| Mark Scharf | |
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Mark Scharf in 2009 |
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| Born | 9/21/1956 New Albany, Indiana |
| Occupation | Playwright |
| Period | 1980-Present |
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sites.google.com/site/markscharfsite/ |
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Mark Scharf (born September 21, 1956), is an American playwright, actor and teacher. His plays have received readings and productions in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, Va., Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, London, Beijing, Australia, Canada and Singapore.
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Mark Scharf was born in New Albany, Indiana but moved while young with his family to Seaford, Delaware where he lived until graduating from Seaford High School in 1974. Mark then moved to Richmond, Virginia where he attended Virginia Commonwealth University and began his theatre career as an actor. He left Richmond in 1979 and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia where he played in two bands, The Motive and then The Monarchs, before enrolling as a graduate student in Playwriting at the University of Virginia. While attending U.Va., Mark appeared in several shows produced by the Virginia Players and in two seasons with the Heritage Repertory Theatre.
After receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1984, Mark moved to the DC area where he married and initially worked as publicity director for The Source Theatre Company. The marriage, which produced two sons, James Edward Scharf and Eric Michael Scharf, ended in divorce in 2000. Mark continues to work as a playwright, actor and teacher in the DC/Baltimore area.
Scharf’s plays Off the Grid, Like White on Rice and Wilderness are published by Brooklyn Publishing and his plays Memory Garden and The Machine are published by Pioneer Drama. His plays Get Stuffed, Lizard Brains and Keeping Faith are published by Original Works Publishing and his play Replay is published by Heurer Publishing. A monologue from Mark’s play The Mean Reds is published in One on One: The Best Men’s Monologues for the Twenty-First Century by Applause Books. Also, a monologue from his play Last Night at the Owl Bar appears in the 2009 The Theatre Audition Book 2 and a monologue from his play The Whispers of Saints appears in the 2011 Volume 3, Young Women's Monologues from Contemporary Plays, both published by Meriwether Publishing, Ltd.
Scharf was selected as a Playlab Playwright for the 2010 Great Plains Theatre Conference. His awards include the 2009 Maryland State Theatre Festival's Award for Best Original Script, the 2008 Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwriting Excellence, the 2006 Arts and Letters Prize in Drama, selected by Gary Garrison, 2nd Place in the Hinton Battle Theatre Lab’s 2005 Reading Works Series, both the 1st Place Best Play and 1st Place Best Production Awards in the 2002 Baltimore Playwrights Festival and three Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships in Playwriting (1989, 1993 and 2005).
Many of Scharf’s plays have premiered at various theatres in Baltimore, MD where he has been involved with the Baltimore Playwrights Festival since 1994.
Scharf teaches Playwriting as a Guest Artist at the University of Mary Washington and was asked to serve as a Thesis Advisor for the Johns Hopkins University 2005/2006 M.A. in Writing program. He has also served as Playwright-in-Residence for Theatre Virginia’s New Voices for the Theatre and served three terms as Chairman of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival (2003–2006). Scharf has an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Virginia and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
