BIO

Vinny Mraz is a playwright, teaching artist and theater maker in NYC. His work has been seen at Object Movement Festival, The Tank, Dixon Place, Little Theater, The Dallas Solo Festival, Harlem Nights, the Secret Theater, New Short Play Festival, the PIT Solocom and Sarah Lawrence College. He was an Artist in Residence with the Object Movement Festival from 2018 - 2019 where he developed an original puppetry piece called You Can see Nothing From Here along with collaborator Chris Carcione. As a teaching artist he has spent the last 6 years working with senior citizens in writing workshops, acting classes and developing original show revues in senior centers and public libraries. He was a 2019 artist-in-residence for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Su Casa program.  He is a teaching artist with Rehabilitation Through the Arts. He works with Lifetime Arts as a trainer where he leads workshops and seminars for artists and administrators on Creative Aging. He is an adjunct professor of theater at Manhattanville College. 

He studied theater at Sarah Lawrence College, Emerson College, The Kenyon College Playwriting Institute, the Cherry Lane Theater School and The Second City in Chicago. 

INSPIRED BY

The painting of Charlotte Salomon
Bike rides or hikes in the woods
Teaching/sharing creative practices with others
Experimental art
Theater of the Absurd
Weird/unexpected juxtapositions
Edward Gorey
Grace Weaver
Louise Bourgeois
History of Politics in the US
Taking walks through the park/in the city
New music (most recently Mia Doi Todd!)

EXPLORING:

Estelle Griswold became the Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood in New Haven, CT in 1954. In 1965 the case "Connecticut v. Griswold" was argued in front of the Supreme Court and was a forebear of "Roe v. Wade". I grew up in Connecticut and went to an arts high school in New Haven. My mother's maiden name is Griswold and all my maternal cousins continue on the Griswold name. I have a family tree of the Griswold's that goes back to 1645 and although Estelle and her husband Richard are not on our immediate tree I have been starting some early research into our families relationship to her. I've begun listening to oral arguments and doing some initial brainstorming around a piece about or inspired by Estelle and this court case.

INSPIRATION FOR PROJECT:

The inspiration comes from my own family tree and this historic case. As it turns out, P.T. Barnum is responsible for the law that was on the legislature in CT that triggered the arrest of Estelle Griswold. I made a piece about P.T. Barnum (once mayor of Bridgeport, CT) and Joe Ganum (current mayor of Bridgeport) a few years ago and have wanted to explore his role in government for a while. It just so happens he pops up in this story of Estelle as well so I'm drawing on inspiration from Barnum, too!