The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Faye Sholiton
Playwright, Screenwriter and Founding Artistic Director Interplay Jewish Theatre, LLCBeachwood Ohio 44122-1740 United States Cell Phone: 216 210-3150 Website: Faye’s Plays
Bio
Faye Sholiton began writing for the stage in 1994, following a decade of reviewing theatre for a weekly publication. By 1996, she was developing her work in the Playwrights’ Unit at Cleveland Play House, where she would continue for the next 15 years. Her first play, THE INTERVIEW, went on to win three national new play prizes, her first Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and more than three dozen staged readings and productions around the U.S. She has since written dozens more plays, three of which (V-E DAY, ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL and TELLING LIVES) were OAC grant winners. And since 2009, she has been a member of the Playwrights’ Gym at Dobama Theatre.
Sholiton has been theatre writer for two regional magazines and a dramaturg at several area theater companies. Since 2013, she has been theatre consultant at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. She has led play writing workshops around the state and the globe, including off the coast of Australia, to cruise ship passengers. She was privileged to represent Ohio writers for seven years as Regional Representative to the Dramatists Guild and won national recognition for the programs she organized. Twenty-five years into her career, she has begun writing for the big screen. Her screenplay HOWARD MECHANIC, the story of her high school classmate whose life derailed after attending an antiwar protest in 1970, was recognized with a fifth OAC Individual Artists grant in 2020.
Perhaps her proudest accomplishment is recognizing and sharing the achievements of other writers by showcasing their work in Cleveland. In 2011, she founded Interplay Jewish Theatre, to revive a beloved, century-old cultural tradition in Northeast Ohio. In the company’s first decade, she has produced the work of more than 50 playwrights, mostly in staged readings. But she has also offered solo shows by artists from Chicago, New York, Toronto and London, plus short, commissioned pieces. For details, visit http://www.interplaycleveland.com.
Artist Statement
Let me begin by saying that I’ve been very blessed – on every step of my artistic journey. I’ve enjoyed a kind of reverse paranoia, with everyone out to get me happy. I had to keep taking “yes” for an answer – and continue the journey. This is not to suggest that every idea found its way to a stage. But you haven’t really known the power of a hug until you’ve bombed.
The trick was to keep reinventing myself and exploring new paths to self-expression. It was the only way to face the white screen every morning and feel that I was always growing, meeting a new challenge. Along the way, it appeared that if a theme or subject or question had captured my imagination, it might resonate for others, too.
Whatever the subject, the theme or question had to be important – something that revealed a bit more about the human condition and what we’re meant to be doing about it. I have a quote from Broadway actress Adrienne Warren on my computer: “If my work doesn’t mean something, then what am I doing?”
And so I keep trying to approach my art using every tool in the box. Some days, it’s through writing. On other days, it’s by producing someone else’s brilliant work. I continue to explore new media, writing for radio, podcast and film. In the past three years, I’ve been fortunate to direct. And when I need inspiration, I simply take my camera outdoors and pretend to be a photographer.
Above all, I remember that we artists are the lucky ones. When the chips are down, when we’re grounded (and ground down) by pandemic, when it feels like the whole world is coming unglued, we have a way to process it all. And best of all, we are part of a community that brings some beauty into the chaos.