In 2022, Surface received the Orlin Corey Medallion Award from the Children's Theatre Foundation of America."[1] Surface has been nominated for 12 Helen Hayes Awards and received the 2002 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Direction of a musical for her production of Perseus Bayou.
In her approach as a creative writing teacher and mentor, Surface uses visual art in the writing process.[2] As described in a Washington Post feature about her work at the National Gallery of Art, "Surface searches for a powerful link between a work of art and an aspect of writing."[3]
Mary Hall Surface was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She graduated from Centre College in 1980 in Comparative Arts and was awarded the Gavin Easton Wiseman Valedictorian Prize. Upon graduation, she received a Thomas Watson Fellowship which enabled her to spend a year in 15 different European countries exploring contemporary theatre for young and family audiences. Working through the International Association of Theatre & Performing Arts for Children & Young People (also known as ASSITEJ Internationa.
Surface moved to California in 1982 and served as the associate director of the California Theatre Center (CTC) from 1982–1988. She wrote her first plays for and with the acting company of CTC, including Prodigy, Blessings and Most Valuable Player, a play about Jackie Robinson.
In 1989, Surface moved to Washington, DC, to write and direct for the John F. Kennedy Center’s first season of Theatre for Young Audiences. She has since written and/or directed productions for both young and adult audiences at numerous Washington theaters including Arena Stage, Round House Theatre, Folger Theatre, and Constellation Theatre, and has had nineteen productions at the Kennedy Center. Surface is the founding Artistic Director (2009–2015) of the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, an all-arts festival.
Female characters center prominently in Surface's work. She was commissioned by Arena Stage to write a monologue for My Body, No Choice (2022) and she directed She Persisted (a musical by Adam Tobin and Deborah Wicks La Puma, based on the book by Chelsea Clinton) for Adventure Theatre MTC in 2024.
Surface-Maddox collaborations
“Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales,” Adventure Theatre MTC, 2024.
Surface's 1997 Kennedy Center commission and three-time national touring production of The Nightingale, a dance-theater piece created with choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess, launched her 10-year collaboration with composer David Maddox. Together, Surface and Maddox created five music-theater works commissioned by Theater of the First Amendment (TFA), George Mason University’s professional theater from 1990–2012. These collaborative productions included:
Appalachian Wonder Tales
The Search for the Cajun Medusa
Mississippi Pinocchio
The Odyssey of Telémeca
Lift: Icarus and Me
Four of these shows were nominated for the Charles MacArthur Award for Best New Play.[4] Surface received the 2002 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical for Perseus Bayou.[5]
Plays
Surface has been commissioned by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, to write, direct, and produce four plays for family audiences inspired by visual art:
Color’s Garden: An Adventure with the Elements of Art,[9] inspired by the cut-outs of Henri Matisse
Surface explains that these plays were created to "engage the public in a very emotional and lively, personal way in the art." Inspired by the artists' lives and methods, these plays are not biographies. They are independent theatrical experiences that illuminate the spirit of the visual artists' work.[10]
Writing salons
Surface then became the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s Writing Salon, a public program from 2014–2020 that approaches art as an inspiration for writing and writing as a way to deepen connection to visual art.[11]
In a 2018 article for the Journal of Museum Education, Surface and article co-author Nathalie Ryan share the pedagogical approach of the program.[12]
Surface designs each art-based writing workshop to pair a specific type of writing with a specific work of art, such as using landscapes to explore setting or portraits to explore character.[10]
Honors and awards
2022
Orlin Corey Medallion Award
Awarded for significant achievements for the enrichment of children in the United States and Canada through nurturing artistic work in theatre and the arts, Children's Theatre Foundation of America[1]
Tales of Custard the Dragon, music by Brad Ross, Lyrics by Danny Whitman, Book by Mary Hall Surface. Directed by Mary Hall Surface, 2002, National Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC.[25]
A Perfect Balance,[26] a solo multi-media performance piece, inspired by the work of artist Alexander Calder, written and directed by Mary Hall Surface, designed and performed by Kevin Reese, presented over 1500 times throughout the US and in France and Taiwan, 1991–2018.
The Second Shepherds’ Play, adapted and directed by Mary Hall Surface, 2007 & 2016, Folger Consort, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.[27][28]
"The Nightingale" (1999) – playwright with composer David Maddox.
"Sing Down The Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales" (2002) – playwright with composer David Maddox.
"Perseus Bayou: The Search for the Cajun Medusa" (2002) – playwright with composer David Maddox.
"The Odyssey of Telémaca" (2004) – playwright with composer David Maddox.
Books
"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" (1988) – author. Published by Dramatic Publishing.
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (1994) – author. Published by Dramatic Publishing.
Most Valuable Player and Four Other All-Star Plays for Middle and High School Audiences (Young Actors Series)" (1999) – author. Published by Smith & Kraus.
"Short Scenes and Monologues for Middle School Actors" (2000) – author. Published by Smith & Kraus.
"More Short Scenes and Monologues for Middle School Students: Inspired by Literature, Social Studies, and Real Life (Young Actor Series)" (2007) – author. Published by Smith & Kraus.
"Spirit Shall Fly" (2007) – author. Published by Dramatic Publishing.
"The Tales of the Custard Dragon" (2009) – co-author with Danny Whitman. Published by Concord Theatricals.
"Dancing Solo" (1991) - author. Published by Dramatic Publishing.
"The Reluctant Dragon" (1990) - author. Published by Dramatic Publishing.
Personal life
In 1987, Surface married actor and sculptor, Kevin Reese.[31] They have one daughter, American YouTuber, singer-songwriter, actor, and filmmaker, Malinda Kathleen Reese.
^"Local Playwrights, Stirring the Plot; Writers Mull Success, D.C. & Baffling Muses". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. March 25, 2001. p. G01. ISSN0190-8286.
^Horwitz, Jane (March 12, 2002). "Kennedy Center's 16 Lead Hayes Awards; Arena Follows With 15 Nominations". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. p. C01. ISSN0190-8286.
^Pressley, Nelson (May 7, 2002). "Hayes Awards For Director, Play Hit 'Home'; Washington Theater Honors Its Own With Ceremony". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. p. C01. ISSN0190-8286.
