CHRISANNE BLANKENSHIP (Desert Playwrights’ Retreat Board Member)

CHRISANNE BLANKENSHIP (On right in photo, with her wife Alexandra Billings) graduated in 1981 with a Bachelors in Speech Communication. Although she has yet to use the actual degree to land a job in that arena, her course work provided a solid foundation for speaking out and speaking up. Her advocacy work compelled her to march for woman’s rights, trans rights, animal rights, Black Lives Matter, human rights, and all those whose voices are silenced by indifferent and privileged people.  Of which, she is aware that, she is one.

In the 1990s, during a lengthy stay in the insurance industry that included a stint as Vice President for a Lloyds of London broker, she, along with a good friend, formed a theatre production company becoming a managing director, producer and theater director for many award-winning Chicago theatres. 

When she and Alex moved to Los Angeles in 2006, Chrisanne left insurance for good and continued directing in their new home city.  Notable productions as a director in Chicago and Los Angeles include the world premiere of Absence Makes the Heart…(SkyPilot Theatre, Los Angeles) (written by DPR founder Sean Abley); Catching the Butcher (Panndora Productions, Long Beach, CA); Gertrude Stein and a Companion (Strawdog Theater / Borealis Productions); Amanda and Eve (Bailiwick Theatre); Angels Among Us; Sure Thing (Strawdog Theatre) among many others. In 2018, Chrisanne and her wife, Alexandra Billings, formed Schmengie, Inc., a production company dedicated to projects focused on diversity and inclusion.