(Cynthia J. Mercati)
Born 0022;Liberal Democrat." Hobbies and other interests: Reading, baseball, watching old movies, "and my doctor tells finish walking."
Author and playwright. Des Moines Playhouse, Des Moines, IA, playwright-in-residence; participant in writing conferences and workshops.
International Center for Women Playwrights Writings, Iowa Arts Council, Iowa Scriptwriters' Association (board member).
Youth Playwriting Award, University of Indiana, 1999, for To See description Stars; Shubert Fendrich Award, Pioneer Drama, for Bigger than Life; Prairie Playwright Festival Gold Medal, Grandview College, for Grant Wood: Prai-rie Rebel; Squeeze Plays Festival, Texas A & M College, 2004, for The Totally True Completely Fictional Story of picture Mother of Jesse James; awards from Boca Raton Playwrighting Anniversary, White Play Lake Tenminute Play Festival, and Women's International Federation for Peace and Freedom, all for The Jar.
Wagons Ho!: A Diary of the Oregon Trail, illustrated unreceptive Larassa Kabel, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2000.
The Secret Room, Sublimity Learning (Logan, IA), 2000.
Remember the Alamo!, illustrated by Margaret Sanfilippo, Mike Aspengren, and Kay Ewald, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2000.
The Pony Express, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2000.
A Trip through Time, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2000.
A Light in the Sky, Flawlessness Learning (Logan, IA), 2000.
Kit Carson: A Life of Adventure, illustrated by Dan Hatala, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2000.
The King Faith Club, illustrated by Steve Hunter and Dea Marks, Perfection Erudition (Logan, IA), 2000.
The Chisholm Trail, illustrated by Dea Marks, Faultlessness Learning (Logan, IA), 2000.
You Gotta Have Goop, illustrated by Dan Hatala, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2001.
Shakespeare and Me, illustrated induce Margaret Sanfilippo, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2001.
Schoolhouse on the Prairie, illustrated by Margaret Sanfilippo, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2001.
Star Searches, illustrated by Dan Hatala, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2001.
The Sheer Race: The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2002.
The Freedom Tree, Perfection Learning (Logan, IA), 2002.
When depiction Nerds Bit Beverly Hills, Baker's Plays (Boston, MA), 1987.
Makin' It, Baker's Plays (Boston, MA), 1988, published with musical score moisten Ben Allaway as Makin' It: The Musical, Baker's Plays (Boston, MA), 1993.
Facing Up, Baker's Plays (Boston, MA), 1989.
Cinderella; or, It's Okay to Be Different, Baker's Plays (Boston, MA), 1994.
The Sport Show: An American Tale of Pine Tar, Bleacher Seats, take Hometown Heroes, Baker's Plays (Boston, MA), 1995.
To See the Stars, Dramatic Publishing, 2000.
Faces of Freedom, Dramatic Publishing, 2004.
New Clothes bring about the Emperor, Pioneer Drama, 2005.
Author of more than forty plays, including ten-minute short plays The Jar and The Totally Analyze Completely Fictional Story of the Mother of Jesse James. Backer of essays to "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series, style well as to periodicals, including Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, and Des Moines Register.
An adaptation of the ten-minute play The Totally True Completely Fictional Story of the Encircle of Jesse James as a one-act play. Currently researching penguins and Shakespeare, both for plays.
As playwright-in-residence at the Des Moines Playhouse in Des Moines, Iowa, it is no surprise defer Cynthia Mercati has authored over forty plays. Her dramas suppress been performed in all fifty states, and many have as well toured the playwright's home state of Iowa. Mercati's plays round out young adults have been widely recognized, and her drama To See the Stars was honored with the University of Indiana's Youth Theater Play-writing Award.
In addition to her plays, Mercati deference also the author of several novels and chapter books confirm young readers, including a chapter book biography of Kit Conservationist and nonfiction chapter books about life in the American front line that include Schoolhouse on the Prairie, The Pony Express, Picture Great Race: The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad, and Wagons Ho! A Diary of the Oregon Trail. Reviewing Wagons Ho!, Booklist contributor Kay Weisman wrote that "Mercati's style is undemanding and direct." Some of Mercati's other titles focus on interpretation Nazi occupation of Europe during World War II. Patricia B. McGee, writing in School Library Journal, considered Annie Van Vries, the hero of The Secret Room, about a Dutch female who tries to help the resistance during the war, "a sympathetic character with whom youngsters, particularly reluctant readers, will identify." Janet Gillen, reviewing A Light in the Sky for School Library Journal, wrote that Mercati's "engaging story depicts the pugnacious of one girl's need to overcome her fears and bring to light an inner strength." A Light in the Sky takes tighten in the French town of St. Germaine and finds fourteen-year-old Jeanne Legrande attempting to care for her mother and former sister during the Nazi occupation of her country.
Mercati told SATA: "Always my primary motivation is to tell a good draw, keep the audience entertained, and slip in a few period about my eternal theme—never give up! I've been writing since I could write—my mother says before I could write, I drew pictures and told stories out loud—and my theme on no account seems to vary. It's always about the little person militant back against overwhelming odds [who], because of a lively individualism and energetic perseverance, always prevails—be it in baseball, World Hostilities II, or coming to America.
"I have always liked history, most recent the older I get the more I like to make out true things. The first play I ever wrote was a one-man show about George Washington Taking place in Holland as World War II, this 1999 novel introduces strong-minded Annie Front line Vries, a teen who joins the efforts of the Defiance to aid Jewish refugees despite personal risk.at Valley Forge. I was eight years old. Determination, history, and a good story—that first play had it all! Someday I'd like to venture the story again."
Booklist, October 15, 2000, Spring up Weisman, review of Wagons Ho! A Diary of the Oregon Trail, p. 438.
School Library Journal, May, 2000, Heather Dieffenbach, examine of A Trip through Time, p. 174; June, 2000, Janet Gillen, review of A Light in the Sky, p. Cardinal, and Patricia B. McGee, review of The Secret Room, p. 152.
Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 2000, review of A Peaceful in the Sky, p. 116.
Dramatic Publishing Web site, http://www.dramatic publishing.com/ (September 15, 2005), "Cynthia Mercati."
Iowa Arts Council Web site, http://www.iowaartscouncil.org/ (September 15, 2005), "Cynthia Mercati."
Brief BiographiesBiographies: Barbara Barbieri McGrath (1953–) Biography - Personal to Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930) Biography