Dale Worsley
COMMUNITY
Resumes are useful and I include mine below, but they are limited and tend to reinforce the idea of the rugged individual isolated from the community that defines them. It’s your people who provide the sense of belonging that makes possible the mindset needed to play with perceptions, ideas, language – as I have done in these experiments.
Here are a few snapshots of me with my people to correct the problem: I am hitchhiking across the country side-by-side with a buddy from college who will, fifty years later, swap manuscripts with me for feedback. • I am writing in the empty upstairs rooms, rent free, of a college professor after I’ve dropped out of college. • I am drinking a beer on a stoop in the East Village after a basketball game in Tompkins Square, parsing art with a writing friend from Missouri. • I am sailing in a hand-crafted wooden sail boat on the Hudson River watching snapping turtles fight for territory before going home to his wife’s gourmet dinner. • I am driving down country roads in delight with my future wife after attending a convention. • I am walking through the hills of Arizona with my sister and brother-in-law catching views of grey hawks in the distance. • I am building a log cabin in West Virginia with the friend who taught me carpentry and whose family will host mine for Thanksgiving dinners for years to come. • I am dining with my daughter at a Brooklyn restaurant, enjoying the updates and the wine. • I am indulging in lengthy phone conversations with my brother about the incomprehensible ways of some of the country’s citizenry. • I am dancing on New Year’s Eve with COOP neighbors. • I am melding minds over a battered wooden desk in a high school with a loving and dedicated educator. • I am visiting families that have become my family in Cold Spring, Spring Valley, Decatur, Ann Arbor, Fairbanks, Tucson…
There could be a hundred more snapshots. Without this tribe, I would have died along my wandering way, if not in body — though it’s pretty certain that without them my corpse would be “six feet under the clay” as the blues folks say — then in spirit.
Fiction / Drama
A stage play commissioned and presented by the Porthouse Theater Festival at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, in 1986 and presented in a staged reading at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York City, 1990. A science-fiction plot unites the figures of John James Audubon and Amelia Earhart in an exploration of genetic engineering and the destruction of nature. Bill Raymond performed the figure of Audubon and Rosemary Quinn performed Amelia. Philip Glass contributed music. David Sandlin contributed some interesting art designs, which were recreated by actors at each performance.
A stage play co-produced by Mabou Mines and Joseph Papp, with original music by Philip Glass. Bill Raymond and I co-directed this complex ensemble piece. Many friends and artists contributed to the success of this work, including David Hardy, Linda Hartinian, Greg Mehrten, Stephanie Rudolph and others. Ellen McElduff performed the voice of Julia Grant. Presented by the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1983 and toured extensively to theaters in the United States, Europe and Mexico from 1984-90. Film script commissioned by Mabou Mines in 1988, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. I worked with historical consultants Shelby Foote and William S. McFeely, with an endorsement by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in the development of the film script, which was never produced. Treats the themes of the historical process and distortion of memory through the complicated career of Ulysses S. Grant.
A novel, published by Vanguard Press in 1980. Based on experience working in an institution for intellectually and developmentally disabled children and adults. Written from the point of view of a resident, who spins mythic worlds with his imagination as he struggles with the harsh conditions of his imprisoning circumstances.
A novella, broadcast by National Public Radio on its "Soundplay" series in 1992, with music by Charles Dodge and voice by David Brisbin, produced by Voices International. Music and voice played in concert at The Greenwich House Concert Series in December, 1990 and the "New Angle Series" at the DIA Art Foundation in June, 1989. It became the basis for a performance work in collaboration with the visual artist Power Boothe at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, New York, 1990. It is a first person narrative from the point of view of a shade-tree mechanic in an Appalachian community, who attempts to reconstruct the memory of the events that led to his wife committing a murder, unable to control her agitation at the building of a dam to flood a nearby valley.
A series of four radio plays, produced by Mabou Mines in 1983 and distributed by the National Public Radio network and the Australian Broadcasting Company in 1983 and 1984. Performers included the remarkable David Warrilow and other members of the company. Bill Raymond directed. Based on the author's experience as a night-watchman in a zoo, and inspired by the late raconteur and fellow zookeeper Debora Blackwell. David Warrilow later served as the officiant for my marriage to Elizabeth Fox.
A musical play originally commissioned by Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1986. Directed by Susan Tubert and Presented with a musical score by Scott Killian and Kim D. Sherman at the Theatre of the First Amendment, The Institute of the Arts at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, in 1993. Staged reading, New York Theatre Workshop, New York City, 1991. Book and lyrics published by First Amendment Plays, 1993. The subject of the work is the conflict between the WPA's Federal Theatre Project and Martin Dies' House Committee on Un-American Activities. In her imagination, visionary project director Hallie Flanagan dances with the McCarthy-esque Dies, pulling him into a liberating aesthetic world beyond anything he has experienced.
A play, presented at The Kitchen and the 112 Greene Street Gallery in New York in 1973. Developed by Eads Hill, an experimental theater company founded by the author with friends in Memphis, Tennessee. Abstract text and movement.
A play, performed at LaMama E.T.C. in 1972. Produced by Ellen Stewart and Eads Hill. A mix of spoken and chanted language, acrobatic movement, and abstract sound and design, concerning issues of evolution and the socio-political climate of the sixties. Performed on a mobius strip-shaped pipe sculpture that was designed by the late Steve Benneyworth. (The sculpture now resides at the bottom of the Mississippi river, having been rolled there by vandals from the back of a Unitarian church in Memphis.) Terry O’Reilly, Mike Patton and Shealy Thompson performed in this piece.
