PLAYWRIGHT’S CAREER TURNS INSIDE OUT

Dallas-born Maura Swan-son has taken a bite out of the Big Apple. It’s been seven years since Swanson, as an aspiring actress and playwright, left Dallas for the Broadway footlights. She’s now a successful businesswoman who’s looking toward Dallas for help with her latest writing venture.

Swanson was in Dallas in September to discuss with investors the funding of her award-winning play, Inside Out. The play, which is somewhat autobiographical, is about a young Texas woman living in New York City who comes home from work one night and trips over a bag lady, injuring her. The story develops into a test of the limits of kindness as the hospitable young woman, Bridgette, invites the destitute bag lady into her apartment, only to discover that she can’t get her to leave.

Swanson’s play gained attention this year as a finalist in the Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference in Connecticut. Out of thousands of plays submitted to the conference, Swanson’s and three others were chosen for summer workshops, where the scripts were honed, refined and readied for marketing.

Currently, Swanson is the head scriptwriter for The Cat-lins, a daytime drama on Atlanta cable station WTBS.

Swanson says she’s particularly encouraged about the future of Inside Out because producers for the Public Broadcasting System’s American Playhouse Series say the play is especially appealing to them as a Dallas project. She also says that Dallas’ public television station, KERA, has expressed interest in seeing the play come to fruition. Swanson needs about $300,000 to get the screenplay off the ground if it’s produced in cooperation with the American Playhouse Series or about $75,000 in the form of a limited partnership to finance a short-run production in Dallas as a prelude to a New York engagement.