Wallace Shawn is an Obie Award–winning playwright and a noted stage and screen actor. His plays The Designated Mourner and Marie and Bruce have been produced as films, as has his adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Master Builder. He is co-author of the movie "My Dinner with André" and the author of the plays The Fever, The Designated Mourner, Aunt Dan and Lemon, and Grasses of a Thousand Colors, as well as the nonfiction books Essays (featuring the essay “Why I Call Myself a Socialist”) and Night Thoughts (Haymarket Books). His latest play, Evening at the Talk House, premiered at the Socialism conference in Chicago and was performed at The National Theatre in London and The New Group in New York. His plays The Designated Mourner and Grasses of a Thousand Colors will soon be available as multipart podcasts.