Lang Visiting Artist Liz Swados Leads Workshops
Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts has announced award-winning composer and theater director Elizabeth Swados as the fall 2010 Visiting Artist. As part of her tenure, Swados will lead creative workshops for students every other Friday throughout the fall semester. In these sessions, students are exposed to her creative methods and workshop sections of Triange: From the Fire, a new piece she is composing about the historic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Written and directed by Lang faculty member Cecilia Rubino, Triangle will be performed at the historic Judson Church in March 2011 on the centennial anniversary of the fire. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was one of the city’s largest industrial disasters, which killed 146 garment workers and led to legislation that revolutionized workplace safety standards.
Best known for her Broadway hit Runaways, Swados has composed, written, and directed for more than 30 years. Her works, which have been performed on- and off-Broadway, at BAM, at Carnegie Hall, and at important cultural sites around the world, include the Obie Award-winning Trilogy and Alice at the Palace. In addition, she has scored films and published fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books. Swados has received five Tony nominations, three Obie Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Ford Grant, a Helen Hayes Award, a Lila Acheson Wallace award, and a PEN Citation.
New School students are welcome to attend individual workshops, which began on October 8, every other Friday from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. For more information, please email langarts@newschool.edu.