Using Creativity to Better Understand What it Means to be Human
DRAMATURIGICAL PROJECTS
"Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society.
Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it."
-Augusto Boal
As a dramaturg, it is my job to serve dramatic works in ways that awaken consciousness about art such that
it reveals its relationship to the world around it while remaining steadfastly relevant and accessible to all.
"The position of dramaturg is different at different theatres and on different productions. I'm the sort of director who can do my own research, but I need someone smarter than me to find things that I wouldn't think to find, look at the show from angles that I hadn't thought of yet, challenge my assumptions, and in general be a creative partner. In Angela, I found all of that and more."
-Donya K. Washington,
Producer, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Most Recent New Works Dramaturgy Projects:
The Play Which Raises the Question... by Lauren A. Whitehead (2024)
Recipient of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Crazy with ID by Sharon Mathis (2024)
Greenwood, 1964 by Mohammed Ali Ojarigi (2024)
Daddy's Maybe by Sandra Hodge-Hampton (2023)
"Angela, you truly set the bar for how a supportive, experienced, and knowledgeable dramaturg
shows up to the creative space."
-Malcolm Tariq.
Award winning Poet & Playwright
SALVAGE
Ethel Woolson Lab
Written by Mary Lynn Owen
Dramaturged by Angela Farr Schiller
2023
A year after Father’s death, Mother sends an urgent email to her adult children, summoning them home to collect their things. In a room strewn with the stuff of their lives - forgotten toys, photo albums, clothes, books, and one errant tape recorder - this interracial, intergenerational family of Mother, Sister, Brother, and Grandpa collides with the past and present, faces the truth of one another’s lives, and weighs what to keep, what to throw away, and what to make into something new.
Finalist, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference
2022
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"I hired Angela to dramaturg scripts for WTP members, in addition to a play I am writing myself. She is the most requested dramaturg that WTP employs. Her work has been described as “magical”, “life-changing”, “brilliant” and “incredibly generous.” I couldn’t agree more."
-Amber Bradshaw,
Managing Director, Working Title Playwrights
Working Title Playwrights is the leading producer of new play development in the Southeast
AS YOU LIKE IT
(THE MUSICAL)
Written by William Shakespeare
Adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery
Music and Lyrics by Shaina Taub
Directed by Laura Maire Duncan
Dramaturged by Angela Farr Schiller
October 2022
at the
Boston Conservatory &
Berklee School of Music
Named one of the New York Times's best shows of 2017, this contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like is an immersive dream-like tale of faithful friends, feuding families, and lovers in disguise. Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter, Rosalind, and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars in the musical reimagining of this classic story.
"Your grace, your intelligence, your passion, and your joy are such an inspiration. Thank you for bringing all into the work. Thank you for pushing me. Thank you for all of the times you saw the value in my work, even when I couldn't. This piece would not be where it is today without your loving guidance. And for that I am so incredibly grateful."
-Lee Osorio,
Playwright and Two-Time Reiser Lab Award Winner
SYNCHRONICITY THEATRE:
WOMEN'S WORK PROJECT
Development & New Works Dramaturg
2021-2022
"Women’s Work, will dive into the nuances of women and work from the last 80 years focused on metro-Atlanta. We will interview women pioneers in their field. Women who worked when it was not advised or allowed. Women whose skin color barred them from high-level positions, but they claimed that space anyway. Women who work under the radar, in jobs no one wants or notices. Women who struggle with the stay-at-home vs. work ambition paradox."
CONFEDERATES
Playwright: Dominique Morisseau
Director: Nataki Garrett
Dramaturg: Angela Farr Schiller, PhD
August-October 2022
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
West Coast Premiere
An enslaved woman turned Union spy and a brilliant professor in a modern-day private university are facing similar struggles, though they live over a century apart. This play by MacArthur genius award–winner Dominique Morisseau leaps through time to trace the identities of two brilliant Black women and explores the reins that racial and gender bias still hold on American systems today.
