"Children of a Lesser God" playwright may team with deaf actress Phyllis Frelich for 2010 play project

From the Las Cruces Sun-News in N.M.:

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Tony Award-winning playwright Mark Medoff, whose first major film, "Children of a Lesser God," garnered Academy Award nominations (Marlee Matlin won an Oscar for her role about a deaf woman in crisis), is a longtime New Mexico State University professor and a founder of NMSU's Creative Media Institute who has since written and directed many award-winning films and has twice taken plays to Broadway that premiered in Las Cruces.

His screenplay credits include "City of Joy," "Clara's Heart," "Off Beat," "Good Guys Wear Black," "Homage," "Santa Fe," "100MPG" and "When You Coming Back, Red Ryder?"

Medoff, 69, has several major projects in the works for 2010.

He's now finishing editing with professionals and NMSU students for "REFUGE," a road picture starring Linda Hamilton, filmed here in 2009.

The University of Houston has commissioned a new Medoff play, "The Changing Women," involving his "Children of a Lesser God" muse Phyllis Frelich (pictured in the original production) and "a well-known actor I can't mention at this point," Medoff said.

Plans are in the works to shoot "Alien FM," a comedy by a former student, David Spence, in Las Cruces.

He is working on an opera company production of a reworked version of "Sara McKinnon," an opera set in Las Cruces, which he co-wrote with Randall Shinn. (Celine Dion recorded a song he wrote for the opera.) He's also working on a novel, two other plays and several movie scripts.