About Mike
A Chicago native, Mike Brayndick, playwright, director, and artistic director, graduated from Grinnell College, the University of Chicago, and the University of Iowa with a Doctorate in Literature with an emphasis in interdisciplinary arts studies.
He began his playwrighting career as resident writer at the Chicago Playwrights’ Center with Fragments from the Permanent Collection, Connecting Flight, Anna Gerhardt, and In the Garden of the Prison, also broadcast on WJUF. His adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, was toured by Traffic of the Stage in England, and performed in London’s Bloomsbury Theatre. Smithsonian and Luce Foundation grants led to How to Make a Rainbow, developed at Juilliard, performed in residency at Connecticut College, and directed by Mike at the 2003 St. Ives Festival and produced by On The Spot at the Greenhouse Theater Center in 2013. Mike has written more than 35 plays, see the Scriptography page for a full list!
Active in progressive education issues, Mike has also created after school programs for drama and integrative arts. He has also written and directed for local school productions. In 2011-2012, Mike's short play End Game at Jansen School--a collaborative project with Professor Tania Giordani--was performed by community members at venues in the Chicago area, including Francis W. Parker School.
As a scenic artist, Mike has painted backdrops for ballet and theater, and for Ghosts at New Rock Theater. Mike also designed and facilitated the painting of a backdrop for The Wizard of Oz with the middle school at Francis Parker for their 2012 production. Illustrations from his work in progress, Victoria Park, the Past Reframed, a collection of poems about childhood, memory, and family heritiage, set in the Edwardian East End of London, have been exhibited in the Chicago-area.
He began his playwrighting career as resident writer at the Chicago Playwrights’ Center with Fragments from the Permanent Collection, Connecting Flight, Anna Gerhardt, and In the Garden of the Prison, also broadcast on WJUF. His adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, was toured by Traffic of the Stage in England, and performed in London’s Bloomsbury Theatre. Smithsonian and Luce Foundation grants led to How to Make a Rainbow, developed at Juilliard, performed in residency at Connecticut College, and directed by Mike at the 2003 St. Ives Festival and produced by On The Spot at the Greenhouse Theater Center in 2013. Mike has written more than 35 plays, see the Scriptography page for a full list!
Active in progressive education issues, Mike has also created after school programs for drama and integrative arts. He has also written and directed for local school productions. In 2011-2012, Mike's short play End Game at Jansen School--a collaborative project with Professor Tania Giordani--was performed by community members at venues in the Chicago area, including Francis W. Parker School.
As a scenic artist, Mike has painted backdrops for ballet and theater, and for Ghosts at New Rock Theater. Mike also designed and facilitated the painting of a backdrop for The Wizard of Oz with the middle school at Francis Parker for their 2012 production. Illustrations from his work in progress, Victoria Park, the Past Reframed, a collection of poems about childhood, memory, and family heritiage, set in the Edwardian East End of London, have been exhibited in the Chicago-area.