WEB
Working Title Playwrights
Ethel Woolson Lab || New Works Dramaturg
November 2021
Directed by: Rebekah Suellau
Written by: Sharon Mathis
Dramaturg: Angela Farr Schiller
ACTOR'S EXPRESS
PODCAST SERIES:
CROSSROADS
Actor’s Express launched its first-ever podcast series, Crossroads, an “adventure that takes place throughout time and space.” Six Atlanta writers of color are producing seven episodes, dropping Fridays. Crossroads will tell the story of three friends who feel stuck in their lives in a dead-end town. One evening, as they kill time in an abandoned playground, they fantasize about the changes they’d make if given the chance to trade their souls. Their innocent game catapults them into a dangerous adventure that hurtles them through time and space into a strange world that brings them face-to-face with the devil herself.
2021
Ep.3 by:
Quinn Xavier Hernandez
Dramaturg for Ep.3:
Angela Farr Schiller, PhD.
ALLIANCE THEATRE
Providence Canyon
New Works Dramaturg
Alliance Theatre Reiser Lab
Award Winner 2019
Finalist, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference 2021
Written by: Lee Osorio
Directed by: Rachel Parish
Dramaturg: Angela Farr Schiller
2019-2021
How much of an activist are you? After receiving this text message from his immigration attorney brother, a Writer finds himself haunted by a very persistent and troubling ghost. Before long, the Writer finds himself on a journey back to his hometown of Lumpkin, Georgia … now the home of Stewart County Immigration Detention Center. As he talks to those trapped in the prison – both literally and figuratively – the ghost makes a simple but incredibly hard request – see.
*The Reiser Lab is a nationally competitve and panel adjudicated award from the Tony Award winning Alliance Theatre, with a $10,000 prize.
WORKING TITLE PLAYWRIGHTS:
NEW WORKS DRAMATURG
Salvage by Mary Lynn Owens, 2022 + 2023
WEB by Sharon Mathis, 2021
Matter of Faith by Anne Fields, 2021
Faith by Lee Osorio, 2020
Off to See the Fjords by Mary Lynn Owens, 2019-2020
Daddy's Maybe by Sandra Hodge-Hamptons, 2018
Uncivil Warring by Patrick Cuccaro, 2018
Do Ghosts Talk by Fred Kempner, 2018
Jerusalem Redux by Fred Kempner, 2017
Tumpy by Amber Bradshaw, 2017-present
"A new play dramaturg wears many, many hats. But in the new play world, they are your ultimate sounding board, your question asker, sometimes your problem solver, other times the devil’s advocate. The new play dramaturg is there to help guide you to the play you most want to write, and to help you best express and
communicate the story you want to tell."
-Working Title Playwrights
“WTP IS A CORNERSTONE OF ATLANTA’S
NEW WORK THEATRE SCENE.“
– Celise Kalke, Synchronicity Theatre Managing Director and former Director of New Projects, Alliance Theatre
FAITH
Working Title Playwrights
Ethel Wollson Lab
October 2020
Directed by: Ibi Owolabi
Written by: Lee Osorio
Dramaturg: Angela Farr Schiller
Faith:
After the death of her mother, Faith spirals into a pattern of long drives and compulsive eating. Then Theo arrives. The strange and handsome new worker offers her hope that the future holds more than the soul killing monotony of her small town and working in the Ingle’s deli department. But there is something lurking beneath the surface. When a girl goes missing, Faith must decide how much she willing to sacrifice to keep her world intact. Alone in a park in the middle it the night, Faith has a decision to make.
Ethel Woolson Lab:
Each year, three or four plays by WTP affiliate playwrights are competitively selected by an outside panel to be given readings as part of the Ethel Woolson Lab Series. Each play is given a developmental workshop culminating in a rehearsed, staged reading for the public. Each selected playwright is partnered with a support team of artists designed for their needs.
ALLIANCE THEATRE
The Modern Prometheus
New Works Dramaturg
Reiser Lab New Works Award Winner
Written by: Lee Osorio
Directed by: Melissa Foulger
Dramaturg: Angela Farr Schiller
2017-2018
Reg is tired of losing. After years of trying and failing to hold back the tide of corruption, corporatization, and gentrification in her beloved city, she's ready for a win...at any cost. But will the monster that she makes build up Atlanta or burn it to the ground.
