The Sleep Seeker

Ms. Swedeen is the recipient of the 2014 Fellowship in Playwriting from the Arts Council of Tennessee. She has also received the Arts and Letters Award in Drama, a commission from the Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Sloan Foundation, and a New York State Council for the Arts grant. Ms. Swedeen is a Core Lark Theatre Fellow and former Dramatist Guild Fellow. THE GOLDMAN PROJECT, directed by Joe Brancato, was presented at Penguin Repertory Theatre, moved Off-Broadway to the Abingdon Theatre where it was nominated for an "Ab*ie" award and then published by Samuel French. Her full-length comedy THREE FORKS, directed by Gail Garrisan, premiered at Florida Stage Theatre in West Palm Beach, Florida and was nominated for a Carbonell Award as Best New Work. THREE FORKS was also selected by The Charlotte Repertory Theatre to receive its "Best New Plays in America" award. Her plays have been read or produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Stamford Center for the Arts, The Players Club, WestBeth, Nat Horne, Synchronicity Space, the Terry Schreiber Studio and Hunter College Theatres in New York City, also the Newman Theatre of Westchester, The Alliance Theatre in Los Angeles, City Theatre of Miami, New Jersey Rep, Main Street Arts in Nyack, and the Gallery Players of Park Slope, and Stephen Austin University in Texas. She served as playwright in residence at The Kravis Center in West Palm Beach for several years. The Sleep Seeker, a film she wrote and produced, won "Best Short Film" in the Westchester Film Festival and was the "Audience Choice Award" at the Valleyfest Film Festival, and is available for viewing on Vimeo. She was awarded an international artist residency to both the Fundacón Valparaiso in Spain and LaMaMa Umbria in Italy. A member of the Writers' Guild of America, the Dramatist Guild, AEA, AFTRA, SAG, as well as the Players Club writing workshop in NYC and Emerging Artist Theatre - Staci has instructed Playwriting at Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT. and at The Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, CT. As an actor, she continues to be involved in readings of new work for numerous theatres. Her lyrics were set to a choral work that premiered at Clark College in Washington State and released on CD. In 2002, Ms. Swedeen was honored for her contribution to local arts in Westchester. Ms. Swedeen, a native of Mount Vernon, Washington, relocated from Sleepy Hollow, New York to Knoxville Tennessee, where she co-founded Flying Anvil Theatre. She is now working on a number of individual writing projects, continuing to teach, and watching the hummingbirds dance outside her office window.