Carol Lashof

Lashof was born in 1956 to Joyce Lashof and Richard Lashof, one of three siblings.{{Cite journal |last=Green |first=Andrew |date=2022-08-27 |title=Joyce Lashof |journal=The Lancet |language=English |volume=400 |issue=10353 |pages=656 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01579-3 |s2cid=251817710 |issn=0140-6736|doi-access= }} She grew up in the Chicago area.{{cite web|title=Dennis Chowenhill Interviews Carol Lashof|last=Chowenhill|first=Dennis|website=Works by Women San Francisco|date=2014-08-01|url=https://worksbywomensf.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/dennis-chowenhill-interviews-carol-lashof/|access-date=2025-03-19}} She went to University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, graduating in 1973. She then received a B.A. in literature from UC Santa Barbara's College of Creative Studies in 1976 and a PhD in Modern Thought & Literature from Stanford in 1984.{{cite web|title=Carol Lashof|website=Saint Mary's College|date=2006-10-01|url=https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/news/carol-lashof|access-date=2025-03-19}} While at Stanford she studied with Martin Esslin and René Girard and wrote her dissertation on D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. She wrote her first play in 1978.

Lashof is professor emerita at Saint Mary's College of California where she taught in the Department of English from 1983 to 2008 and helped to establish the Creative Writing MFA Program.{{cite web|title=Member public profile|website=International Centre for Women Playwrights|url=https://womenplaywrights.org/Sys/PublicProfile/4745862|access-date=2025-03-19}}

Lashof's plays challenge "major myths and stereotypes of western culture," often involving retellings of more classic stories. She explores oppression and patriarchy, often in a classical context.{{cite web|last=Orenstein|first=Natalie|title=Those Women Productions find feminism in the classics|website=Berkeleyside|date=2016-09-01|url=https://www.berkeleyside.org/2016/09/01/those-women-productions-find-feminism-in-the-classics|access-date=2025-03-19}} As she describes her motivations, "I am sick of the faithful wife and mother versus the tramp. And I’m sick of the theme of the girl who makes the play for the older professor... and then accuses him of harassment. I’m just sick of these stereotypes." Her one-act drama The Story, a re-telling of Adam and Eve with Eve as the first person created, premiered in a production at The Magic Theatre of San Francisco in1981 https://magictheatre.org/magic-archive, and aired on NPR affiliates nationwide in 1985 and 1986.{{cite journal |last1=Topkin |first1=Mark |title=Difficult Double Bill at the Magic |journal=Bay Area Reporter |date=February 12, 1981 |volume=11 |issue=4 |page=21 |url=https://archive.org/details/BAR_19810212/page/n19/mode/2up |access-date=19 March 2025}} It was also published in the Kenyon Review https://www.jstor.org/stable/4335116.

Lashof's play Doing School was a semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2020.{{cite web|last=Lashof|first=Carol|title=DOING SCHOOL|website=New Play Exchange|url=https://newplayexchange.org/script/2007896/doing-school|access-date=2025-03-19}} It became the screenplay for Ryan Coogler's award-winning short film Gap which aired on BET.{{cite web|title=Carol Lashof|website=Stanford: Modern Thought & Literature|url=https://mtl.stanford.edu/people/carol-lashof|access-date=2025-03-19}}{{Cite web |last=Epsilantis |first=Andy |date=February 15, 2018 |title=From Fruitvale Station to the Throne of Wakanda: A Look at Ryan Coogler |url=https://popcultureuncovered.com/2018/02/15/ryan-coogler-black-history-month-profile/ |url-status=live |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=Pop Culture Uncovered}} Gap was included in the book One on one: the best men's monologues for the 21st century.{{cite book|last=Henry|first=Joyce E.|last2=Jaroff|first2=Rebecca Dunn|last3=Shuman|first3=Bob|title=One on One|publisher=Applause Theatre & Cinema|publication-place=New York|date=2008|isbn=978-1-55783-701-1|oclc=223807550|page=}}

Her play Witch Hunt is a historic drama retelling the events of the 17th century New England witch panic from the viewpoint of Tituba, an enslaved indigenous woman.{{cite web |last=Janiak |first=Lily |date=2019-07-12 |title=Tituba was a slave, then a witch, then a caricature. Now, in ‘Witch Hunt,’ she’s a human |url=https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/tituba-was-a-slave-then-a-witch-then-a-caricature-now-in-witch-hunt-shes-a-human |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=Datebook}} Her play Medusa's Tale shows Medusa as "an innocent victim who is betrayed, rejected and punished by cruel gods Athena and Poseidon."{{cite journal|last=Hassan|first=Zena D. Mohammed|last2=Nayel|first2=Dheyaa K.|title=The Evolution of Female Characters From Antiquity to Modernity: An Examination of Marinna Carr's and Carol Lashof's Adaptations of Classical Mythology|journal=Journal of Language Teaching and Research|publisher=Academy Publication|volume=15|issue=2|date=2024-03-01|issn=2053-0684|doi=10.17507/jltr.1502.06|doi-access=free|pages=374–382}} In 2018 she wrote the play The Melting Pot which was a re-telling of the 1908 play of the same name by Israel Zangwill, using it to reflect current social struggles.{{cite web|last=Solomon|first=Eyal|title=Theater Review: The Melting Pot by Carol Lashof|website=Theater Pizzazz|date=2018-03-24|url=https://theaterpizzazz.com/the-melting-pot/|access-date=2025-03-19}}

Lashof and Elizabeth "Libby" Vega founded Those Women Productions on International Women's Day in 2014, a theater company in Berkeley, California which has a mission to "explore hidden truths of gender and power."{{cite web|title=Carol Lashof (9/50)|website=UCSB College of Creative Studies|url=https://ccs.ucsb.edu/ccs-profiles/carol-lashof-950|access-date=2025-03-19}} Their productions employ "radical hospitality," audience members pay what they can. The company was together until 2022.

Lashof received the Joseph Kesselring Award from the National Arts Club of New York in 1981 and the Jane Chambers Competition.{{cite web|last=Lashof|first=Carol|title=The Story|website=New Play Exchange|url=https://newplayexchange.org/script/1991227/the-story|access-date=2025-03-19}}

Lashof is married to Bill Newton, a retired UC administrator. They have two daughters and live in Berkeley.

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• [https://carolslashof.com/ Personal website]

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Category:1956 births

Category:Living people

Category:American dramatists and playwrights