The Modern Prometheus explores how we move forward in an age that seems to want to drag us down.
*The Reiser Lab is a nationally competitve and panel adjudicated award from the Tony Award winning Alliance Theatre, with a $10,000 prize.
WORKING TITLE PLAYWRIGHTS:
DRAMATURGY MASTER CLASS
Exploring Structure: How Culture Influences Dramatic Structure
Co-taught with Freddie Ashley,
Artistic Director at Actor's Express & former Literary Manager at the Alliance
2018
This master class explores the ways culture can influence dramatic structure. Examining different plays by authors of various backgrounds and cultural groups, this two day workshop unpacks the shifting expectations of what makes sound dramatic storytelling in a more inclusive world.
Images from:
Working Title Playwrights:
2 Day Dramaturgy Master Class
Exploring Structure: How Culture Influences Dramatic Structure
With Dramaturgs: Angela Farr Schiller, PhD & Freddie Ashley
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ALLIANCE THEATRE &
ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER
Native Guard
Dramaturgical Facilitator
Authored by: Natasha Trethewey,
former U.S. Poet Laureate
Directed by: Susan V. Booth,
Artistic Director for the Tony Award Winning Alliance Theatre
2018
"...challenges the way the broader story of the Civil War has been told and memorialized."
Native Guard juxtaposes the deeply personal experiences of Trethewey, a child of a then-illegal marriage between her African-American mother and Caucasian father living in 1960s Mississippi, with the experience of a soldier in the Native Guard, the first African-American Union troop in the Civil War who was charged with guarding white Confederate captives. Years after her mother’s tragic death, Trethewey reclaims her memory, just as she reclaims the voices of the black soldiers whose service has been all but forgotten.
The second act of each performance was a deep dive dramaturgical discussion about the play.
WORKING TITLE PLAYWRIGHTS:
ETHEL WOOLSON LAB
Yesterday/Today
New Works Dramaturg
Written by: Malcolm Tariq
Directed by: Cynthia Barker
Dramaturg: Angela Farr Schiller
2018
A family of women face ghosts from their matriarchs past.
*The Ethel Woolson Lab is competive new works laboratory where each recipient is given a developmental workshop, culminating in a rehearsed, staged reading for the public. Each selected playwright is partnered with a support team of artists, including a director and dramaturg, designed for the needs of the play. All readings take place in the Alliance Theater.
Images from:
Ethel Woolson Lab/Yesterday: Today
Written by: Malcolm Tariq
Directed by: Cynthia Barker
Dramaturg: Angela Farr Schiller
ALLIANCE THEATRE &
CENTER FOR HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS
Bread
Dramaturgical Facilitator
Written & Directed by:
Golden Globe & Emmy Award Winner
Regina Taylor
*pictured here
2017
Bread is nourishment. Bread is legacy. Bread is life itself. And bread is money. This world premiere by award-winning Dallas-born actress and playwright Regina Taylor weaves a compelling family drama of hopes, fears, thwarted dreams, and dark secrets against a turbulent backdrop of racial tension and social upheaval. It is early 2017; a time of change. James and Ruth are a middle class couple from Oak Cliff, a historic south Dallas neighborhood on the verge of gentrification. They plan a bright future for their teenage son and his soon-to-be-born brother. But when James’ brother Jeb returns home, buried family tensions resurface and the past casts a troubling shadow across an uncertain future. Taylor’s stirring, timely story of identity and family asks: How can we prepare the next generation for what’s to come?
7 STAGES THEATRE:
UNPRODUCIBLE PLAYS
The Art of Gaman
Dramaturgical Facilitator
Written by: Dipika Guha
2017
*Unproducible Plays is an Atlanta theater group started by three women, Pam Joyce, Michelle Pokopac, and Amee Vyas, to examine why scripts are labeled "unproducible" by producing organizations. For the past year, their focus has been on Asian plays and artists.
