Meryl Friedman currently lives and works in California. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Friedman was a founder and producing director at Lifeline Theatre in Chicago where she worked for 16 years. During her long collaboration with Lifeline she produced over 60 productions, most of them new and premiere works, adapting and/or directing over half of these. She has adapted novels and other fiction by award-winning authors Melissa Fay Greene, Louise Erdrich, Ursula K. Le Guin, Allen Ginsberg, Molly Ivins and Bruce Chatwin, to name a few. She is the recipient of numerous awards for writing and directing; in July of 1999 she received the Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education for her adaptation of Journey of the Sparrows. Her adaptations have been produced across the country; she has worked at Lincoln Center Institute, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Webster Conservatory at St. Louis Rep., The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Chicago Theaters on the Air, National Jewish Theatre, WBEZÕs ÒStories on StageÓ (a program of National Public Radio), Ensemble Studio Theatre—The LA Project and ASK Theater Projects. At the Falcon Theatre in Burbank, California, she directed Zoetrope AllStory: All Live. On Stage; PuddÕnhead Wilson (which was nom_inated for three LA Weekly Theatre Awards, including best production of the year and best adaptation); Figaro…Pigaro, A Barnyard Musical; and Anastasia Krupnik, which was called a Òcause for celebrationÓ by the L.A. Times.
