
Writing
Elizabeth Swados was an American writer, composer, musician, and theatre director. Swados received Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Choreography. She was nominated for Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Director of a Musical, Outstanding Lyrics, and Outstanding Music, and won an Obie Award for her direction of 'Runaways' in 1978. In 1980, the Hobart and William Smith Colleges awarded her an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters.

A profile of composer, performer, and author Elizabeth Swados, inter-cutting scenes of the artist at work and in travel with personal reflections and animated depictions of her stories.

With virtually no financial resources, Ellen Stewart created the La Mama theater in New York in 1961, where writers and actors such as Sam Shepard, Elizabeth Swados, and Harvey Fierstein found both encouragement and a home for their work. Includes footage from the early days, interviews and brief excerpts from some of the theater works. Stewart also talks about her experiences as a "colored" working at Saks Fifth Avenue between 1950 and 1957

Gordon has a loving wife and two sons, Bryan and Keith, but he favors his spoiled younger son Keith over Bryan, who is defiant and not good at sports. As Gordon begins to yell and hit Bryan, Bryan's behavior slips towards the psychotic side and he takes it out on beings who can't defend themselves until he goes way too far one day during a summer camping trip.

Hank marries the divorced Joan, who's the mother of teens Sebastian and Jessica. After living with his new family for years, Hank announces that he's getting a sex change operation. The family deserts Hank, with Jessica going her own way and Sebastian staying with his mom. But Joan becomes an alcoholic, so Sebastian moves back in with Hank — now Henrietta — who turns out to be far more supportive than anyone else.

Hot-tempered Greek immigrant Andreas arrives in America in 1915. He finds work on a railroad, but soon gives his corrupt foreman Mekakis a savage beating. Making his way west across the country, Andreas eventually comes upon another railroad looking for workers. It turns out Mekakis has gone westward, too. He offers Andreas the only job suitable for him, a "mountain mover" on the suicide squad: He must grapple down the face of a cliff, position sticks of dynamite and then climb back up again before the lit fuses reach the explosive.

Ab Snopes (Tommy Lee Jones) is a Southern tenant farmer whose unrelenting and violent nature proves to be his undoing in William Faulkner's Barn Burning. Snopes sets his employer's barn on fire when he thinks he's been treated unfairly. His son, Sarty, is horrified. Snopes escapes justice for lack of proof, but he and his family are told to move on. No sooner do they move than Snopes is offended by his new rich employer. Torn between trying to win his father's acceptance and his aversion to what his father will do, Sarty must make a decision and act quickly. Adapted by Academy Award winning screenwriter Horton Foote, Faulkner's complex world of class divisions and hostile family relationships comes to life through a boy's attempt to liberate himself from hatred and poverty.

Set in 18th Century Italy, RAPPACCINI'S DAUGHTER is the tale of a young scholar named Giovanni (Kristoffer Tabori) who falls in love with a beautiful, yet forbidden, girl who tends her father's poison garden. However, the strange and unearthly beauty of Beatrice (Kathleen Beller) masks a terrifying curse which Giovanni must tragically discover. Her father, the mysterious Dr. Rappaccini, has made her the subject of a diabolical experiment. In Giovanni's attempt to free Beatrice from the control of her father and to escape the poisonous effect she begins to have on him, he unwittingly destroys her. From the short story of master American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, two quintessential Hawthorne themes are explored: the sins of interfering with another's soul and the futility of trying to tamper with nature.

Meryl Streep stars as Alice in this production of Elizabeth Swados' musical, which was adapted from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Based on the acclaimed New York Shakespeare Festival production by Joseph Papp, Alice at the Palace follows Alice's surreal adventures with The Mad Hatter, The March Hare, The Queen of Hearts, and The Cheshire Cat, among many others.

Meryl Streep stars as Alice in this production of Elizabeth Swados' musical, which was adapted from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Based on the acclaimed New York Shakespeare Festival production by Joseph Papp, Alice at the Palace follows Alice's surreal adventures with The Mad Hatter, The March Hare, The Queen of Hearts, and The Cheshire Cat, among many others.

Meryl Streep stars as Alice in this production of Elizabeth Swados' musical, which was adapted from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Based on the acclaimed New York Shakespeare Festival production by Joseph Papp, Alice at the Palace follows Alice's surreal adventures with The Mad Hatter, The March Hare, The Queen of Hearts, and The Cheshire Cat, among many others.

This drama tells the story of Irish insurgents and the captured British soldiers whom they are assigned to guard. While confined to a remote farmhouse the foursome enjoy card playing, jig dancing, and a great deal of amiable bickering. Throughout the conviviality, however, Barney Callahan is haunted by the knowledge that reprisals will be in order if the Irish harm their British captives.

Based on Elizabeth Swados’ picture book of the same name, this animated short film charts one woman's struggle with depression.
