written such a black play? I saw my mother and my grandmother. You showed me their lives!" Ms. Verhoosky's response? "If you have a hearing loss your eyes are your ears. You are always on the outside looking in. What you see touches your heart. And if you write from the heart, the stories will ring true." A rave review from The New York Times supports her claim. "Ms. Verhoosky's insights into despair, hope, wickedness and rascality are extraordinary, and often brilliantly exploited." Featuring spirituals, gospel, and blues, this play transcends race, class, age, and disability to reveal the humanity linking us all. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Middle of Nowhere, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | American School for the Deaf, West Hartford, CT | 1997 | ||||
Company: | The National Theatre of the Deaf 3rd International Deaf Playwrights Convention | |||||
| 1st Published: | Excerpt in DEAF WORD, New York University Press. On file at the Wallace Library of RIT., 2001 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #86380 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Coming-of-age drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Jessie, a young CODA (hearing child of deaf adults) dreams of life beyond the rural Ohio farm she shares with her deaf Nana and mother, Emily. Jack, a mysterious stranger, shows her that the middle of nowhere she so longs to escape is actually the center of her universe. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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