My Heart is in the East

The H.E.A.T. Collective uses healing, education, activism and theatre for personal and social change. www.heatcollective.org

Jessica Litwak is a playwright, educator, actor, and activist. She is a Registered Drama Therapist, a trained practitioner of Playback, Psychodrama, and Theatre of the Oppressed. She is the Artistic Director of The H.E.A.T. Collective and The New Generation Theatre Ensemble (www.ngte.org). Her collection of plays, Wider Than the Sky and Other Plays was published by No Passport Press. Other work has been published by Applause Books, Smith and Krause, and The New York Times. Plays include: The Emma Goldman Trilogy: Love Anarchy and Other Affairs, The Snake and The Falcon, and Nobody Is Sleeping, A Pirate’s Lullaby, (Rattlestick Theater and at The Goodman Theatre). The Promised Land, commissioned by The National Federation of Jewish Culture. Secret Agents and Victory Dance (The Renberg Theatre, and DR2 ). Terrible Virtue, (The Lark and The Culture Project), Wider Than The Sky (The Lark, UCONN, Boston Museum of Science, Epic Theatre). Her plays for youth: GRIM, Postcards from Canterbury, The Great Journey Home, Verona High, and War: An American Dream, written and directed by Litwak, have been produced in New York and Massachusetts. Her play The Moons Of Jupiter was produced in Massachusetts and Colorado. Her new play My Heart is in the East will be performed at La Mama in New York this spring. Litwak has performed on stages across the U.S., and in Europe. She received her BFA in acting from ETW at NYU and her MFA in playwriting from Columbia, and she is currently completing her PhD in Theatre for Social Change. Litwak has taught theatre at San Francisco State University, the Theatre Academy at Los Angeles City College, Stella Adler Academy, Marymount Manhattan College, Columbia, NYU, Lesley University, Whitman College, and Naropa University. She conducts workshops around the world in Peacebuilding and Performance. She has taught in Iraq, Lebanon, India, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, and at La Mama Umbria. She has lead seminars in Socially Engaged Theatre for the Global Mobility Symposium, The World Economic Forum, Performing The World, and the International Peace and Reach Association. Litwak is a core member of Theatre Without Borders, and is a co-founder of Artist Safety Net. She is a Fulbright Specialist Scholar.

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