Elizabeth Searle


Elizabeth Searle is an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her theater works have received major media attention and have been performed around the country. Her novel 'A Four-Sided Bed' is being developed as a feature film. A short film based on the novel, 'Four-Sided,' screened at 2019 festivals in Cannes, Boston, Chicago and more. She has five books of fiction, most recently 'We Got Him' which was released in audiobook in 2018. She is the creator and playwright for 'Tonya & Nancy: the Rock Opera' which most recently was produced in February of 2020 in a TheatreZone production starring Broadway great Andrea McArdle. In 2019, the Rock Opera had a concert event in NYC at Lucille Lortel Theater on Off Broadway; the event was executive produced by Jim Kierstead. In 2019, a Tonya & Nancy concert at 54Below, featuring Broadway performers, was recorded as a CD from Broadway Records. The show has had productions in NYC, in Chicago, LA, Portland, suburban Dallas and Boston. Searle's works have included the novels 'Girl Held in Home'. 'A Four Sided Bed and the short story collections My Body to You and Celebrities in Disgrace. 'Celebrities in Disgrace' was produced as a short film that screened at various festivals. Searle's one act play, 'Stolen Girl Song' was produced at the Act One One Act Play festival 'off Off Broadway' in 2019. Searle wrote the libretto for Tonya and Nancy:The Opera," produced in 2006, 2010, 2014 and in Minneapolis in 2018. Her and Michael Teoli's full length musical, "Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera" was produced in NYC as an official Full Production show at the New York Musical Festival in July, 2015. The show premiered in February 2008. A clip from the show appeared on ABC in January, 2018; recent media include 2019 features in Broadway World and earlier features New York Times, BroadwayWorld and Playbill. Searle's theater works have drawn both national and international media attention.

Early life

Searle was born in Penn Wynne, Pennsylvania. Her father Bill was a Democratic Party activist and retired personnel director; Barbara, her mother, was a children's librarian. She has a younger sister, Kate, who works at MIT and Bill, her older brother, is a videographer.

Education

Searle received a B.A. from Oberlin College and her Master's degree from Brown University. She was a special education teacher and taught students with autism in schools located in New Haven, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island.

Career

In 1982, Searle's short story, "Missing LaDonna", appeared in Redbook. This was followed by stories placed in the South Carolina Review, the Indiana Review, The Greensboro Review, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares and other journals. In 1993 her first book, My Body To You, was published. In 1992, it had been named winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award by the Iowa Writers Workshop. James Salter, a novelist and screenwriter, who wrote The Hunters, Downhill Racer, The Appointment and others, acted as judge.
A Four Sided Bed, Searle's first novel, was published by Graywolf Press in 1998 and received positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Booklist.
A novella and collection of short stories entitled Celebrities in Disgrace was published in 2001. It was a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize. When discussing one of the themes of this collection during an interview with Post Road Magazine, Searle said, "I had a phrase in my mind, 'the witch of ambition,' and I do think there is this sort of dark force inside of people and any of those dark forces are hard to write about but they're the ones you want to write about...." Ambition and the search for attention seem to be the "...driving forces of our time."
"Celebrities in Disgrace," the title novella, was called a 'miniature masterpiece' by New York Times Book Review. Celebrities in Disgrace was produced as a short film in 2010 by Bravo Sierra Pictures, with a script co-written by Elizabeth Searle. The film premiered as an official selection at Woods Hole International Film Festival on Cape Cod and has screened at other festivals throughout the country. Searle's novel A Four-Sided Bed is being developed as a feature film.
Tonya and Nancy:The Opera previewed at the Zero Arrow Theatre of the American Repertory Theatre in 2006, produced by Tufts Music. It was selected by Opera Vista as one of the three best new one-act operas of the year in 2007. In 2010, it was performed by Mixed Precipitation in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Mixed Precipitation produced subsequent productions in February 2014 and in 2018.
Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera', a full length musical, was most recently produced in 2020 by TheatreZone in a production starring Broadway's Andrea McArdle and reviewed as a 'joyous theater package.' The show was produced as a concert event at Lucille Lortel Theater in NYC in 2019 and was recorded in concert at 54Below in Feb 2018. The 54Below concert CD was reviewed as 'stunningly awesome.' The rock opera premiered in 2008 in Portland, OR, produced by Triangle Productions. It featured libretto by Searle and music by Michael Teoli. The show was based on Searle and Abigail Al Doory Cross's Tonya & Nancy: the Opera, libretto and concept by Elizabeth Searle; adapted for the Portland production by Don Horn and Searle. The rock opera reviewed as "brilliant and touching" in Portland Mercury and received widespread media attention described in The Oregonian. Tonya & Nancy: the Rock Opera premiered in a new version with a new Book by Searle in January 2011, produced by Harborside Films and performed at the American Repertory Theater's Oberon Theater. Boston reviews included these comments: "Black Swan on Ice" ; "Absurdly funny; surprisingly poignant moments amidst the comedy and a rousing soundtrack" ; ; "An explosive cabaret of over-the-top rock tunes sung with operatic glass-shattering intensity…practically Shakespeare on ice"; ; "Brilliant; amazing music; one of the most exciting spectacles I have ever seen'.
In 2013, the rock opera was performed as a Staged Reading Showcase in NYC, produced by Harborside Films and directed by Kenny Howard of Broadway Consortium; the NY cast included Broadway performers Melissa van deer Schyff and Janine Divita. A new 'rock concert' performance of the show premiered in Hollywood at the King King Club on February 4, 2014, as a benefit for the LA theater Celebration. The show was performing as an official Full Production show at New York Musical Theater Festival in July 2015. It was fully produced by Underscore Theater in Chicago for a 6 week run in Fall, 2016. It was named one of the Top Five Musicals of the Year by New City Stages and was a Jeff Award 'recommended' show, nominated for two 2016/2017 Jeff Awards and winning Best Supporting Actress for the Chicago production, directed by Jon Martinez. A production in suburban Dallas Texas was produced in summer of 2018 at OhLook Performing Arts Center, where it ran along with Hedwig and Rocky Horror Picture Show. The 2020 production at TheatreZone featured Broadway icon Andrea McArdle.
Searle's essays have appeared in over a dozen anthologies. She has co-edited an anthology on Soap Operas from McFarland Books and co-edited an anthology with McFarland in 2018 on Teen Idols called IDOL TALK. She was in three 2015 anthologies, including "Paper Camera" from New Rivers Press. Her essay "Knitted Goods: Notes from a Nervous Non-Knitter" appeared in the anthology Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting, published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2013. Searle's One Act Play 'Stolen Girl Song' premiered at the Northern Writes New Play Festival in Maine; it was performed at Poet's Theater in Somerville, MA and at Act One One Act Play Festival in NY in 2019. Searle's novel A Four-Sided Bed is being developed as a feature film by Creatrix Films and by producer David Ball. Her script for A Four-Sided Bed has won recognition at over 20 festivals and award competitions in 2019-2020 including Best Feature Screenplay at the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival. It was produced as a staged reading at Zephyr Theater in LA in 2016, starring Evan Ross and Gia Mantegna. It was also performed as a Staged Reading in 2019 at ReelHeArt International Film Festival in Toronto.
Searle has taught creative writing at Brown University, Emerson College, the University of Southern Maine's Program in Creative Writing, the University of Massachusetts Boston and other institutions. She was a longtime member, Board officer and committee chairperson of the New England chapter of International PEN. For the last six years, she has volunteered at FoodLink. She is a member of Women in Film and Video. In 1984, Searle married software developer John Hodgkinson; they have a son, Will and reside in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Novels