About John Nassivera

John Nassivera first came to Vermont in the late 1960s, working in the professional theatre seasons at the Dorset Playhouse.  He completed college in the 1970's in the U.S., Italy, and Canada, receiving his BA from Boston University and his PhD from McGill University in 1977.  He then received an appointment as a professor at Columbia University and a life-affiliation with Columbia University's Society of Fellows in the Humanities.  Beginning in 1976 he became Producing Director and co-founder of the Dorset Theatre Festival, a position he held until he retired thirty years later in 2006.  During his tenure, he converted DTF from a regular to a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation; the company became an Actors Equity Association theatre; DTF received two Moss Hart Awards for excellence from the New England Theatre Conference; and under John's guidance as Producing Director the  $3 million restoration of the Dorset Playhouse was completed on schedule for the 2001 season.

In the late 1970s, he purchased the house now known as the Dorset Colony for Writers.  It has served as a writers retreat for the last thirty years as well as providing housing for many of the members of the summer season theatre company.   Many award winning authors as well as beginning writers have stayed and worked at the Dorset Colony.

From the 1970s into the 2000s, John worked closely with Broadway producer/director Edgar Lansbury, both in Vermont and in New York City—and John considers this friendship and partnership one of the most important of his life.  Among their projects together were:  Edgar directed John's play All the Queen's Men for its premiere presentation at DTF, as well as its New England tour starring famed actress Elizabeth Ashley.  John and Edgar Lansbury discovered the now famous playwright Douglas Carter Beane and premiered his play Advice from a Caterpillar at DTF, which they later presented in New York where is was nominated for the Best New Play of the Season.  They premiered the play Grace and Glorie at DTF before it went on to Broadway starring Estelle Parsons and was turned into a Hallmark Television movie.   They also premiered the play Without Apologies at DTF prior to its opening in New York starring Carrie Nye.

John was one of the first producers to present the work of playwright John Patrick Shanley, whose play Gorilla premiered with DTF.  Shanley recently won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his play Doubt.  John brought to DTF a series of plays by the South African anti-apartheid author Athol Fugard, and presented the play The Increased Difficulty of Concentration by Vaclav Havel—two of his most prized mementos are thank you notes from Fugard and Havel.

John has authored many plays that have been presented around the U.S. and Canada.  He received a National Endowment for the Arts Playwriting Award and a Vermont Council on the Arts  Playwriting Fellowship Award.  Among his works:   His play The Penultimate Problem of Sherlock Holmes ran in Yew York starring award-winning British actor Keith Baxter. His play Phallacies had a highly successful run in Washington, DC.   His play A Hard Look at Old Times was filmed for Vermont Public Television.  His play with music The Jazz Club ran at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami starring Tony-Award winning actress Adrianne Lenox.   Most recently his play Making a Killing was presented in New York. 

John's current writings for the stage are a new play titled Sherlock Holmes and the People's King, which may be presented soon by Bennington's Oldcastle Theatre; and an adaptation of George Aiken's 1852 dramatization of  Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was the most important American play of the 19th century.  He is also working on two non-fiction books:  one titled Keywords and another titled Becoming Roman Catholic: a secular humanist's story.

For the last ten years John has been a professor at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont.  African American literature has always been one of his strong interests.  In the fall of 2008, as Faculty Advisor for the college's African American Culture Club, he worked with students to have the State of Vermont erect a Historic Marker commemorating the life and writings of 18th century Poultney resident Jeffrey Brace—who had been captured in Africa and enslaved, but who eventually won his freedom fighting in the American Revolution.  The marker's October dedication was attended by over 40 Brace descendants and was written up in  many newspapers across the United States.  John says of that event, “I'll always remember the proud Braces standing before their ancestor's Historic Marker—having been part of that was a highpoint of  my life.”

He lives in Dorset, Vermont, with his wife of twenty years, actress Paula Mann and their two adopted children, Luke and Mia, ages 14 and 17.  He has recently recovered from a second open heart surgery, but is hoping to be around, as he says, “Long enough to tackle a number of writing projects I haven't managed to get to yet. So much to do, so little time.”

About Jane Lendway

I was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1951, the younger daughter of an accountant and a homemaker. My mother was an expert, mostly self-taught milliner and seamstress and throughout her life, mastered just about every craft under the sun. Our parents took my older sister and me to downtown Detroit to enjoy this beautiful city, with the world’s largest department store – J. L. Hudson’s - and its bungalow neighborhoods of German, Irish, and Polish immigrants. Like my own family, all of my friends had grandparents from foreign countries. Mine were from Belgium and Scotland.

When I was 5 an expressway system claimed our home, its fruit trees and giant swing in the elm tree, by eminent domain. I believe that’s when I became an advocate of “smart growth.” A grade-school trip to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village hooked me on historic buildings, truly making history come alive for me. As my family’s new neighborhood development grew and nearby pre-income tax era mansions owned by industrial leaders were demolished, my friends and I daily played among building construction and destruction.

