April 2008

For London playwright Samantha Ellis, one of the primary joys of working in the theatre is the sense of connectedness and purpose that comes from bringing a group of creative people together to work intensely on a project. “To me, theatre is the most collaborative form of art,” says Ellis, the author of eight full-length plays and numerous short plays who is currently in the midst of an eight-week residency at MacDowell. “What I like about [theatre] is the liveliness of it. … You write a play, and then bring in a team of actors and others who make it come to life. Then you put it in front of an audience that reacts to it. It’s a process that is never quite finished.”

While a penchant for the abstract ideals of teamwork has undoubtedly guided Ellis in her creative endeavors, the act of collaboration has also played a role in her career choice in a very concrete way. During Ellis’s first weeks of college at London’s Cambridge University, a fellow student approached her and asked if she would be interested in working together to write a 15-minute play. Though she had never written a play before, she agreed. The play went on to win a prize at a small playwriting competition. Though originally intending to study poetry, she was enthralled by the experience. “I got excited,” she says, “and decided to focus on writing plays.”

Since graduating from Cambridge with a B.A. in English literature, Ellis has showcased and work shopped her plays at numerous organizations in England, including Theatre 503, the Hampstead Theatre, the Young Vic Theatre, and the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Most recently, in conjunction with The Miniaturists — a London theatre group to which she belongs —her short play Unfinished was performed at, and co-commissioned by, the Liverpool Everyman Theatre in June of 2007. Ellis works frequently with The Miniaturists on short plays that are often staged and pulled together at the last minute — an arrangement that speaks to Ellis’s sensibilities. “I often do a lot of production work, and I love that,” she says. “It makes me feel alive.”

In terms of content, Ellis’s plays tend to examine the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of her characters, and the implications that personal belief systems have on the formation of interpersonal relationships. “My work is usually focused on a voyage of discovery and friendship,” she elaborates. Ellis is currently working on two such projects at MacDowell. The first, Cling to Me Like Ivy, is about a friendship that forms between an Orthodox-Jewish girl and a Hindu girl in London. The second, the epic Eating My Heart Out for Iraq, is driven by a more personal, familial connection. Based on stories told to Ellis by her mother, whose Iraqi-Jewish family was one of thousands that populated the country for 2,000 years, the play recounts the story of Gertrude Bell, the British archaeologist, traveler, writer, and spy who was responsible for creating Iraq and who, quite literally, drew its borders. Writing the story alongside the historical record, Ellis says the play will be about “a woman who fell in love with the idea of Iraq and made it reality, and about whether she was right to think Iraq could be a viable country.”

At April’s MacDowell Downtown presentation, Ellis will do what she does best: She will bring her stories and her love for collaboration to life. She and a handful of other artists currently in residence at MacDowell will come together to present a reading from her current works-in-progress, including Eating My Heart Out for Iraq.