Kristie Thielen Named SDCTE 2009 Author of the Year
Kristie Thielen has been writing plays and short stories for many years. Some of her short stories were published in the Rapid City Journal, and 3 of her plays are available in print: Stone in the Road (Pioneer Press), If the Shoe Fits, and Pirates (Brooklyn Publishing).
Most of Thielen’s playwriting has been designed for children and the mentally handicapped to perform. Of the 40 or more that she’s created, some have been narrative driven for pre-school children; parts of The Suite for Special Needs were performed by clients of the Black Hills Workshop in Rapid City. Conflict and Quilts focus on race relations and have been performed by the girls of Girls, Inc., and other junior high school students. A few of her plays were written for and performed at Storybook Island in Rapid City. She also wrote and directed plays for the Cherry Street Players and Cherries Jubliee, the children’s wings of the Black Hills Community Theatre.
Recently, two of her history-based plays, featuring all ages, have been performed at The Journey Museum in Rapid City: Not Just High Water about the 1972 Rapid City flood and its aftermath and Buffalo Gals about the pioneer women.
In addition, Thielen has been working on the history of the wives of the workers who carved Mt. Rushmore. And publishers are considering two more of her plays.
Thielen’s writing has encouraged children and adults to discover their dramatic abilities and to experience the pleasure of making ideas and history come to life. The audience has been given the pleasure of experiencing the lives of the characters on the stage. All of them have met new ways of looking at the world and the people in it.
Help Select the Next SDCTE Author of the Year
The nomination process for our 2101 Author of the Year has already begun. Please use this form to nominate the South Dakota author you think we should so honor.
Previous SDCTE Authors of the Year
2008 — Brian Bedard
2007 — Jean Patrick
2006 — Joseph Marshall III
2005 — Bernie Hunhoff
2004 — David Allan Evans
2003 — Elizabeth Cook-lynn
2002 — No Award Given
2001 — Dan O'Brien
2000 — Paul Higbee
1999 — Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
1998 — Kent Meyers
1997 — Linda Hasselstrom
1996 — Kathleen Norris