Mary Hall Surface

Mary Hall Surface (born June 15, 1958) is an American theatre director, playwright, and teaching artist. Based in Washington, DC, her work focuses on theatre productions for family audiences and writing inspired by art.

In 2022, Surface received the Orlin Corey Medallion Award from the Children's Theatre Foundation of America." Surface has been nominated for 10 Helen Hayes Awards and received the 2002 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Direction of a musical for her production of Perseus Bayou.

In her approach as a creative writing teacher and mentor, Surface uses visual art in the writing process. As described in a Washington Post feature about her work at the National Gallery of Art, "Surface searches for a powerful link between a work of art and an aspect of writing."

Career Surface moved to California in 1982 and served as the associate director of the California Theatre Center (CTC) from 1982 to 1988. She wrote her first plays for and with the acting company of CTC, including Prodigy, Blessings and Most Valuable Player, a play about Jackie Robinson.

In 1989, Surface moved to Washington, DC, to write and direct for the John F. Kennedy Center's first season of Theatre for Young Audiences. She has since written and/or directed productions for both young and adult audiences at numerous Washington theaters including Arena Stage, Round House Theatre, Folger Theatre, and Constellation Theatre, and has had nineteen productions at the Kennedy Center. Surface is the founding Artistic Director (2009–2015) of the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, an all-arts festival.

Surface has also created interactive performances for very young children, with a program of plays for infants and preschool aged toddlers called Theatre for the Very Young.

Female characters center prominently in Surface's work. She was commissioned by Arena Stage to write a monologue for My Body, No Choice (2022) and she directed She Persisted (a musical by Adam Tobin and Deborah Wicks La Puma, based on the book by Chelsea Clinton) for Adventure Theatre MTC in 2024.

Surface-Maddox collaborations "Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales," Adventure Theatre MTC, 2024.Surface's 1997 Kennedy Center commission and three-time national touring production of The Nightingale, a dance-theater piece created with choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess, launched her 10-year collaboration with composer David Maddox. Together, Surface and Maddox created five music-theater works commissioned by Theater of the First Amendment (TFA), George Mason University's professional theater from 1990 to 2012. These collaborative productions included: Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales Perseus Bayou: The Search for the Cajun Medusa Mississippi Pinocchio The Odyssey of Telémeca Lift: Icarus and Me

Four of these shows were nominated for the Charles MacArthur Award for Best New Play. Surface received the 2002 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical for Perseus Bayou.

Plays

Surface has been commissioned by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, to write, direct, and produce four plays for family audiences inspired by visual art: Who's in the Hopper, inspired by the work of Edward Hopper Framed, inspired by the work of Roy Lichtenstein Forward 54th, Inspired by August St. Gaudens Shaw Memorial Color's Garden: An Adventure with the Elements of Art, inspired by the cut-outs of Henri Matisse Surface explains that these plays were created to "engage the public in a very emotional and lively, personal way in the art." Inspired by the artists' lives and methods, these plays are not biographies. They are independent theatrical experiences that illuminate the spirit of the visual artists' work.

In a 2018 article for the Journal of Museum Education, Surface and article co-author Nathalie Ryan share the pedagogical approach of the program.

Workshops Surface now leads a series, "Write into Art," as well as reflective writing workshops inspired by art through the Smithsonian Associates. She also has presented art-inspired writing workshops through the Washington National Cathedral and the Chautauqua Institute. She also facilitates Writers' Studios in the US and Europe.

Surface designs each art-based writing workshop to pair a specific type of writing with a specific work of art, such as using landscapes to explore setting or portraits to explore character.

Honors and awards

Helen Hayes awards Year Award Work Result 1993 Outstanding Director, Resident Musical Tintypes, Round House Theatre Nomination 2000 Outstanding Director, Resident Musical Grimm Tales, Nomination 2001The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New PlaySing Down the Moon, Appalachian Wonder Tales,Nomination 2001 Outstanding Director, Resident Musical Sing Down the Moon, Appalachian Wonder Tales Nomination 2002 The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play Perseus Bayou Nomination 2002 Outstanding Director, Resident Musical Perseus Bayou Winner 2003 The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Musical Mississippi Pinocchio Nomination 2007 The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical Lift: Icarus and Me Nomination 2009 Outstanding Director, Resident Musical Goodnight Moon Nomination 2025 Outstanding Director, Resident Musical (Helen) She Persisted Nomination

Other selected productions Tales of Custard the Dragon, music by Brad Ross, Lyrics by Danny Whitman, Book by Mary Hall Surface. Directed by Mary Hall Surface, 2002, National Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC. A Perfect Balance, a solo multi-media performance piece, inspired by the work of artist Alexander Calder, written and directed by Mary Hall Surface, designed and performed by Kevin Reese, presented over 1500 times throughout the US and in France and Taiwan, 1991–2018. The Second Shepherds' Play, adapted and directed by Mary Hall Surface, 2007 & 2016, Folger Consort, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC. The Skin of Our Teeth, by Thornton Wilder, directed by Mary Hall Surface, 2018, Constellation Theatre Company, Washington, DC. Named among top 10 regional theatre productions in 2018 by Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal. Young People's Concert, written and directed by Mary Hall Surface, 2018, National Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC.

Recordings "The Nightingale" (1999) – playwright with composer David Maddox. "Sing Down The Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales" (2002) – playwright with composer David Maddox. "Perseus Bayou: The Search for the Cajun Medusa" (2002) – playwright with composer David Maddox. "The Odyssey of Telémaca" (2004) – playwright with composer David Maddox.

Books "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" (1988) – author. Published by Dramatic Publishing. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (1994) – author. Published by Dramatic Publishing. Most Valuable Player and Four Other All-Star Plays for Middle and High School Audiences (Young Actors Series)" (1999) – author. Published by Smith & Kraus. "Short Scenes and Monologues for Middle School Actors" (2000) – author. Published by Smith & Kraus. "More Short Scenes and Monologues for Middle School Students: Inspired by Literature, Social Studies, and Real Life (Young Actor Series)" (2007) – author. Published by Smith & Kraus. "Spirit Shall Fly" (2007) – author. Published by Dramatic Publishing. "The Tales of the Custard Dragon" (2009) – co-author with Danny Whitman. Published by Concord Theatricals. "Dancing Solo" (1991) – author. Published by Dramatic Publishing. "The Reluctant Dragon" (1990) – author. Published by Dramatic Publishing.

Personal life On December 12, 1987, Surface married actor and sculptor, Kevin Reese. They have one daughter, American YouTuber, singer-songwriter, actor, and filmmaker, Malinda Kathleen Reese.