Library program

Dr. Edward Emanuel, director and Fresno State theatre arts professor, will offer a performance piece at the Nov. 21 meeting of the Friends of the Madden Library program. He will perform readings from the book he is writing entitled, “My Dad, The Best Man I Never Knew.”

EmanuEl, a member of the Fresno State faculty for over 30 years, has written 32 film scripts and more than 100 television, radio and stage plays. He has directed Tony Award winners, 119 main stage productions, and received the Edinburgh Fringe First Place Award for the production of his own play. He has done work for Disney Films and PBS. He developed a course for non-theater majors, and since 1975 has taught about 10,000 students in that class.

EmanuEl has received a Fulbright award, and in 2000 was one of five Pulitzer Prize drama nominees for his play, “Dr. Sun Yat Sen, In the Mouth of the Dragon.” The play won the David Mark Cohen National Award as the most outstanding play in America, and thus was produced at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

He is also a recipient of the prestigious California State University Wang Family Excellence Award and the Distinguished Humanitarian Award by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at San Jose State University, and a Ph.D. in theatre history at the University of Minnesota.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a reception, followed at 6:30 by the program.

Guests are welcome. A charge of $2 will be charged at the door for non-members; $1 for students. All Friends of the Madden Library meetings are accessible to the physically handicapped. A sign-language interpreter will be provided upon advance request. For more information, call 8-2403.