Playwright
Norman Allen’s work has been commissioned and produced by the Kennedy Center, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature Theatre (VA), Olney Theatre Center, Adventure Theatre, and the Karlin Music Theatre in Prague. Recent projects include Alix in Wonderland: A Gender Journey Down the Rabbit Hole for The Theatre Lab, A Lump of Coal for Christmas for Adventure Theatre-MTC, and the inter-disciplinary Once Wild: Isadora in Russia, named “a bold new work of art” by the Washington Post.
Norman received the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play for In The Garden. His solo drama Nijinsky’s Last Dance won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Play prior to productions across the U.S., Europe and South Africa. His work in musical theatre includes the concert adaptation of Sweet Adeline at Encores!, New York City Center; The Christmas Carol Rag, featuring a classic ragtime score, and Frank Wildhorn’s Carmen, which has played for more than a decade in Prague and been produced in Austria, Lithuania, South Korea, and Japan.
Norman’s essays and feature stories have appeared in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Houston Chronicle; in Smithsonian and Washingtonian magazines; on WAMU-FM; and on numerous blogs including OnFaith, OnBeing, Howlround, and Tin House. His work for television includes PBS documentaries on Vincent Van Gogh, Mary Cassatt, Paul Cezanne, John Singer Sargent and the Phillips Collection of Modern Art.
Norman received his Masters of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary in May 2018, was ordained by All Souls Church Unitarian in March 2019, and now serves as Minister to the Davies Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Camp Springs, Maryland.