Presenters' Resumes
Mara Purl
Mara is a performer, producer, writer and teacher. She created Milford-Haven, U.S.A., the first American radio drama ever broadcast by the BBC, where the show reached an audience of 4.5 million listeners. Mara is also the creator of STAR – Student Theatre And Radio©, a teaching curriculum for which she has received grants from AT&T, The Kennedy Center, and Communities In Schools. Now in its tenth year, STAR has been taught in California and Colorado, to a wide range of students including gifted, magnet, and at-risk. Ms. Purl is a guest professor at the Colorado College, the University of Colorado, and at University of Alaska, Fairbanks Summer Fine Arts Camp. For performing her one-woman play Mary Shelley–In Her Own Words Mara won the 2003 Peak Award. Mara’s book Act Right (co-written with Erin Gray) has become a standard text for actors. And her six Milford-Haven novels are widely read across the U.S. Mara also served on the boards of the L.A. District Attorney’s Crime Prevention Foundation, the Kennedy Center’s Imagination Celebration, and currently serves on the Chancellor’s Leadership Class at UCCS and as a founding board member of the Colorado Festival of World Theatre. In 2002 Mara was named Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women.
