Beth Kander is the president of the Fondren Theatre Workshop, where she
teaches acting and writing classes for youth and adults. In addition to serving
as the community outreach director for Mad Genius, she is a writer and member of
the companys creative team. Kander coordinates such initiatives as Imagination
Education, an organization dedicated to making media and arts more accessible to
youth.
As a Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellow, Kanders work includes
stage plays, screenplays, essays, fiction and nonfiction stories, and freelance
reporting. Her writing has been featured in several publications, including
Readers Digest and Millsaps Magazine, and she was a contributor to
the book Spirituality 101. Kander has been a playwright since her early
teens, and her plays have been produced nationally and internationally in venues
including the Lexington Arts Center in Lexington, Fn Productions in New York
City, 11:11 Theatre Company in Boston, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in
London.
Along with being named the Best Jackson Writer by the Jackson Free Press,
Kander won the Mississippi Theatre Association Playwright Award, the Eudora
Welty New Play Award, the Points of Light National Service Award, and the
Audience Award. She is affiliated with such organizations and programs as Off
Kilter Comedy, New Stage Theatre, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central
Mississippi.
Kander earned her bachelors degree from Brandeis University in Waltham,
Massachusetts, and a master of social work from the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor. An improvisational comedian, public speaker, and filmmaker, she lives
with her two dogs, Sofia and Dov Muppet, in Jackson, Mississippi.
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