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Dorothy's Dictionary
The following description was submitted by the event organizer.
Zan is a misunderstood, reactionary high school student, forced to work off his community service assignment helping Dorothy, a pragmatic yet idealistic librarian going through a lengthy hospitalization far away from the books she loves. Over time, they begin to form a strange, sweet bond. But will it be enough to combat life's obstacles thrown at them?
Written by local playwright E.M. Lewis, Dorothy’s Dictionary is a heartfelt ode to connection across divides, the search for hope in dire circumstances, and finding the beauty in what’s right in front of you. This heartfelt story features Kerie Darner and AC Campbell.
Dorothy’s Dictionary won the 2022 Portland Civic Theater Guild New Play Award, written by E.M. Lewis and directed by Ted Rooney. It is the second production in 21ten’s third season, following Stupid Fucking Bird this past August.
E. M. (Ellen Margaret) Lewis is an award-winning playwright, teacher, and opera librettist. Her work has been produced worldwide and published by Samuel French. She received the Steinberg Award for How the Light Gets In and Song of Extinction and the Primus Prize for Heads from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a playwriting fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Commission, the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Drama, and an Edgerton Award for Magellanica. She is enjoying a six-year National Playwright Residency at Artists Repertory Theater, provided by the Mellon Foundation. Her opera Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant, written with composer Evan Meier, premiered at Opera Modesto in January 2024. Lewis teaches in Lesley University’s low-residency MFA Program. She lives on her family’s farm in Oregon. emlewisplaywright.com.