GREENE, Alexis 1946-

PERSONAL:

Born November 15, 1946, in New York, NY; daughter of Wilfred (a textile economist) and Janet (a psychologist) Greene; married Gordon R. Hough, December 22, 1986. Education: Vassar College, B.A., 1969; City College of the City University of New York, M.A.; Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Ph.D., 1987. Politics: Liberal. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, cooking.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—New York, NY. E-mail—xalexisg@aol.com.

CAREER:

Consortium of Queens Art Services Organizations, Jamaica, NY, administrator, 1981-82; George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, NJ, literary manager, 1984-87; American Theatre, New York, NY, affiliated writer and critic, 1991-92; TheaterWeek, New York, NY, chief theater critic, 1993-96; Star-Ledger of New Jersey, Newark, feature writer and theater critic, 1996—. In Theater, chief drama critic, 1998-2000; Hollywood Reporter, off-Broadway theater critic, 2004—. Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Center, critic mentor for National Critics Institute, 1994-2000; Barrington Stage Company, literary manager, 2003-04. Vassar College, adjunct assistant professor, 1986-88; New York University, adjunct associate professor, 1990-2000; conference organizer and participant; consultant to National Endowment for the Arts, New Dramatists, and New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

MEMBER:

Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (cofounder; president, 1986-87, 1988-89), Authors Guild, Authors League of America, League of Professional Theater Women, Outer Critics Circle, Planned Parenthood of New York City.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Speak with Distinction, Applause (New York, NY), 1990.

(With Julie Taymor) The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1998.

(Editor and interviewer) Women Who Write Plays: Interviews with American Dramatists, Smith & Kraus (Lyme, NH), 2001.

A Theater for Women's Voices: Plays and History from the Women's Project at 25, Heinemann (Portsmouth, NH), 2003.

Lucille Lortel: The Queen of Off Broadway, Limelight Editions (New York, NY), 2004.

(Line editor) Chuck Jones, Make Your Voice Heard, Watson-Guptill (New York, NY), 2005.

(Editor) Women Writing Plays: Three Decades of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 2006.

Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including American Film, New York Times, Village Voice, American Theatre, Variety, and Biography.

SIDELIGHTS:

Alexis Greene told CA: "When I sit down to write, I feel contented—also scared. The fear is usually a good sign, because it means that I am exploring beneath the surface, a place where it is uncomfortable to search. Because writing can be uncomfortable, I often put off starting a project for several days, until the unease of not writing becomes so intense that I finally get to it.

"I write about theater and the arts because theater is my first love—another world that I can enter. I also like very much to write about people: their stories and how their stories interweave with what is going on around them historically. I enjoy writing biography or simply the biographical profiles so often favored by magazines these days. In particular I like to write about women, because so many women's lives need to be explored and brought to light, and doing that is exceptionally rewarding."