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M() Elizabeth (Betty) Osborn, (born in Alabama in 1939; died of pancreatic cancer in Virginia in 1993, age 54), was a playwright, author, theater director, actress, critic, editor, and educator. From the 1980s to early ‘90s, she was a prominent member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA). Her work on behalf of emerging playwrights has been honored since her death by ATCA’s establishment of the ''M. Elizabeth Osborn Award'',〔http://americantheatrecritics.org/osborn-new-play-award/2011/2/24/the-m-elizabeth-osborn-award.html〕 now granted annually to a promising new American dramatist. ==A Dramaturg in Virginia== Osborn received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania. In the 1970s, she was an Assistant Professor of Theatre at St. Mary's College of Maryland. While on leave she was accepted as a student of directing in the Virginia Museum Theater Conservatory. From that base, she helped to pioneer the resident professional theater movement in Richmond, where she served as a “Dramaturg"-- at the time a relatively new position in American regional theatre-- of the Repertory Company of the Virginia Museum Theater (VMT).〔”Theatre Staff” listing, “Festival of Britain: The 1976-1977 Season,” program of the Repertory Company of the Virginia Museum Theatre〕 Osborn not only composed and published program notes for VMT shows〔''cf.'' “Festival of Britain,” ''Hamlet'' issue, 1976.〕 but exercised a strong advisory influence on the selection of the theater’s repertoire. She took the lead in organizing the literary and conservatory operations of the company, including the direction and co-direction of conservatory shows. At the end of the decade she took the post of associate artistic director of the American Revels Company (Revels), also in Richmond. With director Keith Fowler she shared in the administration of Revels and also served as the company’s unofficial dramaturg. Her literary prowess earned her the direction of major productions. She staged Shakespeare’s ''Twelfth Night'' (1978) and, consistent with her career-long encouragement of new plays, she mounted the Revels' premiere of Kevin Heelan's ''Hope I hear it Again'' (1979). In 1979, her own poetic drama of America's wars, ''Ashes of Soldiers'', received its world premiere by Revels, with Osborn co-directing and acting in the ensemble. Colleagues recall that in her directorial work in the Virginia theatres, she was always a generous, stable, and even-handed leader. She is remembered for the supportive artistic and intellectual guidance she offered her actors.〔Fowler, Keith (former artistic director of VMT and Revels), “Betty... was one of the least assuming theater people I know... She was an exceptionally quiet soul on the surface but this masked a taut theatrical imagination. Actors felt her radiance; while she rarely lectured them, she had what I call a staunch presence; her shy smile gave them confidence, and they responded to her few firm words as if she were a coach at half time.” Memorandum of February 23, 2013, https://www.facebook.com/notes/keith-fowler/about-m-elizabeth-osborn/10151734063852839〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「M. Elizabeth Osborn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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