ArtTalk – Sit Down with the Jurors from the 4th Annual EPC

Live theater is back! The readings of the winning works from the 4th Annual Emerging Playwright Competition will be held at the Mill on November 20th. During this event you will have an opportunity to meet the playwrights. But what about the people behind the production, specifically the jurors? Join us when Judith Hallberg, Kimberly Kalaja and Wilbert Turner sit down with Laura Womack to have a conversation about writing for theater, playwriting competitions and what they have learned through the years.

Judith Hallberg

Judith Hallberg has enjoyed many roles in a long and varied career. She studied costume design and construction with Kurt Wilhelm at Actors Theatre of Louisville and designed for Stage One and Walden Theatre in Kentucky. She was administrative director for the University of Vermont’s Department of Theatre and the Champlain Shakespeare Festival. She’s written film treatments from novels, edited theatrical scripts and, having moved to film and video production, she served as a judge for the New York Festival of Short Film and Video for six years, viewing over 5,000 Narrative films. Hallberg was a reader for Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2nd Festival of New Plays, a judge for Vermont Repertory Theatre’s New Play Festival, and a judge for Firehouse Center for the Arts New Works Festival in Newburyport, MA.

Kimberly Kalaja, PhD

Kimberly Kalaja is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, author and Fulbright Scholar. Her plays include “Night Moths on the Wing,” “The Shooter,” and “Acts Without Words.” Her nonfiction works include Reading Games—a philosophical consideration of game theory in the production of Art—published by Dickey Archive Press. Dr. Kalaja earned her bachelor’s degree from Scripps College, her master’s degree from The Queen’s University Belfast, and her PhD in Comparative Literature from Princeton University.

Wilbert Turner, PhD

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Turner is an Associate Professor of English at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. In addition to his teaching duties, he is the publication advisor for The Gleaner, the university’s literary journal. His specializations include African American Literature, Adaptation Studies, Film Studies and Narrative Theory. He is also a playwright, whose one-acts have won playwriting competitions. Dr. Turner earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Textual Studies from Syracuse University as well as a doctoral degree in English from University at Albany, SUNY.

‍