| PROFILE | PLAYS | LINKS |
Joanna H. Kraus
REMEMBER MY NAME (Samuel French) was produced Off Off Broadway by the Jerusalem Group Theatre and won first prize in the Bonderman/IUPUI National Youth Theatre Playwriting Competition. An excerpt is included in IMAGES FROM THE HOLOCAUST: A Literature Anthology (Scarecrow Press).
"The Shaggy Dog Murder Trial" (Anchorage Press) appears in Scott, Foresman's BEGINNINGS IN LITERATURE: America Reads.
ANGEL IN THE NIGHT (Dramatic Publishing) was commissioned by the Honor of Humanity Project under the direction of National Louis University in affiliation with the Avenue of the Righteous and won the 1996 Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. It's included in the anthology Voices, Plays for Studying the Holocaust (NTC). Translations: Dutch, Flemish.
Other works include MS. COURAGEOUS: Women of Science (Dramatic Publishing), an excerpt
from which is included in READING, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (Scott, Foresman), and SUNDAY GOLD (Dramatic Publishing). The anthology, WOMEN OF COURAGE, edited by Janet E. Rubin, includes
five of her plays (Dramatic Publishing).
Her recent picture book, A NIGHT OF TAMALES AND ROSES (Shenanigan Books), was listed in the Bank Street College of Education's 2008 edition of The Best Children's Books of the Year. A new book, BLUE TOBOGGAN, from the same publisher, is forthcoming.
Recent awards include first Place in the Marilyn Hall Awards for Youtheatre for her play SECRETS from the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild (Dramatic Publishing).
She is Professor Emeritus of Theatre and former Graduate Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Arts for Children program, College at Brockport, State University of New York, has won the Charlotte Chorpenning Cup for playwriting and was a recipient of a Special Achievement Award from the New York State Theatre Education Association. Currently, she's a columnist for The Sunday Times (Contra
Costa Newspapers, Bay Area News Group) and a member of SCBWI, AATE, ASSITEJ, and the Dramatists Guild.
| REMEMBER MY NAME
Middle school and up. Samuel French, Inc. Two acts, area staging, 5m, 5f. A young girl's survival in France during World War II and the courage of the villagers, who protect her at their own peril. Far from everything familiar, Rachel assumes a new identity and grows from a protected child to a determined adolescent who assists the Resistance and must fight for her life. "Characters . . . presented as real human beings in an inhuman situation." --New York Casting Photo Credit: Master's Theatre |
| ANGEL IN THE NIGHT
High school and up. Dramatic Publishing Two acts, area staging, 4m, 5f minimum with doubling. Based on the true story of Marysia Pawlina Szul, a Polish-Catholic teenager who in 1942 hid four Jews in the family barn, caring for them for two years during the Nazi invasion. Although arrested, she never betrayed them, proving that one individual can make a difference. AATE Distinguished Play Award. Photo credit: National Louis University |
| SUNDAY GOLD
5th grade and up. Dramatic Publishing Two acts, area staging, 3-4 m, 3f. In a North Carolina mining town (l840s), twelve-year-old Lizzie yearns for a pair of boots and an education. Her friendship with Annie, a hired-out slave, is rekindled as the two rocker girls work all day sifting out the precious gold particles. Risking her own future, Lizzie tries to help Annie escape and discovers that not all the gold is in the ground. Photo Credit: Raleigh Little Theatre |
| SECRETS
Middle school and up, Dramatic Publishing Nine scenes, area staging, 4f, 1m. Thirteen-year-old Lisa's comfortable life is shattered with a phone call. "I'm your mother," says a voice eerily like her own. The taut drama raises issues of family secrets, adoption, and betrayal. "SECRETS explores Lisa's identity crisis without growing melodramatic or saccharine" (Flint Journal). An expanded British version is forthcoming from HarperCollins Ltd. Photo credit: Flint Youth Theatre |
| MS. COURAGEOUS: Women of Science
5th grade and up. Dramatic Publishing One act, area staging, 3f, 1m minimum with doubling. A play about Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor with a medical degree, and Marie Curie, who discovered the new element, radium. Done in a "living newspaper" style, the swift scenes accent the struggles these two women faced prior to their success and encourages the audience to follow their dreams. Includes Resource Guide. Photo Credit: Meredith College |
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