Arlene Malinowski is an actor, author of SOLO: The Everything Guide to Writing, Performing and Producing Your One-Person Show (Northwestern University Press), teaching artist, playwright, Director of Education at Chicago Dramatists and 3Arts/Bodies of Work mentor. She views her teaching and performing as an artistic extension of her commitment to disability justice. Her work lives in the liminal spaces between Deafness, disability, ableism, media representation and the minoritization of disabled people in the broader culture, a vantage point shaped by lived experience that's given her a particular lens on ethnocentrism. As an independant touring artist she has brought her award-winning solo work across the country and internationally conducting master calsses and workshops on "Teling Your Story."
Arlene's the founder and mentor of the ACCESS Fellowship at Chicago Dramatists Theatre, one of the few programs in the country built to recruit and provide professional development Deaf and Disabled playwrights. Through this initiative and her broader advocacy work, she's seen the real impact inclusive practices have on individual artists and the larger artistic community. As Director of Education (an unpaid position she stepped into 18 months ago after the company lost several funding sources), she runs a year-round creative curriculum: more than 35 classes a year, over a dozen student showcases and hundreds of students annually. She supervises faculty, builds outreach strategies and uses student feedback and data for growth. As a Resident Playwright there, she also offers dramaturgy and support to the company's 106-member Network Playwrights Program.
Her teaching life is broad. She teaches Solo & Story for the Stage at Chicago Dramatists, a curriculum she built from the ground up and still teaches, and coordinates staged readings of student work. As a disabled educator, she brings a multi-modal approach and accessibility best practices into the room. She also hosts SpeakEasy-SpeakHard, a live lit salon where artists can share and develop new work. Through her own company The Writers Room, she offers personalized workshops, classes, retreats and one-on-one coaching across genres. She's been Artist in Residence at 16th Street Theater and Quad City Arts, and she's taught at Ragdale Foundation, College of the Canyons, the Vi retirement community, Neighborhood Writing Alliance and Writing Matters. She's been a guest teaching-artist at DePaul, Northwestern, the University of California, the University of Illinois Chicago, Gallaudet University and at high schools, museums, libraries and performing arts centers across the country. She has worked on the Chicago Departent of Cultural Affairs Creative Worker Campagin Advisory Commitee.
Her work's been recognized with the Chicago Cultural Center Pilot Theatre Residency, semi-finalist at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, the 3Arts/Bodies of Work Fellowship, finalist for New Plays from the Heartland, semi-finalist for the Blue Ink Award (American Blues Theater), recipient of the In The Works Theater Grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, two nominations for the 3Arts Theater Award and nominations for the Theater Ovations Award (LA Stage Alliance) and the Garland Award (Backstage West). She has also been recognized for her community work by the Mental Health America of Porter County.
As an actor, Arlene has appreared on dozens of stages in Chicago and LA including the Goodman Theatre (By the Music of the Spheres), Victory Gardens(Love Person) and Deaf West Theatre LA (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), with television credits including CSI, The Practice, The X-Files, Any Day Now, The Division and the CBS film Sweet Nothing in My Ear. Her writing's appeared in Ms. Magazine, Huffington Post, Paramanu Pentaquark, En Posse Review, From Stage to Page (Chicago Story Press), True Stories About Love (Chicago Story Press) and Women of Letters Anthology (Penguin Press). She's currently touring her solo show A Little Bit Not Normal, which chronicles her journey through mental illness, naming it, claiming it and standing to be counted.
Arlene is committed to a more inclusive and accessible theatre landscape, and believes theatre professionals need to understand and champion the lived experiences of Disabled people, on stage, in the creative process and in the audiences we build. She holds a Doctorate of Education from UCLA in Higher and Adult Education, with a cognate in Curriculum Design. She is also tired.
A Little Bit Not Normal. A solo show that explores the stigma of mental Illness. Writer/performer
. Photo credit: Lee Klwans
Featured Artworks
Master class on "solo writing & performing" with UIC theatre majors. Part of 3Arts & BOW Deaf/Disability Fellowship.
Teaching a master class as part of the 3Arts & Deaf/Disability Bodies of Work Fellowship
Chicago Cultural Center Theatre Residency
Bodies of Work, Chicago Dramatists workshopping my play. With grant we were able to hire a focus group of Autistic people to give feedback on the representation in the play. We were also able to cast an actor with lived experience in the role. Panel: Arlene Malinowski, playwright. Carrie Sandhal, AD. Bodies of Work, Carson Becker, AD. Chicago Dramatists, Brian Balcolm, Director. Great collab
Culminating Event for Disability Fellow Deborah Stein's solo show. A reading from a play featuring a disabled character. Feedback discussion. Event was made accessible by Glenn Rust for Masters thesis SAIC
Solo show performance A Little Bit Not Normal(A Serious Comedy About Depression) - Lewis University
This play was developed during 3Arts & Bodies of Work Deaf/Disability Fellowship. It is the third play of the "Disability Quartet" which focuses on various aspects of Deafness & Disability in our culture
Interviewing Kennedy Healy, Tommy Gallagher for 3 Arts video
3Arts
Chicago Dramatists- Student Feedback Session
This is a feedback session with tha audience and students from the Page To Stage. Final performance
Mentor for Senior thesis UIC theatre student
Fianal Showcase of student playwright I mentored through BOW & 3Arts Fellowship. Her autobigraphical work centered around mental health
Featured reader at "Chicago Story Press" Virtual Book Launch- Covid Style
My Work was published n the anthology "True Stories About Love"
Some publications where my work is featured
I curated a large outdoor event for the Ragdale Foundation. An organization dedicated to providing time and space for artists to deepen their artistic practice.
Student Showcase & Feedback