Lily Dishman Playwriting Program
Program Overview
Committed to challenging and inspiring our students, in Fall 2014 the School of Theatre & Dance launched the Lily Dishman Playwriting Program. The program advances the scope and depth of the USF Theatre Program by providing focused study and professional opportunities in playwriting
A year after the program first started, students in the USF Writing for the Theatre
course had an impressive showing at the prestigious Kennedy Center American College
Theatre Festival Region IV one-act play competition. Out of 33 entries in the one-act
play contest, four of the six finalists chosen to have their work presented at the
festival as staged readings were from USF. Of these, one USF playwright was selected
to represent Region IV in the national competition. Furthermore, another TheatreUSF
student鈥檚 work was selected as one of six finalists out of 123 entries for the ten-minute
play category.
The Lily Dishman Playwriting Program was made possible by a $105,000 gift from the
Lily Foundation through Jane McNeil, in honor of her mother for whom the program is
named. Lily Dishman Bangert was passionate about supporting local artists and about
developing her career in real estate. As an adult student she returned to college
to pursue her own interest in playwriting. She accomplished a goal of copyrighting
her first stage play before she died.
鈥淭he Lily Dishman Playwriting Program will stand for more than financial relief,鈥� said Jane McNeil. 鈥淚t will stand for one of achievement, one of promise, and one of unstoppable potential, just as my Mother would have wanted. She firmly believed in supporting undiscovered talent, and would be thrilled to know she is still helping to make those discoveries happen today.鈥