Clare Coss

Clare Coss is a playwright, psychotherapist and activist, convinced that we have it in our power to create a just and safe world. “As a playwright my tools are character and dialogue, conflict and story. “My imagination often leads to women characters who go where the silence is. They are drawn to confront inaction and/or tyranny; face the challenge to speak and act for justice and dignity.” ln 1971 the Berkshire Theatre Festival gave Coss her first full production – The Star Strangled Banner (the U.S. invasion of Mexico in 1848). Her plays include Growing Up Gothic (Theatre for the New City), The Blessing (American Place Theatre), Our Place in Time (Women’s Project), Lillian Wald: At Home on Henry Street (New Federal Theatre), Dr. Du Bois and Miss Ovington (New Federal Theatre), and Emmett, Down in My Heart (TADA!; Castillo). Coss’ publications include Dr. Du Bois and Miss Ovington (Broadway Play Publishing), Lillian D.Wald: Progressive Activist (Feminist Press) featuring the play and a selection of Wald’s correspondence and speeches. Her anthology of lesbian love poems,The Arc of Love (Scribner), was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. She is a member The League of Professional Theatre Women, PEN, The Dramatists Guild, and the Columbia University Seminar on Women and Society.