WORKING TITLE PLAYWRIGHTS:
ETHEL WOOLSON LAB
Mama
New Works Dramaturg
Written by: Quinn Xavier Hernandez
Director: Amber Bradshaw
Dramaturg: Angela Farr Schiller
2019
A mysterious young girl plays in an inflatable pool that bridges the lives of Karen and Evelyn. Karen has wanted to be a mother her entire life, but bearing a child has proved more difficult than she hoped. Parenthood is the furthest thing from Evelyn's mind. When Karen casts a spell to make her dreams come true and Evelyn suddenly comes face to face with an unexpected pregnancy, both must decide if they have what it takes to be called "Momma."
The Ethel Woolson Lab is competive new works laboratory where each recipient is given a developmental workshop, culminating in a rehearsed, staged reading for the public. Each selected playwright is partnered with a support team of artists, including a director and dramaturg, designed for the needs of the play.
ALLIANCE THEATRE
Goodnight, Tyler.
Dramaturgical Facilitator
Written by: B.J. Tindal
Directed by: Kent Gash
2019
Goodnight, Tyler is a contemporary and unexpectedly humorous drama. Depending on who you ask, Tyler Evans was “a beloved best friend, grandson, mentor, and fiancée,” or, “Tyler Evans was a young Black man killed by a police officer.” Desperate to control the contradicting narratives of his untimely passing, Tyler haunts his best friend as his other friends and relatives argue over his legacy, seeking an elusive common ground. An important and timely world premiere, Goodnight, Tyler is the winner of the 2019 Alliance/Kendeda National Playwriting Competition.
ACTOR'S EXPRESS
Father Comes Home From the Wars: Parts 1, 2, & 3
Dramaturgical Guest Facilitator
Written by: Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by: Martin Damien Wilkins
2017
Offered his freedom in exchange for fighting for the Confederacy, a slave named Hero follows his master into the Civil War. His epic journey takes him through the battles of war, and he comes to discover the cost of freedom, the heartbreak of love and the enduring power of home. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ (Topdog/Underdog) acclaimed trilogy is one of the most celebrated American plays of the past decade.
Featured Event:
Pre-Show Discussion with Kennesaw State University Resident Dramaturg Dr. Angela M. Farr Schiller and Father Comes Home cast member Damian Lockhart will discuss the history and story behind this powerful play.
THE CHATTAHOOCHIE REVIEW (TCR)
TCR ANNUAL WRITER'S STUDIO
Facilitator:
Playwriting Workshop
2018
This annual event features a one-day series of workshops geared toward the Perimeter College community and beyond. Attendees explore the writing craft used to create drama, prose, poetry, and mixed media works. Building upon the journal’s 37-year history of nurturing the literary arts within the college and the wider community, The Chattahoochee Review Writers’ Studio aims to inspire creative thinkers.
ACTOR'S EXPRESS
An Octoroon
Production Dramaturg
Written by: Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by: Donya K. Washington
Dramaturg: Angela Farr Schiller
2019
Featured Event:
An Octoroon: Theatre, Race, & Identity with the Director and Dramaturg
The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture & History in collaboration with Actor’s Express hosts director Donya K. Washington, dramaturg Dr. Angela Farr Schiller, and Atlanta Distinguished Professor Emerita of Southern Studies Dr. Theda Perdue in a discussion on the performance of race through the context of history and the Obie Award-winning play An Octoroon by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
WHAT TO EXPECT:
AN OCTOROON
In Conversation with An Octoroon Production Dramaturg Dr. Angela Farr Schiller
"When we coupled Dr. Schiller’s superior work with our public outreach efforts, we turned a potentially controversial play selection into a box office juggernaut that galvanized community conversations throughout Atlanta. Dr. Schiller’s work contributed directly to this production’s success."
-Freddie Ashley,
Artistic Director, Actor's Express, Atlanta, GA
Images from:
An Octoroon: Theatre, Race, & Identity-A Director & Dramaturg Discussion
The Auburn Avenue Research Library in collaboration with Actor’s Express will host director Donya K. Washington, dramaturg Dr. Angela Farr Schiller, and Atlanta Distinguished Professor Emerita of Southern Studies Dr. Theda Perdue in a discussion on the performance of race through the context of history and the Obie Award-winning play An Octoroon by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
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