I graduated from Michigan State University with a BFA in Studio Art and a MA in Art History. In 1974, while in graduate school, I piloted the first historic resource survey in Michigan, for the State Historic Preservation Office. In 1975 I completed the historic resource survey of Isle Royale National Park. The 1970s energy crisis sent me looking for work out of state and Vermont’s State Historic Preservation office was looking for an architectural historian. In September, 1975, I began work at the Division for Historic Preservation and worked in just about a every one of its programs until my retirement at the end of 2008. While there were difficult times, as in all jobs, I don’t believe I ever lost my enthusiasm for the good work of historic preservation.

In 1976 the Division for Historic Preservation directed a $1.2 million American Bicentennial grant to make matching grants for restoration of historic buildings in communities throughout the state. I believe the Bicentennial was a turning point for many towns in recognizing the meaning and value of their historic buildings. Bell towers were restored, metal screens obscuring decorative facades were removed from commercial buildings, and forgotten community buildings were brought back to useful life. To this day, the Division for Historic Preservation has had a national reputation for the vision and strength of its rehab programs. It was the first state to have a barn grant program and ranks among the highest producer of buildings rehabilitated using the federal historic preservation tax credit. The Vermont Downtown Program, for which I was co-coordinator for 10 years, is the most comprehensive “Main Street” program in the nation. The Division supported the creation of the “Cultural Facilities” program so that the interior functions of historic buildings could be funded, while its own grant program took care of roofs and foundations, steeples and windows.

The Division also owns and operates many State Historic Sites, including Plymouth Notch Historic District, home of Calvin Coolidge, acknowledged as the best preserved presidential site in the country. Other sites include the architectural wonder of Justin Morrill’s fine property in Strafford, where this man of modest means rose to be one of the most important Senators of the nineteenth century, establishing the land grant college system so all could have a sound education. Two pristine Revolutionary War sites where both daily life and the terrible battles are interpreted reveal Vermont’s powerful role in the “making of nations.”

The work of the Division for Historic Preservation has been critical in supporting strong community life. In 2007 the World Travel and Tourism Council named Vermont’s downtowns 1st runnerup, after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, in an international competition for best destination. The Council cited Vermont’s downtowns as being “real” places, where stewardship is valued by communities and encouraged by the state through its Downtown Program and state policies.

Though I am a Michigander by birth, I am proud to be the spouse of a Vermonter and mother of 2 Vermonters, currently finishing college. I enjoy gardening and am an active member of Master Gardeners. I am a volunteer at the Kellogg-Hubbard library and a reading mentor at Union Elementary School. I serve on the Lake Champlain Quadricentennial Commission, the Cultural Heritage and Recreation Advisory Committee to the Lake Champlain Committee and am a new member of the Board of the Friends of the Vermont State House. My husband and I enjoy traveling and spending time at our cottage on Lake Champlain, where we are active members of the North Hero Historical Society.

Stephen Cramer – recipient of 2008 Creation Grant

Stephen Cramer’s first book of poems, Shiva’s Drum, was selected by Grace Schulman for the National Poetry Series and published in 2004. His second, Tongue & Groove, was published by University of Illinois Press in the fall of 2007. His work has appeared in journals such as American Poetry Review, African American Review, Harvard Review, Atlanta Review, Green Mountains Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review and Southwest Review. Stephen teaches writing and literature at the University of Vermont and lives with his wife, Joanna, in Burlington.

Brian D. Cohen – recipient of 2007 Creation Grant

Brian D. Cohen is a printmaker and founder of Bridge Press, publisher of limited edition artist's books and etchings, in Westminster Station, VT.  He has shown in more than twenty individual exhibitions and has participated in over 150 group shows.  His books and etchings are held by major private and public collections throughout the country, including The New York Public Library, The Library of Congress, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford Universities, and the Philadelphia and Portland Museums of Art, as well as the United States Ambassador's residence in Egypt.  Brian was the first-place winner of major international competitions in San Diego, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.  He has illustrated of two natural science books and is a frequent contributor of artwork to literary reviews and other publications.  A book of his work, Brian D. Cohen: Etchings & Books, was published in 2001.  He has taught at The Putney School since 1985, where he is currently Dean of Faculty.
 

Anais Mitchell – recipient of 2009 Creation Grant

Anais Mitchell is a nationally touring singer-songwriter. A winner of the Kerrville New Folk Award for songwriting, Anais has recently opened shows for such artists as Emmylou Harris, Ani Difranco, Shawn Colvin, and Richard Thompson. Her recorded work includes Hymns for the Exiled (2004) and The Brightness (2007).  She is currently working on plans to stage her original folk-opera, Hadestown, based on the myth of Hades.