Diane’s historical drama The Wisdom of Serpents is now available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and your local bookstore! You can also check out her Amazon Author’s Page as well as her space on Goodreads. The Wisdom of Serpents was a finalist for the 2009 Jane Chambers Award as one of the top five feminist plays adjudged that year.
*** Please join Diane for her presentation, “Lost Lady: Louisa Lander, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Hunt for a Forgotten American Sculptor” at Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum, Lenox, Massachusetts, at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 6. A Victorian tea will follow. https://gildedage.org/events/tea-talk-lost-lady-louisa-lander-nathaniel-hawthorne-and-the-hunt-for-a-forgotten-american-sculptor/
*** Diane recently rediscovered a forgotten work by Louisa Lander, the real-life protagonist of Diane’s historical play The Marble Muse and her upcoming novel of the same name. While pursuing her research into Lander and the artist’s hometown of 19th-century Salem, she encountered a reference to a piece of art not listed among Lander’s known works. Research led her to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Salem where, on May 17, 2022, she introduced Pastor Nathan Ives to a marble memorial medallion of one of his predecessors, James Oliver Scripture. (Could a minister’s name be more apropos?) Located in the apse away from public view, the work and its creator had faded into obscurity. Now, though, Lander and the medallion are currently featured on St. Peter’s weekly candlelight history tours, enabling more people to learn more about this remarkable woman artist whose career so unfairly thwarted. As for Diane, her mission to identify more of Lander’s art continues . . .
OF NOTE:
Thank you to everyone at The Blank Theatre in Hollywood, California, for your stellar job on Diane’s play, The Rake of His Heart (previously titled Rake), which was developed through The Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series and culminated in a staged reading on Monday, February 18, 2019. Pictured above right are: Burt Grinstead (Rausch), Kirsta Peterson (Virginia Hall), Andrew Lynford (Director), Jamie McRae (Simon), Diane Baia Hale (Playwright), Richard Shelton (Denis Rake), David Nevell (Max Halder), and Joel Bryant (Henri). The play has been named a finalist for the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Play Competition and a semi-finalist, Pride Films and Plays Contest.
Many thanks to everyone at Albany, New York’s Capital Repertory Theatre’s NEXT ACT! New Play Summit 6 for the splendid job on the October 22 staged reading of The Marble Muse, including including Kevin McGuire (Director), Melissa Richter (Stage Manager), Jenny Strassburg (Louisa Lander), Hillary Parker (Harriet “Hattie” Hosmer), Ben Williamson (William Wetmore Story), Jacke Sanders (Sophia Hawthorne), Kurt Rhoads (Nathaniel Hawthorne), Ariana Papaleo (Una Hawthorne), and Laurie O’Brien (Stage Directions).
Kudos to all the wonderful people at The Blank Theatre in Hollywood, California, for their outstanding work on the Living Room Series staged reading of The Marble Muse on Monday, October 24!!! Pictured at left are Elizabeth Dennehy (Sophia Hawthorne); Belen Greene (Hattie Hosmer); Creative Producer, Jennie Webb; Director, Rachel Berney Needleman; Joey Maya (Una Hawthorne); Playwright, Diane Baia Hale; Andrew Thacher (William Wetmore Story); Christopher Franciosa (Nathaniel Hawthorne); Abigail Marks (Louisa Lander); and Weekly Producer, David Dickerson.
Thanks also to Echo Theatre in Dallas, Texas, for their performance reading of The Marble Muse as part of its Echo Reads Salon Series on November 15. Much gratitude goes to producer Eleanor Lindsay and Director Mike Scudday, as well as the stellar cast. Pictured at right are: back row — Kim Titus (William Wetmore Story), Kateri Cole (Sophia Hawthorne), Claudia Smith (Una Hawthorne); front row–Ginger Goldman (Hattie Hosmer); Barrett Nash (Louisa Lander); Bill Jenkins (Nathaniel Hawthorne).
And additional thanks to everyone at Boomerang Theatre Company in New York City who made the staged reading of The Marble Muse, one of the winners of the 2016 First Flight Festival of New Plays, such a success. The Big Apple is beautiful! From left to right: Tom Frank (Nathaniel Hawthorne), Cailin Herffernan (Director), Leah Voysey (Una Hawthorne), Vinnie Penna (William Wetmore Story), Theresa McElwee (Sophia Hawthorne), Jennifer Larkin (Louisa Lander), Stephanie Rosenberg (Hattie Hosmer), Diane Baia Hale (Playwright), Annalisa Loeffler (Stage Directions).
The Marble Muse has also had staged readings at Yellow Rose Productions in Knoxville, Tennessee; GetLit(erary) at Le Petit Marche/Williams Street Repertory in Crystal Lake, Illinois; and the Greenhouse Theater Center in Chicago, Illinois.