Lisa DiFranza is a Senior Lecturer at Columbia College Chicago. Her theater work spans across professional, community-based, and educational settings. She has served as Education and Literary Director at Portland Stage Company, Artistic Director of The Children’s Theater of Maine, and the Founding Director of The Arts Academy, an innovative public high school arts program in Portland, Maine. Her interest in creating and developing plays was sparked early on, through her work at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and The Juilliard School Drama Division where she taught for five years. It deepened in Maine, where she dove headlong into community-based work, and expanded at the University of Iowa International Writing Program where she is a longstanding creative partner. Lisa’s unusual masters degree in Theology and the Arts influences the shape of her interdisciplinary civic practice. For seven years, Chicago has been her hub for research and development of The Living News Project. She is committed to extending its reach and enthusiastically invites readers to respond to the three invitations at the end of her article. www.lisadifranza.com.
