Writer
Mary Jane Hansen is a writer and actor whose play American Soup has been performed at the New York State Theatre Institute, Queens Theatre in the Park, Italy’s Teatro Campogaliani, and Sweden’s Teater Vastmanland. She was selected to adapt an exclusive, authorized stage version of Agatha Christie’s Ordeal By Innocence, which was first produced in 2007. That same year Hansen was commissioned by Teater Vastmanland to write a tribute to Pippi Longstocking and her creator, Astrid Lindgren, for the 100th birthday of Ms. Lindgren’s birth. The show, Letters From a Window in the Sky, features one woman and a mechanical duck and toured New York State schools in 2009. The audiobook of Letters was a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Children’s Audiobook in 2010. Her play Hollowville: A Ghost Story, based on true events, was recorded as an audiobook and nominated for two 2008 Audie Awards. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, New York Women in Film and Television, The League of Professional Theatre Women, and The Dramatists Guild of America. Hansen’s play, A Legend of Sleepy Hollow, received its first production at the New York State Theatre Institute in 2009 with funding from the Frederick Loewe Foundation and the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadracentennial Commission. Her poetry was featured in Zephyrs, the 2011 publication of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society. She wrote the screenplay for the feature film, The Thing on the Doorstep. She is also the Artistic Director of iTheatre Saratoga/The Creative Place International an arts organization of which she is co-founder.
Writer Biography
The Baker St. Adventuress - Sherlock Holmes: On the Air Saratoga Music Hall / Director: Will Severin
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (adaptation) Saratoga Music Hall / Director: Will Severin / Mary Jane Hansen
Poirots Investigate (adaptation) Saratoga Music Hall Director: Patricia Snyder/Aaron Marquise/Will Severin
The Man in the Brown Suit (adaptation) Saratoga Arts / Director: Patricia Snyder
Night of the Living Dead (adaptation) National Museum of Dance / Director: Will Severin
American Soup Teater Vastmanland, Sweden New York State Theatre Institute Queens Theatre in the Park Teatro Campogaliani Saratoga Arts / Director: Bill Fortune
Ordeal By Innocence (adaptation) NYSTI / Director: Liz Swain
Letters From a Window in the Sky Director: Tereza Andersson Teater Vastmanland (commissioning theatre) NYSTI National Museum of Dance Benjamin Franklin Award Nominee
A Legend of Sleepy Hollow NYSTI / Director: Patricia Snyder
Hollowville: A Ghost Story National Museum of Dance / Director: Patricia Snyder Audie Award Nominee - Best Original Work
Pinocchio (adaptation) National Museum of Dance / Director: Mary Jane Hansen
Saratoga Chips Saratoga Arts / Director: Bill Fortune / Patricia Snyder
Guardians of the Treasure (adaptation) National Museum of Dance / Director: Mary Jane Hansen
Playwriting
The Outage Director: Tom Gliserman Handsome Spyder Productions - Released in 2016
The Thing on the Doorstep Director: Tom Gliserman Handsome Spyder Productions - Released in 2014
The Rocking Chair In Development
Screenwriting
Other Employment, Volunteer Work, Etc.
Present - Artistic Director & Co-Founder of iTheatre Saratoga / The Creative Place International
2016 - Masters, Harvard Extension School, Dramatic Arts
2011 - Catechist, Confirmation Classes, St. Clement’s Church, Saratoga Springs, NY
1998-2010 - Teacher/Actor, New York State Theatre Institute, Troy, NY
1998 - BA, Theatre, Russell Sage College
1997-1998 - Intern & Box Office Assistant, New York State Theatre Institute
1995-1997 - Legal Secretary, Kenneth Esrick, Esq., Chatham, NY
1994 - Carpenter and Theatre Supervisor, Marymount Manhattan College
1992-1993 - Peer Educator, Hetrick-Martin Institute, NYC, NY