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Cusi Cram (born September 22, 1967) is an American playwright, screenwriter, actress, model, director, educator, and advocate for women in the arts.[1]
Cusi Cram | |
|---|---|
 Cram at the June 2015 Lilly Awards | |
| Born | September 22, 1967 Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter, actress, model, director, educator |
| Education | Brown University (BA) Juilliard School (GrDip) |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Spouse | Peter Hirsch |
| Parents | Lady Jeanne Campbell (mother) |
| Relatives | Kate Mailer (half-sister) Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll (maternal grandfather) Janet Gladys Aitken (maternal grandmother) Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (great-grandfather) |
Cusi Cram was born in Manhattan, New York,[2] on September 22, 1967,[3] to Lady Jeanne Campbell, daughter of Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll and Janet Gladys Aitken, and granddaughter of Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook; Lady Jeanne was married at the time to John Cram III, a descendant of railroad developer Jay Gould.[2] Her biological father, however, was Bolivian[4] and worked at the United Nations.[4][5] She identifies as Latina and has written extensively about her Latin roots in her plays.[6][7][8][9]
Cram's first foray into the world of theater came at age six when she played the role of Moth in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.[10] Campbell had previously been married to Norman Mailer, with whom she remained friends after their divorce.[2] Mailer's later wife Norris Church, a former actress and model, suggested that Cram try out modelling.[2] At age 13, she did, becoming the youngest model ever to sign with Wilhelmina Models, Church's former agency.[2] At the time, Cram attended the Chapin School in Manhattan.[2] Of her modeling days she has said, "And at the time—and I think times have changed a lot—[the look] was very blonde and blue eyed, so I was considered very, very ethnic looking ..."[5]
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While working with Wilhelmina, Cram modeled for a variety of publications including Interview, Seventeen, Brides, and Young Miss.[2] While still 13, she joined the cast of the soap opera One Life to Live on ABC.[2] She originated the role of Cassie Callison,[11] a job that required her to leave the Chapin School for the Professional Children's School which allowed her time to both study and participate in filming.[2] She eventually transitioned from acting to playwriting during her twenties, graduated from Brown University in 1990, and landed a job writing for the animated PBS show Arthur.[4][12]
Cram worked in regional theaters in Massachusetts, California, and Colorado, and had some of her work produced Off-Off-Broadway.[13] Her work on Arthur inspired her 2009 play Dusty and the Big Bad World.[14] The Arthur spinoff Postcards from Buster was subject to a controversy that eventually involved United States Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings after an episode depicted a Vermont family with two lesbian mothers.[14] Dusty, which premiered at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, was a comic retelling of the controversy.[14] Cram's Off-Broadway debut also came in 2009 when her play A Lifetime Burning, based on the experiences of author Margaret Seltzer and the discovery of her partially fictitious memoir Love and Consequences, was produced at 59E59 Theaters by Primary Stages.[13]
Aside from Arthur, Cram has also written for the Cbeebies children's television series The Octonauts,[15] and contributed two episodes to the Showtime comedy-drama The Big C.[16] As of January 2014, she teaches playwriting as part of the joint Fordham University – Primary Stages Master of Fine Arts program.[17]
Production history
| Title | Date premiered | Theater | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landlocked | November 11, 1999 | Miranda Theatre | [18] | |
| The End of It All | June 15, 2000 | South Coast Repertory | Part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival | [19] |
| Normal | March 1, 2003 | Actors Theatre of Louisville | One-act play, anthologized in Trepidation Nation | [20] |
| Corduroy | January 11, 2004 | Theatreworks USA | Musical, with book by Cram and music by Scott Davenport Richards
Based on the children's book of the same name by Don Freeman |
[21] |
| Predator | June 29, 2004 | Echo Theater Company | One-act play | [22] |
| Fuente | July 9, 2005 | Barrington Stage | Recipient of the 2004 Herrick Theater Foundation New Play Prize
Previewed beginning June 30 |
[23][24] |
| All the Bad Things | February 15, 2006 | The Public Theater | Produced by LAByrinth Theater Company | [25] |
| Lucy and the Conquest | July 12, 2006 | Williamstown Theatre Festival | [26] | |
| Dusty and the Big Bad World | January 29, 2009 | Denver Center Theater | [14] | |
| A Lifetime Burning | August 11, 2009 | 59E59 Theaters | Produced by Primary Stages | [27] |
| Fuente Ovejuna: A Disloyal Adaptation | November 11, 2011 | Lewis Center for the Arts | Based on Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna | [28] |
| Radiance | November 16, 2012 | Bank Street Theater | One-act play
Produced by LAByrinth Theater Company |
[29] |
Additionally, Cram's one-act West of Stupid was anthologized in The Best American Short Plays 2000-2001.[30] She has also performed two one-woman shows, Bolivia and Euripidames, at New Georges in New York City.[30]
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Cram lives with her husband, Peter Hirsch, also a writer on Arthur, in Greenwich Village, New York.[14][30]
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