ELAINE AVILA
Elaine Avila’s plays have been performed in Los Angeles, Victoria, Edmonton,
Vancouver, Michigan, and Scotland. Some of her favorite projects include Lieutenant
Nun (based on the true story of a woman conquistador), Burn Gloom (a music-theatre
collaboration involving writers from 14 cities, including Malawi, Santiago, Tasmania,
Bali, New York City, Montreal, and Belle Ile, France) and Good Fooling (the story of
Shakespeare’s Clown). She is the recipient of numerous awards including The Victoria
Critic’s Circle for Best New Play, a Canada Council Millennium Award, Semi-Finalist—Princess Grace Award, “New Works for Young Women” Award/Residency from the
University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, the A.S.K. Theatre Projects Scholarship, and the Alden B. Dow Fellowship. She has an MFA in playwriting from California Institute of the Arts,
where she worked closely with Suzan-Lori Parks, Erik Ehn, Brian Freeman, and Alice
Tuan. Teaching credits include: Arts Club Theatre’s LEAP Program, Calarts, UBC,
Cabrillo College, Malaspina University College, San Francisco State University, Tooba
School of Physical Theatre, University of Tasmania, and as a Guest Playwright at the
University of Alberta.