Plays for Children
A piece about life in a short-changed urban neighborhood, commissioned and produced by the South Bronx Community Action Theatre, Inc., 1987, and written in collaboration with teenagers from the area.
A compilation of children's writing written under the author's direction in response to poetry by Walt Whitman, produced by Teachers & Writers Collaborative and performed by children at Symphony Space, part of "Leaves of Grass, a 12 Hour Walt Whitman Celebration."
Film & Video
A film script commissioned by the Education Department at The Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1978, directed by Marc Brugnoni. A curator uses museum artifacts to teach teenagers the relationship between political power, war and art.
A video piece in collaboration with video artist Jack Frost, presented in 1977 at film and video festivals in Atlanta, Georgia, Ithaca, New York and in South Carolina. Fictional surveys of people of all walks of life who make high claims for a commercial product purported to have many uses.
Educational Publications
2002 Teaching for Depth: Where Math Meets the Humanities, educational. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann. I edited and co-authored this attempt to find common ground between the two cultures CP Snow described.
1998 Portfolio of a School; educational. Suffolk, England: John Catt Educational Ltd.
1989 The Art of Science Writing, with Bernadette Mayer, education. New York: Teachers & Writers. Bernadette and I pulled the art out of science and put some science into creative writing in this volume, which included samples of writing from authors through the ages.
1981 Lives at Sea: Stories of Retired Seamen, oral history. New York: Teachers & Writers.
1995 "Creating Class Characters: Fiction Across the Curriculum," education. Old Faithful: 18 Writers Present Their Favorite Writing Assignments, edited by Christopher Edgar and Ron Padgett. New York: Teachers & Writers.
1989 "Crafty Lures," education. The Teachers & Writers Guide to Walt Whitman, edited by Ron Padgett. New York: Teachers & Writers.
1989 "The Dignity Quotient," education. Writing to Learn Mathematics and Science, edited by Paul Connolly and Teresa Vilardi. New York: Teachers College Press.
1984 "Snug Harbor: Workshops at the National Maritime Union," The Uses of Reminiscence: New Ways of Working with Older Adults, edited by Marc Kaminsky. New York: The Haworth Press.
2000 "What Constitutes Excellent Work? Teachers' and Students' Definitions," with Patti Smith, The Web, The Newsletter of Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound, May.
1998 “The Probability of Poetry," with Matthew Szenher, education. New York: Teachers & Writers, November-December.
1995 "An Ancient Itch", education. Texas: Writing Teacher, September.
1995 "A Memorable Teaching Collaboration," education. Ohio: Democracy & Education, Spring.
1992 "Results of A Nation of Letters," education. Washington: Arts in Education Primer.
1988 "Visualization & Objective Observation," education. New York: Teachers & Writers, May-June.
1988 "Science Writing: Questions & Answers," with Bernadette Mayer, education. New York: Teachers & Writers, May-June.
1988 "A Brief Science/Writing Bibliography," with Bernadette Mayer, education. New York: Teachers & Writers, May-June.
1987 "Writing at the Races: Science Essays in a Public High School," education. New York: Teachers & Writers, May-June.
1985 "Sourdough Writing, Teaching Computer Fiction Writing," education. New York: Teachers & Writers, January-February.
1984 "Snug Harbor: Workshops at the National Maritime Union," education. New York: Journal of Gerontological Social Work, March.
1980 "Snug Harbor: Workshops at the National Maritime Union," education. New York: Teachers & Writers, Fall.
Awards and Fellowships
1989 National Endowment for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship (Cold Harbor).
1987 New York Foundation for the Arts Fiction Fellowship (Hoy).
1986 National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship (Hoy).
1984 Joseph P. Maharam Award (Cold Harbor).
1982 Word Magic Award, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (The Keeper Series).
1977 New York Creative Artists Public Service Grant in Fiction (The Focus Changes of August Previco).
1973 Squaw Valley Community of Writers Conference, scholarship.
1995 The Harburg Foundation (Los Alamos, an unfinished musical collaboration with Steve Weinstock)
1990 New York State Council for the Arts, Individual Artists (Hoy).
1990 Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, (Hoy).
1989 Meet the Composer, (Hoy).
1988 National Endowment for the Humanities Scriptwriting Grant (Cold Harbor).
1984 Jerome Foundation Emerging Artists grant (Cold Harbor).
1989 Merit Award for Excellence in Educational Journalism, the Educational Press Association of America, "Visualization," Teachers & Writers.
1988 Merit Award for Excellence in Educational Journalism, the Educational Press Association of America, "Writing at the Races: Science Essays in a Public High School," Teachers & Writers.
1968 The All American Award of the College Press Association, The Sou'wester (my college newspaper. I was co-editor with David Massey.)
Professional / Academic Service & Teaching
1992 – 2008 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Creative Writing Program, Columbia School of the Arts
1994, 1997 Long Island University, English Department, Adjunct Assistant Professor.
1994-95 Faculty Advisor, Columbia Dramatists.
1989-94 Juror, Edison Electric Institute Science Fiction Short Story Contest.
1990 Consultant, Educational Testing Service and Arts PROPEL, Harvard Project Zero, on the assessment of students' creative writing.
1990 Juror, Maryland State Council on the Arts Playwriting Fellowships.
1990 Juror, Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship program in Emerging Fiction, Established Fiction and Emerging Playwriting.
1990 Auditor, New York State Council on the Arts Theater Program.
1986-89 Panelist, New York State Council on the Arts, Literature Program.
1989 Panelist, New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artists Program in Theater.
1983 Consultant, Rappahannock Association for the Arts and the Community, Virginia.