Having previously directed staged readings of Blithe Spirit and Animal Crackers for Mt. Hood Rep, Deb's recent directing credits include Antigone at Wilsonville High School, Twelfth Night for PAE's 33rd annual Shakespeare in the Parks, and Rashomon for Theatre Vertigo. She is a proud member of Actors Equity Association, the American Union for Professional Actors. She performed in Hazard County and Mimesophobia at JAW/West 2004 and in Much Ado About Nothing and Man and Superman ( Portland Center Stage). Debera has toured the west coast with Master Magician "Dr. Wilderness" and she has performed in improvisational comedy shows throughout Western Europe for the Department of Defense. Recent roles include Helen Hobart in Once in a Lifetime, Charlotte Malcolm in A Little Night Music, Mae Tuck in Tuck Everlasting, Catherine De Medici in The King Has Gone to Tennebrae, and a multitude of characters on the Mt. Hood Railroad's Murder Mystery Train.

About The Playwright

William Inge was one of the American stage's most celebrated playwright of the 1950's and 1960's. Born in Independence Kansas in 1913, Inge was the youngest of five children. He got his first taste of the theatre at an early age as his boy scout troop held its weekly meetings in the Independence Civic Center. The Civic Center contained a 2000 seat theater, and the boys were often invited to sit in the balcony after their meetings and watch the touring shows which passed through town.

After graduating from high school Inge received a BA in Speech and Drama from the University of Kansas at Lawrence. He then began a graduate program at George Peabody College, which he dropped out of. Over the next eight years Inge would work at a variety of jobs including highway laborer, news announcer, and high school teacher, before returning to George Peabody and earning his Master's degree.

In 1943, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked as the drama and music critic for the St. Louis-Times. There he made the aquaintance of Tennessee Williams whose play The Glass Managerie prompted him to try playwrighting. Inge sent a copy of his first script, Farther Off from Heaven, to Williams who recommended it for a production. From there his fame began to grow.

1950's Come Back, Little Sheba brought Inge the title of "most promising playwright of the 1950 Broadway season", but his career was only beginning to gain momentum. He followed this success with Picnic in 1952 which won several awards including the Drama Critics Circle Award, the Theatre Club Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Next came Bus Stop which he would later adapt into a popular film starring Marilyn Monroe, and two years later, and the semi-autobiographical The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, which many considered Inge's finest play.

After this meteoric rise Inge's fortunes began to wane. His later plays, including A Loss of Roses, Natural Affection, Where's Daddy?, and The Last Pad were met with poor reviews and box office failure. Even through his screenplay for Splendor In The Grass won him an Academy Award, Inge began to sink into a depression. He took his own life in his Hollywood home in 1973.

Sources:
Moonstruck Drama Bookstore
The William Inge Center For The Arts
The Kansas State Historical Society