Author Profile:  Mark Scharf

Mark Scharf’s plays have received readings and productions in London, Beijing, Singapore, New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, VA, Charlottesville, VA, Washington D.C., Indiana, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Texas, Australia and Canada.

His awards include The 2009 Maryland State Theatre Festival’s Special Award for Best Original Script, The Northern Virginia Theatre Alliance’s 2008 Award for Best Original Script, The Robert J.  Pickering Award for Playwriting Excellence, 2008, The 2006 Arts and Letters Prize in Drama, First Place Best Play and First Place Best Production in the 2002 Baltimore Playwrights Festival, three Individual Artist Awards for Playwriting from the Maryland State Arts Council (1989, 1993 & 2005), 2nd Place in the Hinton Battle Theatre Lab’s 2005 Reading Series, Best Production in the 1998 Baltimore Playwrights Festival, two New Works Theatre Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting Awards (1992 & 1994), the Maryland State Theatre Festival Association’s Best New Script Award (1995), and the Montgomery Playhouse Literary Prize (1995).

Mark has served as Playwright-in-Residence for Theatre Virginia’s New Voices for the Theatre Program in Richmond, Virginia, teaches Playwriting as a guest artist at the University of Mary Washington, and has taught creative writing at Howard Community College.  Mark was also selected to be a contributing participant in playwriting for the 2014 Sewanee Writers’ Conference.

He has given seminars on Playwriting at the National Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, and has been a guest speaker at The University of Mary Washington, The University of Virginia, and for the Baltimore Playwrights Festival and the Maryland Writer’s Alliance.

Scharf’s plays Frankenstein, The Machine and Memory Garden are published by Pioneer Drama.  Monologues from these plays are included in Female Monologues from Published Plays and Male Monologues from Published Plays.  He also has plays published by Brooklyn Publishing and Original Works Publishing.  A monologue from Mark’s play The Mean Reds is published in One on One:  The Best Men’s Monologues for the Twenty-First Century by Applause Books and a monologue from his play Last Night at the Owl Bar appears in the 2009 The Theatre Audition Book 2

Mark served three terms as Chairman of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival (2003-2006) and is a former member of the Fells Point Corner Theatre Board of Directors.  Mark has an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Virginia and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

For more information on Mark Scharf or to contact him, visit markscharf.com.