Louise Smith
Affiliated Writer
Yellow Springs, OH
Biography

Louise Smith is a writer, performer, educator, and therapist. She worked for eleven years in Ping Chong and Company, touring nationally and internationally with collaborative productions that incorporated media and movement. She also appeared in works by artists Meredith Monk, Julie Taymor, and Ann Bogart. Her solo works have been seen at P.S. 122, Dixon Place, Dance Theater Workshop, and LaMaMa in NYC, as well as the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis, Milwaukee's Theater X, and Actor's Theater of Louisville. Since 1984, she's written and performed sixteen solo pieces. She is the recipient of a Jerome Fellowship in Playwriting from the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, a Bessie Award for her work with Ping Chong and an Obie for PAINTED SNAKE IN A PAINTED CHAIR by The Talking Band. Smith was also awarded an NEA Collaborative Fellowship for INTERFACING JOAN, her solo with Ping Chong. In 2016 she had a writing residency at the Vermont Studio Center and was granted an Ohio Arts Council Artist's Excellence Award in playwriting, her second from the OAC. She's written five plays for Yellow Springs Kids Playhouse, and in 2017 created a new work with Talking Band/Ellen Maddow entitled FAT SKIRT AND BIG NOZZLE, based on the paintings of James Ensor. She holds an IMA from Antioch University in Playwriting and an M.S.Ed from University of Dayton in Community Counseling. She is currently Associate Professor of Performance at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.