Local author and award winning photographer Susan Johann will talk about her new book, “Focus on Playwrights: Portraits and Interviews” on Thursday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m. at the Lanier Library. The Live @ Lanier presentation will provide a second opportunity to hear about the making of a book being called by critics “a study in fascination” and “a magnificent collection of the great and greatest playwrights of our time.”

Focus on Playwrights: Portraits and Interviews, published by University of South Carolina Press, reveals the faces of over 90 playwrights through black and white photographic portraits, with 17 interviews including Edward Albee, Marsha Norman and August Wilson. Johann photographed Wendy Wasserstein, Anna Deavere Smith, August Wilson and Nilo Cruz in the weeks after they won the Pulitzer. Tony Kushner sat for his portrait between the productions of part one and part two of Angels in America. Eve Ensler came to Johann’s studio during the week she was previewing her famous one-woman show, The Vagina Monologues and George C. Wolfe sat for Johann the morning after his play Spunk opened at the Public Theater.

Johann’s work has been featured in galleries and cultural centers throughout the United States, including: the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery; The John Stevenson Gallery, New York; Condeso-Lawlor; the Public Theater; and the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Her photography has adorned multiple Signature Theatre locations from the company’s beginnings in 1991 to the present and have appeared in the New York Times, Vogue, The New Yorker, Time, American Theatre and on innumerable book covers.

The Lanier Library, at 72 Chestnut St., is one of 16 private libraries in the U.S., founded in 1889 by five ladies who met over tea to discuss the community’s need for a library. It is Tryon’s oldest civic organization. The library’s programs are free and open to the public.

Article submitted by Clare O’Sheel