Internationally honored playwright Will Dunne of Riverside has a new play, “The Ascension of Carlotta,” being staged at the 16th Street Theater in Berwyn at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3:30 p.m. Sundays from Friday, April 4, to Sunday, May 4.

Dunne is one of the few playwrights able to handle humor in his plays. “The Ascension of Carlotta” is only the second play to perform in the 49-seat “little theater off Cermak,” Berwyn’s first professional equity theater located in the Berwyn Cultural Center, 6420 16th St. Artistic director Ann Filmer is the founder of the new theater and is a newly arrived Berwyn resident.

Since 2005, Dunne’s full-length play, “The Ascension of Carlotta,” and his short plays, “Deep Gardens,” “The Interpreter” and “Good Morning, Romeo,” have received staged readings at Chicago Dramatists. “Good Morning, Romeo,” which inspired “Carlotta,” was a 2007 finalist for the Heideman Award at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Area residents will be especially delighted with “Carlotta,” as Dunne has chosen the nearby town of Berwyn as the setting of the play. Because of the size of the theater, the actors will be right up close to the audience, so the audience can read the expressions in the actors’ eyes and appreciate the emotion in the actors’ faces and gestures.
Not since Ring Lardner lived in our town has a writer made such an impact on theatrical writings as has Dunne. (Lardner was a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, who later landed in Hollywood.)

His “How I Became an Interesting Person” received the 1998 Charles MacArthur Fellowship Award given by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center for outstanding comedy that “exemplifies the comic, irreverent spirit of Charles MacArthur.” His plays have been selected three times for the prestigious U.S. National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theatre Center, chosen from 1,500 submissions nationwide.

Alas, Dunne’s accomplishments are too many to be completely reviewed here, and there is more to Dunne than his playwriting. He is a generous man who has taught nearly 1,600 playwriting workshops through the Will Dunne Dramatic Writing Workshops in San Francisco since 1988.

“I am currently teaching playwriting workshops at Chicago Dramatists, where I am a Resident Playwright,” he explained.

In 1999 and 2000, he served as guest playwriting instructor at the Australian National Playwrights Conference.

Other works by Dunne include “Deep Gardens,” which was produced at Chicago’s Second City in 2006, “Love and Drowning,” “Hotel Desperado,” which was translated into Russian by the Moscow Theatre Union, and his toll-taker play, “The Bridge,” which was selected as a project of the 50-year celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The son of Riversiders Bill and Jean Dunne, Will attended St. Mary’s Elementary School, then went on to Fenwick High School and graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee.

“I started writing short stories at Fenwick. I was the student of two priests at Fenwick, who encouraged me to write, and I took a workshop in writing at Marquette,” he recalled. “I always made my living writing and teaching. I really enjoy both teaching and writing today in the Bay area, where most of my students are either playwrights or screen writers on the professional level. However, I also teach beginners and advanced classes at Chicago Dramatists.”

Chicago Dramatists is at 1105 W. Chicago Ave. For more information, call (312) 633-0630.

Individual tickets for “The Ascension of Carlotta” are $16, $12 for groups of eight or more. Tickets can be ordered online at www.16thstreettheater.org or by phone 24 hours a day through Brown Paper Tickets at (800) 838-3006. For pickup in person, go to the North Berwyn Park District office at 1619 Wesley Ave.

May we add: Well done, Will Dunne!